Ohio Community Breaks Ground on Jail Construction Project

WOODSFIELD, Ohio — A new 21st century jail will soon replace its 19th century predecessor in Woodsfield, located in Monroe County. The county’s existing jail structure was completed in 1878, and the new $11.5 million Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and Correctional Center will help bring the county’s correctional operations into a new era.

The new 33,000-square-foot facility will be located in the Monroe County Industrial Park and feature 114 beds. New sheriff’s offices will also be included in the design. Construction on the new jail is expected to take approximately one year.

Efforts have been underway for decades to replace the crumbling sandstone facility, as bringing it in line with modern jail standards was deemed impossible. YourOhioValley.com reported in Nov. 2015 that the facility has been unable to house inmates long term since 2014, forcing the county’s correctional staff to rack up tens of thousands of miles transporting them to other facilities both local and at opposite ends of the state.

“We had a lot of violations,” Monroe County Sheriff Charles Black Jr. told YourOhioValley.com. “We can’t come into compliance anymore. So we use the current facility for a holding facility only. Otherwise, inmates are all transported out to other counties.”

County commissioners first submitted a letter of intent to move forward on the project in July 2015. The county worked with Wachtel & McAnally Architects Planners Inc. of Neward, Ohio, to complete site assessments and to design the facility. Jobes Henderson & Associates, also of Newark, and Youngstown, Ohio-based Geotechnical Consultants also completed surveying work. Granger Construction Company of Lansing, Mich., was selected to serve as the project’s construction manager at-risk in April 2016, and TP Mechanical, headquartered in Cincinnati, was selected to complete plumbing, mechanical and fire suppression work.

Currently, the Monroe County Jail is classified by the Ohio Bureau of Adult Detention only as a 12-day holding facility, according to the county’s website. Should an offender be sentenced to a term of more than twelve days, Ohio law requires the county to transfer the inmate to another facility for a period of 24 hours, after which time the offender can be transferred back to Monroe County another 12-day term.

As housing felony offenders is also not permitted in the jail, the county currently maintains housing contracts with surrounding facilities to house felony inmates as well as female inmates.