Council doesn't understand the jail, part 2
Progress is slow, and the problems remain - featuring Chris Ronayne
On February 4, 2025, the Public Safety & Justice Affairs Committee met and received updates on the Garfield Heights facility. While not much has changed since last year, the proportion of single and multi-occupancy cells has been decided. Then on April 24, 2025, the County presented their plans to Garfield Heights residents, debuting a new cost estimate of $890 million. Much remains uncertain. Let’s talk about it.
A “Campus” in Name Alone
The core design of the facility remains the same as it was presented in October 2024: a single monolith of a building, merging the jail with the sheriff’s office, and prioritizing parking for the remainder of the site. Internal mock-ups of the facility also remain the same, including the use of a “grass under foot opportunity.” Facilities for the Court of Common Pleas will remain separate from the Jail, pending future developments.
Notably, the County claims the design process is 30% complete, with a build date of 2028 to 2030 and the intent to break ground starting in 2026.
Check out our first piece on the jail developments for our critique of this design:
At the April 24 event, we spoke with County Executive Chris Ronayne about the new jail being called a “campus” when it’s only a single facility. His response reflects the mixed progress to completion and competing interests in the County.
NEOLeft: Talk about the rhetoric you’re using, saying the word “campus” referring to the jail, versus what we’re seeing in the plans when it comes to a single building.
Chris Ronayne: Well what you’re seeing in the plan right now is the first phase. The idea of the campus is to really stretch out from Granger to Transportation to 480 to Ridge and utilize the space as a place that heals. Some of the early thoughts we have is, get some walking space out there, both for residents and workers, but also ultimately grass under foot, which we’re gonna lean in on that idea for those who are in our custody. They are residents when they are with us, and our high hope is that people can breathe some fresh air in this facility. So that’s, for one, the sort of horizontal aspects of this campus as opposed to the vertical tower that is downtown.
In aspirational hopes in addition to that use of green space for other purposes which also could be for urban farming, it could be sourcing produce right into the facility. I’m trying to say this is a long-range plan, and we are in the first phase, but having some of this extra land, as we get better permission / authority from places like ODRC to do things differently, I see a future where you got more breathability, more walkability, maybe more locally sourced foods. The other side of this is, can we get to a place where people are getting on-site job training, on-site mental health services, where they’re getting tools they need to succeed in the future. You hear me in the opener tonight talk about a behavioral [?] center — that is a part of this plan that is within the building itself.
I have in the past talked about diversion centers on-site. I haven’t yet been able to see that through to the County Council, which I work with as a respected other side of the aisle — you got an executive, you got a council — but I’m sticking to the idea that you could have on-site diversion where people never go through those doors, or they go through a central booking, and that central booking says, “nope, you don’t need to be inside these walls tonight. You can be at a diversion center somewhere on the campus.”
So, we are still glad that we bought enough land to have future space to work on, and in the interim, we’ve got the first phase plan, which is the jail with the behavioral [?] center inside, but a lot of opportunity to work on the insides with the Tri-C’s of the world. and others that can help us with education, training, and things that can help people matriculate to the next phase of their lives. I think we’re gonna have a reentry office within the site itself. You gotta work on reentry when somebody arrives. With the supposition that they’re gonna go somewhere else, how can we help them build skills while they’re in to reenter.
So back to the campus question. I think the first phase you’re seeing is an expanse of the first phase of the first building, with aspirations that we create outdoor edge spaces that have spaces for interstitial interaction between residents, that use space at the outer edges, and potentially residents inside that have interior but still breathable outdoor space.
Those are my goals. I have to work through a County Council. I have to make sure we get permission from Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. But I think the goals are taking best practices from other places. We’ve seen some good things in Franklin County, Davidson County, Marion County as it relates to what happens within the walls of jails, but I think you know, there are other examples, far reaching, overseas, other parts of the county, but even in our own backyard in Grafton, where I see a campus that people spread out on the heel [?] a little bit. And that’s the state model. We are not a state facility; we are a county facility. There’s different regs that oversee both of them, but I see some real good things at Grafton that we might want to replicate over here.
NEOLeft: And where should people go if they want to advocate for a campus system here in the County.
Chris Ronayne: Cuyahoga County Council, and of course, run some ideas by us to.
Rising Costs, Decreasing Expectations
A common theme from the February 4 committee meeting was that much has been stripped from the jail that was originally promised — namely programming and dedicated spaces to administer it — in order to create a barebones facility that serves little more than it’s literal core function: to house inmates.
In the words of Councilman Gallagher, “ultimately, it is a jail, hehehe - okay.”
Not only is this trend of developments a grave betrayal of the public trust that brought the current administration into power and keeps many councilmembers employed, but it also flies in the face of the literature on effective criminal justice.
While programming and amenities for inmates may seem to be “bells and whistles” for some, in fact, they are the things that help those who have been incarcerated to avoid recidivism and live as productive citizens in the future. Without programming and amenities, we arrive at a redux of the current facility: a barren tower where you throw this county’s undesirables until they’re released and recidivate.
We Need a Reformed Jail
Many community organizations have been advocating for better conditions in the jail since 2018, but their efforts have become little more than a footnote of the current plans for the Garfield Heights facility. Without a concrete, well-defined, and practical solution to addressing the conditions in the County Jail, we will inevitably fall into the 60-to-80 year cycle of a new jail, deteriorating conditions, public outcry, riots by inmates, and intervention by the state, leading to a new jail and the restart of the cycle.
In the Cuyahoga Justice Reform Framework, we present our recommendations for a better facility that meets the needs of its residents first in order to prevent their future recidivism and to facilitate their pro-social impact on society. This means livable spaces and separate facilities that serve particular functions and collectively enhance outcomes for residents alongside a significant reduction in the incarcerated population and expedited wait times for those held in custody while awaiting trial.
So what is to be done?
In the next few months, we’ll be releasing a second document of recommendations for how we can improve the current designs to achieve a better facility for residents and enhanced outcomes post-release. At that time, we’ll begin a campaign of seeking input and support from community organizations, local activists, and government officials in order to propose the changes to the Council for adoption.
The road ahead is daunting, and the path to get here has been rocky at best. We cannot suffer despair, however, and must continue charting a new course for criminal justice in this county. We hope you’ll join us as we move forward in this campaign.
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