WOOD COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - Once again, Toledo is considering housing some of its inmates in the Wood County Jail. This comes after an ongoing feud between the City and the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.
Right now talks are underway between the City and the sheriff to finalize an agreement.
"We're waiting for Toledo to do a draft of their understanding of the agreement and then we'll go back and forth with that," said Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
The sheriff says it's important for the deal to be good for both Toledo and Wood County.
So far the arrangement includes the county housing a minimum of 25 misdemeanor offenders - people that have already been sentenced under Toledo municipal code.
According to the sheriff, with the recent expansion at the jail, they definitely have the room to house additional inmates.
"We currently have 224 beds in our jail. And recently, actually for the last several months, we've been right around 140 to 145 inmates. So we currently have about 80 empty beds," said the sheriff.
To house those inmates, the City will pay Wood County a fee. He says that money could help the county recoup some of the money they just spent to expand their jail.
"Right now I think it's very good for Wood County to offset the cost of money we spent to enlarge our jail. And if I can bring that money in, $5-600,000 a year that, that's a good thing," said Sheriff Wasylyshyn.
Now for those living in the county this may sound alarming, but the sheriff wants to assure everyone this will not cause any Wood County inmates to be released early and no felons will be a part of the agreement.
"The only way I'm going to do this is if it's good for Wood County because that's who I work for. I work for the citizens of Wood County," said Wasylyshyn.
The sheriff says this deal could go through very soon. Before the deal is complete, it has to be approved by the Wood County Prosecutor.
