New Lucas County Jail may become a reality

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - After years of discussion, the first steps toward the construction a new Lucas County Jail could soon be taken. A proposal is on the table to begin a study that would determine the cost, capacity, and location of a new holding facility for those awaiting trial.

Since 1977, the Lucas County Corrections Center has stood along Spielbusch Avenue in downtown Toledo. The building is part of a complex including courthouses for city, county, and federal cases, plus the Toledo Police Safety Building.

The park in the middle of the complex is called the Civic Center Mall. Underneath the mall are tunnels where detainees and prisoners can be transported to and from the jail to most of the adjacent buildings.

Sheriff John Tharp, who retired in December 2020, and now Sheriff Michael Navarre, who took office this year, both say the jail is old, outdated, and in dire need of an upgrade.

“This building that we’re in right now is not conducive to proper inmate management,” says Sheriff Navarre.

A modern type of inmate management is called direct supervision. It uses fewer corrections officers to keep an eye on detainees by positioning those officers in the central area of a pod of jail cells.

“The housing unit, instead of having correction officers that would do periodic checks every thirty minutes and count heads in a smaller unit, they would be stationed in the middle of that housing unit,” explains Sheriff Navarre. “The housing unit’s size would be determined by the particular classification of inmates in that particular housing unit and when something happens within that unit, that corrections officer can act immediately, instantaneously to address that problem before it gets out of hand, or call for assistance.”

According to Sheriff Navarre, the concept of direct supervision would require construction from the ground up. The existing Lucas County Corrections Center, he says, could not be renovated to fit that model.

“There’s not an amount of money that you could put into this building to turn this into a facility that is conducive to that type of inmate management,” the sheriff adds.

“It’s the first step towards something that we all know needs to happen, which is the replacement of the Lucas County Jail,” says Matthew Heyrman, Deputy County Administrator for the Board of Lucas County Commissioners.

A proposal to the three commissioners is set to go up for a vote this Tuesday. It recommends moving forward with Poggemeyer Design Group out of Bowling Green to create concepts for a new jail.

“No different if you were going to build a new house,” continued Heyrman. “The first thing you need to identify is how many people are going to live in that house? What are the needs of those people? And then you start to put that together in blocks and it gives you an idea of what you would need when you start to design your house.”

Unlike one previous proposal, a new jail would continue to only hold those who are awaiting trial, the way the current jail operates. Those inmates who have been sentenced will still be held at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker. Right now, that accounts for about 200 inmates.

The Lucas County Corrections Center can hold up to 468 detainees. A new building would maintain those lower numbers by not combining those who have been sentenced and those who have not. That would also keep down the cost.

“We’ll be able to build a smaller facility that should cost somewhere in the area of $100M,” explains Gary Byers, Lucas County Commissioner. “The other request to the community was for $180M. So, it’s just over half, but this functional study will give us a more accurate idea as to what the cost should be.”

One hundred million dollars, according to Commissioner Byers, would not require a levy. So, a new jail could be constructed without voter approval and without a new tax.

“We’re not going to ask for a levy, so people’s taxes won’t go up,” Byers says.

The study would also identify potential locations. The biggest contender right now, according to Byers, is where the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department stands on nearby Erie Street. The site could potentially connect to the underground tunnels and fit in with surrounding buildings.

Sheriff Navarre says without question the jail should remain downtown, adding, “County jails are just not conducive to neighborhoods.”

What could happen to the health department and the current corrections center would also become part of the discussion. First, the study would need approval from county commissioners this Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

If they sign off, we could see visual concepts and more elaborate proposals by early 2022, mapping out the future for a major section of downtown Toledo.

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