Warren County moves ahead with new jail

Commissioners select Cincinnati’s KZF Design as architect for facility.

Commissioners selected the architect to design a new jail after hearing about the aftermath of a near riot at the current facility.

Warren County commissioners LEBANON — Tuesday selected the architect to design a new jail, shortly after learning the sheriff ordered the doors put back onto more than 40 cells at the current facility in the aftermath of a near riot there Aug. 1.

The decision capped more than 14 months of discussion and debate over the new jail. It also prompted the commissioners to publicly rate the three candidates for the design contract at the end of Tuesday’s regular meeting, while Sheriff Larry Sims and three top staffers sat in the meeting-room gallery.

“Let’s rock,” Sims said after the board voted to hire KZF Design, a Cincinnati firm that plans to collaborate with California-based Dewberry, a specialist in jail construction, on the project.

The Warren County Jail, in the county government complex in Lebanon, has been overcrowded for years, according to state inspections by the Ohio Bureau of Adult Detention obtained by this newspaper using Ohio public records laws.

The most recent inspection, in August 2016, found the jail housed 303 inmates. A July 2015 inspection found it had 288.

“The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction recommended housing capacity for the jail is 280, which is based upon total available living space and other requirements,” both reports say. “Officials should maintain prisoner counts within the department’s recommended capacity figure.”

But both inspections found the jails compliant overall with state standards. The only other issue noted was in 2016 inspectors found the lights were too bright in inmate sleeping areas.

The doors were placed back on the cells in a maximum security unit of the jail within two days of the near riot and are to remain there until a new jail is built, Sims said.

“Our officers are going to be a lot safer,” he said, adding guards were checking the unit every 30 minutes for inmate safety.

In 2011, the state permitted the county to “double bunk,” holding two inmates in doorless

cells, upping the jail capacity by more than 80, to relieve crowding in the facility.

This step was taken after county commissioners then declined to pay for a new jail in favor of alternative measures.

By holding two inmates in each of the 42 cells now behind closed doors, Sims said the jail violates standards on square footage per inmate. However, Sims said he was seeking a variance in light of the plans for a new jail.

Before the vote on the architect, Sims told the commissioners why he decided to put the doors back on. On. Aug. 1, 15 to 20 inmates banished to their cells after a fight earlier in the day in the maximum security pod of the jail threatened “we’re coming out anyway.”

This prompted a call-out for backup assistance, bringing police from area departments and the Ohio Highway Patrol, which were able to quell the threatened disturbance, Sims said.

During the briefing, Sims said the near riot was prompted by a jail fight during which a female guard was knocked into a cell during the ensuing melee, but uninjured — about 1:30 p.m.

“Who knows what could have happened to this officer?” Sims said.

The near riot happened about 5:50 p.m.

On July 18, the commissioners voted 2-1 to raise the sales tax from 6.75 percent to 7 percent for five years to fund the project, expected to cost about $50 million. Commissioners Dave Young and Shannon Jones vote for the tax increase, Tom Grossmann against.

The architect decision was delayed while research was done on the legal process for making the selection and to get the three commissioners together to make the decision.

After Sims’ Tuesday briefing, the commissioners discussed the steps they need to take in hiring the architect for the project, then adjourned for a break.

Upon their return, they scored three applicants, while Sims and his staffers listened. KZF and Dewberry represent an area firm paired with a national expert.

They were picked over K2M, the Cleveland-based firm that completed the jail assessment that called for a new facility, costing as much as $70 million. K2M also assembled a group of firms for its presentation to the commissioners.

The third firm interviewed was Wachtel & McAnally, a Columbus-area firm specializing in county jails in Ohio.