CCNO Meets… Talks Math Errors

Math­e­mat­i­cal errors and ques­tion­able pro­pos­als were found in a fea­si­bil­ity study that calls for the con­struc­tion of a new Lucas County Jail as was revealed dur­ing Wednesday’s meet­ing of the Cor­rec­tions Com­mis­sion of North­west Ohio.

CCNO Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Jim Den­nis said dur­ing an August board meet­ing, CCNO offi­cials were advised that Lucas County was con­duct­ing a fea­si­bil­ity study to build a new Lucas County jail that could result in Lucas County and Toledo no longer par­tic­i­pat­ing in CCNO. CCNO offi­cials asked that their own fea­si­bil­ity study be con­ducted to deter­mine the poten­tial impact on CCNO. The spe­cial study also showed poten­tial addi­tional costs to Lucas County and Toledo as well as assump­tions made in the Lucas County jail study that were ques­tion­able and war­rant fur­ther explo­ration.

Mark Gold­man with Mark Gold­man & Asso­ciates Inc., jus­tice facil­ity plan­ners, said he looked at the por­tion of the fea­si­bil­ity study that called for con­struc­tion of a 620-bed pre­trial facil­ity as well as a 400-bed sen­tenced facil­ity for a total capac­ity of 1,020 beds for the new Lucas County jail. Mr. Gold­man noted that if Lucas County and Toledo pull out of CCNO, it would reduce occu­pancy and rev­enues by 69 per­cent.

Mr. Gold­man pointed out sev­eral math­e­mat­i­cal errors to include exclud­ing square footage and $3 mil­lion for direct hous­ing sup­port; not adding pro­gram space; as well as math­e­mat­i­cal errors in staffing and trans­porta­tion adjust­ments. The DLR group that con­ducted the ini­tial fea­si­bil­ity study had pro­jected an annual sav­ing of $282,000 but Mr. Gold­man said it would be an actual loss of $400,000 a year to oper­ate the 1,020-bed facil­ity in com­par­i­son to con­tin­ued par­tic­i­pa­tion in CCNO. He noted the actual cost per diem rate at CCNO was $56 in com­par­i­son to $156.99 at the cur­rent Lucas County jail for 2013.