Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken plans to cut the county’s prisoner space for 2018 at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, a move Toledo Municipal Court judges think will hurt their operations — and lead to more offenders on house arrest or community service sentences instead of behind bars.

Mr. Gerken said he will bid to set the county's CCNO allotment to 275 a day for next year, down from 303, to be used for people sentenced by the municipal court judges in Toledo, Maumee, Sylvania, and Oregon, the Lucas County Juvenile Justice Center, and Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

“That will save $700,000 to $800,000, which we will need to balance our budget next year,” he said.

But the judges at Toledo Municipal Court said the cut could compromise their operation.

An Aug. 29 letter from presiding Judge Joshua Lanzinger to the three county commissioners, which was obtained this week by The Blade, said the court has already cut its use to a minimal number, and additional loss of space at CCNO “will have an imminent and adverse impact on public safety.”

VIDEO: Blade Briefing on objections of judges to plan for CCNO

Toledo Municipal Court’s share of inmates a day would go from 150 to 137 under Mr. Gerken’s plan.

In 2000, the court “had access to 259 [spots] at CCNO near Stryker, Ohio, for sentencing,” Judge Lanzinger wrote. “That number was further reduced in recent years to 228.”

Mr. Gerken said Judge Lanzinger’s concerns are unnecessary since the number for all the courts will be 275, meaning the Toledo judges would have access to more inmate space if needed because the other courts would be unlikely to have maxed out their daily share at the same time.

The judge in his letter referred to the city-county dispute that began in October, 2014, when police, under the direction of then-Mayor D. Michael Collins, began charging suspects under state law rather than the municipal code.

“In August, 2016, in an effort to minimize the strain on the county's budget, the Toledo Municipal Court agreed to reduce the number of sentenced [space] the court had access to from 228 to 150,” the letter said.

The letter added the court managed the reduction by turning to alternative sentences like community service and electronic monitoring. “But make no mistake, the reducing from 228 to 150 necessarily resulted in the release of some defendants” who judges under normal circumstances “would have preferred to have kept in custody.

“The vast majority of the sentenced individuals currently serving time at CCNO have been convicted of violent crimes and/​or repeat offenses,” the letter said.

Judge Lanzinger told The Blade: “The bottom line is, as a court, we feel 137 [inmate spaces] out at CCNO is too low.”

His letter also said the municipal court judges can no longer sentence people to work release since the city of Toledo no longer pays for it.

“This option ensured that defendants who were sentenced to confinement could serve out their sentence while maintaining their employment,” his letter read.

Toledo Law Director Adam Loukx confirmed via email that the city no longer pays for work release.

“The last payment to the county under that contract was for the fourth quarter of 2015 in the amount of $137,500,” he said. “We estimate, therefore, a savings of $550,000 [a year]. … The municipal court does maintain contracts for some types of court services that, ultimately, are paid from city funds.”

Judge Lanzinger said the Hicks-Hudson administration's decision to cut work release has also hindered their operations.

“The county [court] still has work release,” he said. “We always want to see if we can have a person maintain their employment. That is no longer maintained, so we can do things such as electronic monitoring and house arrest, but in my opinion house arrest is not a very good deterrent for recidivism.”

Mr. Gerken said the county was being charged for more space than it needed in 2017 according to the average daily uses of the courts.

“That fact that the number is coming down is anything but punitive,” Mr. Gerken said. “It is a win that shows our criminal justice reform movement is accomplishing its goals ... and the Toledo Municipal Court would have access to work release if they paid for it, but the city is unwilling to fund the municipal court.”

Judge Lanzinger said municipal court judges intentionally try to keep their numbers at 90 percent capacity because they can’t go over their inmate allotment.

“To say that we don’t need 150 since we haven’t been using 150 is misleading,” he said.

In 2016, Lucas County received a $1.75 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce its jail population. In 12 months, the number of inmates in the county jail and CCNO fell 18.2 percent; charges filed against people for missed court dates were down 12.3 percent, and the number of people arrested for new crimes while awaiting resolution of their cases fell 10.1 percent.

The 12-month average daily use for Toledo at CCNO was 132.47 inmates. The average for all the courts is 266.88, according to county records.

Lucas County also started paying for 20 extra spaces sub-contracted to the city of Toledo for Toledo Municipal Code offenders on Oct. 4, 2016. The city has a contract to pay Lucas County for the 20 extra inmates sentenced by Toledo Municipal Court judges to CCNO on city ordinance violations.

The city won a court legal battle over incarceration costs against Lucas County. A visiting judge in June, 2016, threw out bylaw changes in the operating agreement at CCNO and upheld the city’s charging policy that holds the county responsible for jail costs of defendants Toledo police arrest.

The decision by Judge Linton Lewis, Jr., in the lawsuit Toledo filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court against the county and CCNO, said the pretrial costs of people arrested by Toledo police and charged with misdemeanors in violation of state law are to be paid by the county.

After Judge Lewis’ decision, the city defaulted on its quarterly payment for the space it was under contract with at CCNO. To soften the impact of the city reneging on its contract for 228 inmates, the county agreed to pick up the cost for 100 in September, 2016 to lessen the layoffs that were required to keep CCNO operating.

In March, county attorneys urged a specially assigned, three-judge panel of the 10th District Court of Appeals to overturn a decision in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that sided with the city.

Staff writers Mark Reiter and Nolan Rosenkrans contributed to this report.

Contact Ignazio Messina at imessina@theblade.com, 419-724-6171, or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published September 28, 2017, 3:49 p.m.