Plans for a New Jail
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Jail Committee met today to discuss plans on getting a new Muskingum County Jail.
The jail committee is made up of seven people Muskingum County Commissioner Jim Porter, Muskingum County Commissioner Cindy Cameron, Muskingum County Commissioner Mollie Crooks, Muskingum County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark Fleegle, Muskingum County Probate Court Judge Eric Martin, Muskingum County Common Pleas Clerk of Courts Todd Bickle, and Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.
Photo By: Chase Flowers
The original Muskingum County Jail was built around 1975 and has been renovated and used to its maximum capacity. Sheriff Lutz said starting in 2016 they had to pay other jail facilities to house inmates and the new facility plan that is currently being discussed will let those inmates come back to Muskingum County to be jailed.
“We’re legally allowed to hold actually 171 prisoners in housing and we have holding cells that takes that actually to 181, but we only have about 24 hours to hold those ten people,” Sheriff Lutz said. “One of these plans that we’ve looked at we could actually run the facility of 440 to 445 [inmates].”
The Sheriff’s Office will keep the same amount of employees for the new jail by using electronics to have prisoners transport themselves safely throughout the building.
Photo By: Chase Flowers
“The jail we have now is four floors, so it’s designed to be run by jailers,” Sheriff Lutz said. “So the jailers actually have to physically go and get prisoners and take them to different locations. The new jail would be run by cameras and doors. So you basically tell a prisoner to come through the door, go to a location, and it’s all a secured area where they can’t get out.”
The new facility will also have a design that is able to be added onto at a later date.
Funding for the new facility is still being discussed, but the committee is looking into asking the community for financial support.
“We are going to have to approach our citizens and ask for their support for a bond issue, we’re probably looking at a property tax,” Sheriff Lutz said. “You know it’s very tough to show them what is needed, but I think over the course of my eight and one half years as Sheriff. We’ve shown that we’re going to be out there enforcing the law and taking criminals to jail.”
At this moment the Jail Committee is looking into a few locations to build the new facility, but one promising location is building the new jail behind the Muskingum County Juvenile Detention Center and where the Sheriff’s Administration Office is.
“So you’d have one stop for juvenile detention, the same place for adult detention, and the same place for the Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff Lutz said. “It will be very accessible with the interstate for [officers] picking up and dropping off prisoners.”
Once the plans for the new facility are made and the structure is built the Sheriff’s Office will still use a portion of the old jail located on Fourth Street in downtown Zanesville. The sally port and elevator that leads to the Muskingum County Courthouse will still be used to transport prisoners to and from the courtrooms in a safe and secure manner.
As for the rest of the building the Muskingum County Commissioners will still have control of the building and can decide what will be done with portions of the second, third, and fourth floors.
