In a recent editorial in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sheriff Simon Leis says we need a new jail:  “Because of the current space limitations, the Sheriff’s Office was forced to early release more than 8,000 prisoners in 2006.”

This is not true.  Earlier, The Cincinnati Beacon obatined numbers from the Sheriff’s office which state that in 2006, just 258 prisoners were released early.  128 of those were male prisoners and 130 were female.  Since Hamilton County started renting space from Butler County no male prisoners have been released early.  And to be released early a judge has to approve it.  See also the ealier Beacon article, “Can the Jail Hold All the Dangerous Women?”

So from where arises the 8,000 number?  It is actually the number of arrestees who were processed only, that is, they did not have to post bail.  They were not released early because they had not yet been convicted.  They have to come back to court on an assigned date and, if found guilty, they have to then serve time.  Since the extra beds were rented from Butler County, no male prisoners have been processed and released if they cannot post bail.

Due to sexual segregation in the jail there are still female prisoners who are processed and released even if they cannot afford bail.  A few female prisoners are even released early, that is, they had been convicted and their sentence reduced.  The new jail is basically designed to address these “problems” at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The difference between 258 released early and 8,000 is not just a typo.  It illustrates what some law enforcement officers have told me—that when they arrest someone they want that person to stay in jail.  They see judges, juries, bail, and the Bill of Rights as obstacles to their ability to enforce order.

And Paris Hilton?  There’s more here than the question as to whether the rules are different for the elite than for hoi polloi.  She was sentenced to 45 days by a judge who specifically ordered that she was not elgible for electronic monitoring.  Paris Hilton, after all, had been arrested for drunk driving, had her license suspended and placed on probation, and twice after that had been caught driving (what? she can’t afford a driver for her limo?).  The sheriff said that he, not the judge, was the one who decided who stayed in jail.  So, after a few days the sheriff decided that Hilton could spend the rest of her sentence in her mansion.  The judge did not take kindly to being deemed irrelevant and asserted his power by ordering her back to jail.

I believe that judges and juries who follow the Bill of Rights, not sheriffs, are the ones who should decide who stays in jail and when they leave.  Sheriff Leis has provided yet another reason to sign the petitions now circulating on the jail tax.

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