MARION — Marion County voters will decide this primary whether to pitch in more for local incarceration, as the number of jail inmates continues to soar, putting a squeeze on the county budget.

The additional 2-mill, 5-year levy will be on the March 17 ballot and if passed, would go toward "maintaining and operating a jail or other detention facility," though what that means depends on who you ask.

Some county officials, such as Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey, would like the levy money to go toward building an expansion onto the Multi-County Correctional Center, the now 222-bed jail shared between Marion and Hardin counties.

County expects $1.7 million in incarceration costs this year

That idea has not won support from the Marion County commissioners, who would rather use the money to offset the ongoing costs of out-of-county jail bed rentals, new staff at the Multi-County jail and a coming jail alternative center.

The commissioners put the levy on the ballot in response to ballooning jail costs that they worry could derail the county budget.

"I'm very concerned about next year," Marion County Commissioner Andy Appelfeller previously told the Star. "We'll get through this year. We're going to have to control our costs. We try to do that anyway, but we're going to have watch it really close."

The county projects it will spend about $1.7 million more on local incarceration in 2020 than in 2018, a more than 50% increase, according to figures from the Marion County Auditor's Office.

The levy would generate close to $2.5 million per year and would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $70 per year, according to the Marion County Auditor's Office.

Though the commissioners don't support a jail expansion, Marion County Commissioner Ken Stiverson said they may not have a choice if the four-person commission that governs the Multi-County jail votes to go through with it. The sheriffs from Marion and Hardin counties and a commissioner from each county sit on the commission.

The commission invited an architect to its January meeting to discuss the cost of building on to the jail. At that meeting, the commission decided to wait until after the March primary to go any further.

"The justice system is a three-legged table. If anyone of them fails, the table collapses," Bailey said. Right now, he said, the correctional leg is collapsing.

Rented beds alone cost the jail nearly $500K in 2019

While the jail has struggled with overcrowding for years, it reached a breaking point last year, when the jail was at capacity "each and every day," Multi-County Director Dale Osborn said at the time.

On April 30, Marion officials began sending inmates to out-of-county jails. Since then, the county has rented jail beds from other counties at a cost of $55 to $65 per day per inmate, in an effort to relieve the overcrowding.

In 2019, the county was billed nearly $500,000 for jail beds rented from April 30 to Dec. 31, according to invoices obtained by the Star. That doesn't include any medical expenses the county was billed for those inmates.

The most expensive month was December, when the number of inmates being held out-of-county spiked, on one day reaching a peak of 86 inmates, according to daily inmate counts provided by the jail. On that day, Dec. 19, the total number of jailed Marion County inmates was 236, according to the inmate counts.

For December jail beds, the county was billed $110,480, according to invoices from six county jails and the Richland County Community Alternative Center.

The out-of-county inmates spiked after three Marion judges — Marion County Judges Warren Edwards and Jason Warner and Marion Municipal Court Judge Teresa Ballinger — put an end to the early release of jail inmates, which they argued undermined the justice system and contributed to a backlog of unserved misdemeanor jail sentences.

To cut down on overcrowding, the jail released some inmates early

For years, the jail had relieved overcrowding by releasing inmates early, by means of a 1999 court order that prioritized low-level offenders, usually misdemeanants, for release when jail officials needed an empty bed.

In late November, the judges issued a new order that prohibits inmates' release "without prior order of (the) judge," and requires the sheriff to find jail beds for inmates when Multi-County is full.

In the weeks after the order, Marion's jail population exploded, but since January, when the jail installed 20 more beds in Multi-County, the out-of-county inmate numbers have ticked down and fell into the 20s in recent days, according to the jail's inmate counts.

On Feb. 12, the county's jail population was about 196, including about 170 inmates at Multi-County and 26 in out-of-county jails, according to jail records. About 60 percent were in jail for a felony case, while about 40 percent were in jail for a misdemeanor, according to an analysis of jail records conducted by the Star. Where an inmate was listed as having more than one charge, the Star used the most serious charge.

Marion County's jail population is generally much larger than similarly sized counties, including Huron, Jefferson, Knox and Sandusky counties. In those county jails, the average daily population in 2019 was 122 in Huron, 132 in Jefferson, 89 in Knox and 90 in Sandusky, respectively, according to jail officials who responded to the Star's inquiries.

The Jefferson County jail noted that they hold other counties' inmates. On Tuesday, that jail was holding 32 out-of-county inmates, out of 139, according to a jail official.

Not counting the out-of-county inmates, Multi-County held 162 Marion County inmates on average per day in 2019, according to the jail's figures. The out-of-county inmates ranged from 12 to 86 per day, but were generally around 30.

The Marion County commissioners have not been able to explain why Marion County's numbers are so high and what is driving the overcrowding now.

At a Star editorial board meeting earlier this month, Dave Stamolis, the county commissioners' legal counsel, said they didn't have any information on, for example, the percentage of jail inmates awaiting trial or other jail population demographics.

Stamolis said it is the judges' place to decide defendants' bonds and sentences. It's the commissioners' job to manage the budget.

"The commissioners are open to any and all ideas to help the jail population, the overcrowding situation," Stamolis said. "At the end of the day, it's not really driven by the commissioners."

More misdemeanor offenders will be put on home monitors instead of jail

The county has tried to find less expensive ways to hold inmates. The commissioners recently gave Marion Municipal Court money to put more misdemeanor offenders on electronic home monitoring as an alternative to jail, Stamolis said.

"It's $10 a day for electronic home monitoring, whereas it's right around $60 a day for out-of-county jail expenses," he said.

The county commissioners also plan to have a jail alternative up and running in the spring, where misdemeanor offenders will serve their jail sentences in a less restrictive setting. The county is projecting that facility, at 269 Rose Ave., will cost about $750,000 in 2020.

"It's hoped that with this facility, as well as (the extra beds at) Multi-County, that we're going to see a drastic dip in the ones that are currently being held out of county," said Osborn, the jail director.

Sheriff Bailey has inquired about using the now-closed Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility on Marion Williamsport Road, but he said the state, which owns the building, has other plans for the facility.

The old county jail, which was located in the old sheriff's office on Marion Williamsport Road, does not meet state minimum standards for jails and was closed in the 1990s after inmates filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, the Star previously reported.

If passed, the levy would commence in 2020 and would be in effect through 2024. The county would begin receiving revenue from the levy in 2021, according to the auditor's office.

svolpenhei@gannett.com

740-375-5155

Tweet me @SarahVolp