Beginning next year, the New Philadelphia police department will no longer house inmates.
Arrestees used to get locked up inside the police station until they sobered up, got transferred elsewhere, or made their initial court appearance. However, that stopped about a month ago when an inmate broke the security glass between the jail and dispatch area.
Safety director Greg Popham now says the space will remain closed permanently due to low staffing and liability concerns. Instead, the county jail will continue housing the city’s prisoners, which Popham says is free as long as they’re cited under the state code.
He also cites the recent influx of inmates requiring more intensive supervision and longer stays.
Popham says the city could spend 3-thousand dollars to replace the glass and reopen the jail, but there’s no money in the budget to staff it adequately.
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