On any given day, there are 20 posts in the Mahoning County Jail that are supposed to be staffed through the day and 18 at night. And at any given time, the staff is running short.
Those coming into the jail, whether it's after an arrest or coming back from court, are brought through the booking and intake area. They're searched and processed and eventually sent up to one of the pods, where one officer routinely watches over 50 to 60 inmates at a time during the day and twice that many at night.
On Wednesday afternoon when our reporting team was there, there were 458 inmates and 19 staff. There are 46 women there right now, split between two pods with one deputy to watch over them.
"Each side was built to house 18 and 18, which is 36. It's been up to double capacity," said Mahoning County Sheriff's Lt. Steve McGeary.
The men's areas are even more crowded with 52 to a pod. Some of the cells have double bunks, while some of the others have what deputies call "boats," which are essentially a plastic box that sits on the floor with a mattress and a blanket. At night, inmates are locked in their cells with one officer for 116 prisoners, while two pods sit empty because there's no one to staff them.
"It's frustrating for me because I have to make sure the facility runs correctly, appropriately, rules are followed. And sometimes I don't have enough staff to react to certain instances that happen in the facility and the biggest thing on my mind is officer safety," McGeary said.
Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington announced earlier this month that he'll curtail some services, like staffing video court hearings, because of his manpower problems, claiming he needs 23 more deputies just to properly staff the areas that are now open. Eliminating the video arraignments will allow deputies to be sent to other posts. But even then, McGeary said there aren't any officers to watch over inmates working in the kitchen, and shakedown searches don't happen as frequently.
"Ideally, six to 10 officers would be needed to go into a pod to do a shakedown, to do it adequately, to be able to check everything like you're supposed to," McGeary said.
Also, there are signs that repairs and maintenance are needed at the facility. In central control, where deputies can oversee all areas of the jail, monitors are dark and cameras don't work.
And while there were no problems while our reporting team was on its tour, officials said a big fight broke out between inmates in a maximum security area not long after the crew left.
