Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Tent jail in state-level flap
Warning made over eligibility for future funds
By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard had his tent quarters ready this month, a warm-weather solution to his chronically crowded jail.
(Enquirer file photo)
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HAMILTON — An Ohio prison official says Butler County is violating state standards by adding 83 beds to existing lockups and by operating its controversial tent jail.
State corrections official Scott Blough says the alleged violations could jeopardize the county's ability to compete for future jail construction funds.
Mr. Blough sent a letter to Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard on July 13 — the day the sheriff announced he would use the tent again this summer. It was first used last year.
The tent “does not meet specified requirements” for a jail, Mr. Blough said, and Sheriff Gabbard's office did not obtain proper approval for adding beds at Resolutions, a minimum security jail. The letter didn't detail the alleged violations; Mr. Blough did not return a telephone call seek ing comment Monday.
Sheriff Gabbard says chronic crowding at the county jail leaves him little choice but to seek unconventional alternatives. “We have a problem here locally, where we are mandated by state law to imprison people for certain crimes but we do not have anywhere to put them,” Sheriff Gabbard said Monday through a spokesman. “If the state has a state-funded way to remedy that problem, we would be more than happy to comply.”
Alan Laney, the Democrat running against the Republi can sheriff in the November election, says it bothers him that the sheriff “went ahead and put up the tent jail anyway” even though he was told last year that the facility failed to meet standards.
He says the tent jail might be Ohio's first for a reason: “Maybe all the other sheriffs in Ohio comply” with jail laws and requirements.
Mr. Blough's letter didn't make clear whether the alleged violations would affect $10 million in state dollars set aside for the planned $35 million, 400-bed jail to be built on Hanover Street.
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