SHELBY – The Shelby Police Department may have more leverage over prisoners in the city jail, according to legislation introduced at council on Monday.
Two ordinances addressing prisoner escape and the illegal conveyance of weapons, drugs or other prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility passed their first reading at Shelby City Council on Monday.
Shelby Police Chief Lance Combs explained that by enacting legislation for these offenses within the city of Shelby’s codified ordinances, offenses on the misdemeanor level will be more easily enforced.
“There are provisions in the Ohio Revised Code for crimes of escape and for illegal conveyance,” Combs explained. “It’s more difficult for us to file a charge under the Ohio Revised Code because of our city ordinances.
“It is easier for us to process those by way of our computer system, and it is easier for us to issue a summons. The other issue is any fines collected on issues under the Ohio Revised Code go to the county, so if we enact both these ordinances, the fine monies levied on those charges would go back to the city of Shelby.”
Though Combs said “escapes” are not common, one incident in particular was the impetus in introducing this legislation to Shelby City Council. A prisoner at the Shelby Justice Center swallowed batteries out of a television remote control, and needed to go to the hospital.
By law, the Shelby jail is required to have a method by which prisoners can receive both routine and emergency medical requests performed through OhioHealth Shelby Hospital’s emergency room. The city is responsible for medical costs incurred by prisoners.
“At the hospital the judge released him (on a personal recognizance bond) until his medical treatment was completed, then he was to report back to the jail,” Combs said. “Immediately after the officers left, he never even completed treatment, he just ripped out the IV and walked out, and we found some social media posts of him over Memorial Day enjoying a fine barbeque on a pontoon boat at Pleasant Hill Lake.”
Shelby Police arrested the man, who pleaded guilty to the offense. Failing to report back to jail on a personal recognizance bond qualifies as an escape, Combs said.
“The provision of the Ohio Revised Code is a misdemeanor section, so if you’re charged with a misdemeanor offense and you escape, the escape charge is a misdemeanor,” he said. “We can write that under Ohio Revised Code as we can any other crime in the city of Shelby, but we don’t do that because we have ordinances.”
The Shelby Justice Center jail has the capacity to hold 11 prisoners, with two cellblocks for mail and female prisoners holding four beds each. The jail also has a work release dorm that holds three people.
“We also have had issues where people have brought things to the jail that are not allowed under state law, but some of those crimes are misdemeanor crimes,” Combs said. “If they were appropriate felonies we would charge those as felonies just as we would an escape under the appropriate felony section, but more often than not they’re misdemeanor crimes.”
Shelby’s jail at the city’s Justice Center on Mack Ave. and the Richland County Jail operated by the Sheriff’s office are the only two jails in Richland County.
“It’s easier for us for bookkeeping and training, and making sure those fine monies go back to the city of Shelby,” Combs said.
