NEWS

Another police chief says jail refuses some inmates

Kristina Smith
mksmith@gannett.com

FREMONT – Another local police department has had issues with the Sandusky County Jail refusing to take a person charged with a crime, officials are reporting.

The jail would not accept a man who was charged in May with domestic violence because he was in a wheelchair, according to a Woodville police report.

“Typically, we’ve gotten used to calling the jail to see if they’ll take them,” Woodville Police Chief Roy Whitehead said of inmates with medical issues.

That comes after Gibonsburg Police Chief Paul Whitaker expressed concern last month in a News-Messenger article that the jail sometimes refuses to take potentially violent inmates with medical conditions.

“It’s a case-by-case situation,” Sheriff Kyle Overmyer said. “We are able to handle some of the medical conditions.

“There comes a point where we cannot handle some of these medical issues because we’re a correctional facility, not a hospital.”

If the inmates don’t have insurance, the sheriff’s office has to cover their medical expenses while they are in jail, Overmyer said. That cost then gets passed on to the taxpayers.

Ohio law requires the jail to house inmates, and if it can’t house them, to find a jail that does, Whitaker said. He cited a section of the Ohio Revised Code that also specifies a jail can send inmates to counties in neighboring states if necessary.

“Sometimes, if it is an individual that the crime is not so severe, they can be released for the time being,” Overmyer said. “I think there’s a lot of gray area there.”

Last month, Gibsonburg police arrested and charged a man, alleging he was causing a disturbance at a Gibsonburg home and had crack. Whitaker said the jail would not accept the man because he was suffering from renal failure and other medical problems.

Jail staff, however, denied refusing to take the man, according to sheriff’s office records.

Whitaker cited another case his department handled where an obese woman was charged with assault at the local nursing home’s bariatric unit but was not admitted to the jail because of the woman’s health issues.

Woodville had another case where a mentally ill woman was taken to jail and accepted, but the jail then asked a judge for an order to release the woman, Whitehead said.

Whitaker said he is frustrated because his police department does not have a holding cell, and he can’t take inmates to another county’s jail himself. Keeping them locked up for at least the night helps protect the public, he said.

Since The News-Messenger published an article regarding the conflict last month, Whitaker and Overmyer have not talked. Both said they would like to speak with the other regarding the conflict.

Overmyer said he was considering having a meeting with Whitaker and any other chiefs who had concerns about the jail accepting people their agencies arrest.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM