CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Officials on Thursday unveiled the transformation of the Bedford Heights jail into a comprehensive center that provides job training, substance abuse counseling and culinary courses to inmates.

The 200-bed, so called "comprehensive re-entry programming center" marks a major expansion of a program Cuyahoga County has offered for the past three years at its Euclid Jail. The goal is to reduce the rates at which former inmates re-offend by lining them up with jobs upon release, officials said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the facility.

"We would expect somehow [former inmates] would rejoin the community and be productive members of society almost magically, and it just doesn't happen that way," Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney, Director of Corrections Ken Mills and Bedford Heights Mayor Fletcher Berger also attended the ribbon-cutting. They were joined by Jill Rizika, executive director of Towards Employment, a nonprofit organization that provides job counseling and training services.

Mills said he hopes to begin housing inmates in the Bedford Heights jail as early as next week.

Cuyahoga County leased the facility after Bedford Heights closed its jail in 2015. It spent $500,000 renovating the facility as officials hashed out details and logistics over the last two years, Mills said.

The Bedford Heights center will house up to 200 male inmates sentenced to 60 to 90 days in jail for nonviolent, nonsexual, low-level felony and misdemeanor charges, Mills said.

For the last three years, Cuyahoga County offered similar services to approximately 80 inmates in the Euclid Jail. That facility will continue to offer those services to female inmates.

Once inmates are screened into the program by a social worker at the downtown Cleveland jail, they will be evaluated for alcohol and drug addiction, mental health issues and other medical needs. The county will work with Recovery Resources and have a full-time nursing staff to provide treatment, Mills said.

Towards Employment will teach job training, resume building and computer skills in the jail's computer lab, and give them emotional counseling and conflict resolution training, Rizika said.

The Cuyahoga County Library System will teach GED courses, and Mills said plans are in the works for Cuyahoga Community College to teach manufacturing skills.

The facility will also allow the county to expand its culinary arts program, a nine-week course that gives inmates a certification to be a cook. The jail partners with Edwins Restaurant and different hospitality management groups in the area.

The culinary arts program, which in recent years has been able to handle about four inmates at a time in the Euclid Jail, will now be able to handle about a dozen inmates at a time, Mills said.

Berger said Bedford Heights officials welcome the facility. He assured the city's residents that they will not be affected by its operations, which he described as pivotal.

"Let's face it: We are going to need facilities like this as long as we have people, so we may as well have the best opportunity to give those people the opportunity to stay out of the system and be productive citizens," he said.

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