Officials planning for a new Cuyahoga County Jail are delaying a vote on a proposed site following a contentious public meeting Tuesday where community members criticized the $550 million new facility and asked for a delay to allow for more public participation.
“There’s no funding in place for the project. There’s environmental concerns for the project,” said Larry Heller, an outreach worker with the Northern Ohio Recovery Center, during the meeting’s public comment portion. “For such a huge expense and so long a term, which will impact our county for years, why must we rush?”
Heller and several other public commenters all spoke against building the new jail during a Justice Center Executive Steering Committee meeting. The agenda for the meeting included a closed-door session to discuss purchasing a 44-acre piece of land near Downtown Cleveland to build the jail.
A public discussion and vote was scheduled after the closed door session, but the consultant hired by the county to oversee the planning process, Jeffrey Appelbaum, came out of the executive session and adjourned the meeting instead.
“We don’t want to extend the day longer for you,” said Appelbaum to the members of the audience at county council chambers. “We’re going to get you a date as soon as we can to come back.”
Appelbaum did not provide any details about the closed-door discussion or the reasons for delaying the vote.
According to one committee member, Cuyahoga County Councilman Mike Gallagher, they ran out of time for their presentation in executive session.
“We had more information to present so that all the new members were up to date on the property. We ran out of time and will reconvene in a week or two,” Gallagher said.
The committee is considering whether to recommend the purchase of industrial land east of Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood near Downtown to build the jail. According to a report in Cleveland.com published the night before the scheduled vote, the state considered the same land for a prison in the 1980s but decided against it because of environmental contamination.
The Cuyahoga County Jail Coalition, which organized speakers during the public comment period Tuesday, says the jail should not go forward at least until there’s more public input and more investments in alternatives to incarceration.
“I have passed through the gates of Cuyahoga County Jail,” said Josiah Quarles. “And I have survived. And I am here because I know there is a better way forward.”
If the steering committee recommends the proposed land, county officials will still have to negotiate a sale price and seek approval from county council.
