Cuyahoga County Moving Ahead With Central Booking At Downtown Jail

Cuyahoga County’s public safety committee on Tuesday approved a $2.4 million contract to build a central booking facility at the jail in Downtown Cleveland.

Once central booking is in place, anyone who has just been arrested would arrive at an area where the courts, prosecutors, public defender, medical staff and pre-trial services all have staff.

According to the county’s head of public safety, Bob Coury, it means many people charged with lesser crimes would not have to spend even one night in jail.

“They can leave right from central booking, right to the street without ever having to go up into the jail,” Coury said.

Plans for the new facility showed work areas for arresting officers to fill out paperwork. There will be meeting rooms for attorney-client discussions and video hearing areas for first appearances. The plans also include areas for medical staff to conduct checkups, holding cells and showers.

“I think in the dispensing of justice in Cuyahoga County, in cooperation with the City of Cleveland, I think this is going to bear some pretty ripe fruit,” committee chairman Michael Gallagher said, before voting to approve the contract.

Cuyahoga County Council had previously held up plans for centralized booking because of concerns about getting commitments from courts and police and whether it was a good idea to spend millions on a centralized booking while the county is also planning on building a new jail at a different location.

Council members said those concerns have since been adequately addressed.

“In order to be effective when the new jail occurs, we’re going to need to develop and implement policies and procedures,” Coury said Tuesday. “We can’t open up a brand-new, state-of-the-art jail and just start central booking.”