Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series examining the use of jail space by local law enforcement. Yesterday’s article looked at time and manpower losses caused by transporting people to Southeast Ohio Regional Jail in Nelsonville.

Lack of space in the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail forces law enforcement officers to issue more citations instead of arrests, release prisoners early or find space in other counties’ jails.

And while the lack of space forces the sheriff to give early releases to prisoners serving time for lesser offenses, Athens County is guaranteeing 37 beds in the regional jail to other counties.

Athens Police Department Chief Richard Mayer and county Sheriff Vern Castle agree that the problem of no jail space for serious arrests is more prevalent on Friday and Saturday nights. In addition to the increase in crime on these nights, beds in the jail are occupied with criminals serving weekend sentences and prisoners awaiting Monday court appearances.

“We could probably use twice as big a jail as we have,” Sheriff Vern Castle said.

With permission from the sentencing judge, the sheriff can free up bed space by releasing prisoners who have served 80 percent of their sentences or more.

Mayer and Castle emphasized that public safety is the first priority. Felons and violent offenders are always jailed locally or, when space is not available in the regional facility, in another county jail.

Officer Brian Lushbaugh said it costs APD about $200 in gas money and man-hours to book a prisoner at the Washington County Jail, and an officer must drive back to return the prisoner to Athens County courts.

“When there’s only three (officers working the night shift), we can’t really afford to send someone away for three hours (to Washington County),” Lushbaugh said.

The Sheriff’s Office has been billed for 155 days of prisoner care in Washington County since January 2005, according to invoices from the Washington County Jail. In 2005, the Sheriff’s Office paid $15,126.99 to Washington County, though a large part of that cost is medical bills that probably would be the same in either county jail, said Paul Cunningham, the fiscal officer of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

For every day of bed use in the Washington County Jail, the Sheriff’s Office pays $5 more than it would at the regional jail.

Castle remembered a case in the last six months where a woman charged with a felony could not be housed at the regional jail or at the Washington County Jail because of a lack of space. He was forced to take the woman nearly 60 miles to the Ross County Jail in Chillicothe, with which the county commissioners do not have a contract.

County Commissioner Bill Theisen, who was the chairman of the construction committee for the regional jail said there is not a jail problem in Athens County, especially when compared to places like Summit and Wooster counties, where there are lengthy waiting lists to serve time for non-violent offenses.

He also defends renting out beds to other counties on the basis that city police can pay for guaranteed beds in the regional jail if they want them.

Renting beds out to other counties can relieve Athens County’s financial burden for nearly 50 percent of the jail’s $3.5 million budget, but it decreases the number of beds assigned to Athens County, Castle said.

The Athens County Sheriff’s Office is guaranteed beds for 70 males and six females, which local police departments use when space is available on an as-needed basis, Theisen said.

Fairfield County has a contract with Athens County for beds for 23 males and four females, and Vinton County has a bed contract for nine males and one female. Those counties pay $50 per day for each bed, as do Athens, Hocking, Morgan and Perry counties.

“I don’t know of any county jails that really have all the beds they need,” Castle said.

Beds for females are especially scarce at the jail, Castle said. The jail houses 192 males and only 24 females — six for Athens County, five each for Hocking and Perry counties, four for Fairfield County, three for Morgan County and one for Vinton County.

However, officers with the Ohio University Police Department and State Highway Patrol said they do not think they have a bed space problem in the jail.

“If we have a felony, we call the warden and he makes space for us,” said Sergeant Jeffrey Skinner of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Castle said the Highway Patrol deals with more DUIs and therefore uses holding cell space more often than beds in the general population of the jail.

As state entities, the Highway Patrol and OUPD do not pay to use bed space in the jail, as the Sheriff’s Office or APD does.

Interim Chief Mark Mathews of the OUPD said he personally cannot remember a time when there was no space at the regional jail, and officers had to take someone elsewhere. He considers the distance of the holding cells to be a bigger inconvenience for OUPD officers.