Posted by Media Release

At this morning’s Commissioners meeting the Board received an update on the state of the County’s jail situation from Administrator Patrick Thompson. The results reinforce exactly what opponents of the Issue 27 tax increase have said all along: there are significant changes that we can make to alleviate our jail overcrowding situation that do not require a massive tax increase.

You can click here to view the Administrator’s report and get more details (Items 2-a and 2-b). As you can see, early releases and process only arrests have significantly decreased this year. In fact, not a single male inmate has been early released or processed only due to jail overcrowding so far this year. This is in spite of the County having approximately 300 fewer jail beds due to the expiration of the contract to house inmates in Butler County.

I strongly believe that public safety is an absolutely priority in Hamilton County. We need to continue to work hard to effectively address the issue. Our quality of life and community vitality depend on the success of this effort. This new data shows, however, that these goals are accomplished best when citizens reject high tax, big-government solutions and instead force government to think outside of the box to find answers to our problems.

I hope you found the update interesting and informative. Over the next year I believe that I’ll be able to share even more good news with you about the progress we’ve made towards fixing our corrections system. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me or contact my office. I always look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Pat DeWine

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