Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have reached an agreement on the cost of housing the city’s detainees at the Cuyahoga County Jail.
After 18 months of contentious negotiations, the city agreed to amend its contract with the county and increase the daily rate it pays for each detainee from $99 to $143. Cuyahoga County Council approved the new rate at its meeting last week.
“There has been times when the city and the county has been miles apart,” said City Council President Blaine Griffin, who described himself as a “hard no” on the amended contract during Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting. “There has been times with me as council president and many other council members have been very vocal that a deal is a deal.”
The city and county agreed on the $99 rate in 2017, when the city ended its corrections department and turned over its jail space at the Justice Center in Downtown Cleveland to the county.
The county pressed the city for the increased price, even threatening to no longer accept uncharged detainees from the city if an agreement wasn’t reached.
The city eventually agreed based on the cost of building and operating its own jail, said Law Director Mark Griffin.
“Overall, we expect to save, compared to opening our own facilities, $14-to-15 million-a-year if we had to open our own jail, which would not be good.”
The city also agreed to either charge or release all of its detainees no later than 36 hours after they arrive at the jail.
The city will station detectives around the clock in the jail's new central booking area, require that officers stay at the jail until arrest reports are completed and hire night-shift prosecutors to speed up the charging process.
“That means two things, which is the innocent people get out more quickly and the people who should be charged get charged more quickly,” said Griffin. “And for every second, every hour that they are uncharged in our facilities, there's a risk of liability if something happens to them physically. There's also a risk that we could get sued for holding them without charges.”
Not all council members supported the new contract. Some were concerned about the county backing out of its contract with the city and the effects on the city of moving the jail to Garfield Heights.
“There’s honor amongst men and you guys should honor the agreement at least until you open up a new jail out of the city of Cleveland,” Councilmember Brian Kazy said to county officials during Wednesday’s committee meeting.
Kazy added he was not opposing the amendment.
The county is charging the city less than its costs for housing detainees, about $236 per day, according to Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne’s Chief of Staff Eric Janus.
“You all are benefiting from a negotiated discount associated with the amount of work we do with you,” said Janus.
Janus added that the courthouse will remain in Downtown Cleveland, though a site has not been selected yet.
