Discussions for building multi-county jail continue

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- Another meeting was held to continue the discussion on building a jail to serve both Guernsey and Muskingum Counties.

The Muskingum and Guernsey County Commissioners meet earlier on Monday to tour the Guernsey County jail and discuss what each group would need to do in order to move forward with the joint jail project. Sheriff Matt Lutz said the project is in the preliminary stages but the next step would be to see how much money each county can put toward the project. He said they need to decide how much they can spend and how big they can go without raising costs.

“When you see about those funds, you have to see how big you can build with the current staff we have because if you go bigger than your current staff obviously you are taking on a lot of expenses with the employee cost,” said Lutz.

Lutz said there would be many benefits from having a jail serving both counties such as combining resources to build a new jail, and being able to bring together the staff from each facility. He also said it would help with the overcrowding along with the out of county housing bills.

“This problem’s not going away,” said Lutz. “It’s up to our county to take care of it. Guernsey County has the same issue with their overcrowding issue, it’s up to their county to take care of it, and the commissioners will have to make those tough decisions on what we do going forward.”

Lutz also wanted to state that if they move forward with the project, the Muskingum County Jail Committee would need to meet as well to discuss where the jail was built and what type of jail was built. He said the whole process would take about two and a half years.