Commissioners meet to discuss potential regional jail
ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Muskingum County Commissioners met with commissioners from surrounding counties to talk about a possible regional jail.
A jail levy on the November 2017 ballot was badly defeated leaving county officials searching for another alternative. That alternative came when the Guernsey County Commissioners reached out to the Muskingum Commissioners to see if there is any interest in partnering for a joint jail. Both counties are reporting high populations at their current facilities and need more space.
“We’re in a position in Guernsey County where we’ve got a facility that was built 22 years ago with 66 beds with no accommodations for women. And now we’re at a point we’re far exceeding that on too much of a regular basis,” said Guernsey County Commissioner Dave Wilson.
Commissioner Wilson said the opioid crisis is the biggest source of the overpopulation in the jails along with an increase of the women’s population. Muskingum County Commissioner Jim Porter agreed. The commissioners believe combining resources will be the best for all of the counties.
“Our hope is that it will provide some economies a scale to have the burden of the operational costs of a jail spread over at least two counties, if not four or five, and so that’s got to help. And also with us the distance between Cambridge and Zanesville with interstate 70 it’s a very doable situation,” said Wilson.
Porter said they already have a site picked out, but when the levy was defeated they knew they still had to find a way to house the influx of inmates without raising taxes.
“No one likes new taxes. It’s going to be an uphill battle to build this, but I think we can do it without any new taxes if we form a joint partnership with our surrounding counties. We had Coshocton, we had Morgan, Perry, Muskingum, and Guernsey County here today with our federal legislators and state legislators as well,” said Muskingum County Commissioner Jim Porter.
The commissioners and legislators will meet again in coming weeks to decide who’s on board and the logistics of the project.
