It was great for me to get a chance to tour the Butler County Jail. I have had a lot of questions about it and its use, how much it costs, and what its helpful role in society is. The Butler County Jail is one of the most expensive in the state, and it’s certainly significant, with around 1000 inmates being held at any particular time. As part of the obligation of a grand jury where I was the foreman, the prosecutor’s office in Butler County arranges for everyone to see where the people in the cases considered for indictment are going or being released. For me, it was important to have context on several fronts. And, of course, you can’t go to the jail without seeing Sheriff Jones. Overall, my experience was very good, and I think in regards to Sheriff Jones, it has been a rough couple of years. But I have seen in him a lot of seriousness in establishing himself as one of the biggest MAGA supporters in Southern Ohio. We might have disagreements that have significant consequences on people we mutually know. But I have seen him work hard to establish himself as an unquestioned supporter of justice and order. Seeing him in his natural habitat, the jail, was also good for me. And get a sense of what it’s like living in his shoes. And why his appearance with Hulk Hogan at the Liberty Township Kroger significantly benefited the big picture of law and order in Butler County. I’ve had a chance recently to see Sheriff Jones at his best, and I certainly have an appreciation for good work, which he has displayed with seriousness. The whole experience was very beneficial in that I have an excellent understanding of what it takes to run a prosecutor’s office, what their challenges are, how it relates to the inmate system, and what it takes to essentially maintain the criminal conduct of a small percentage of a population of over 400,000 people. Competition is good for everyone, and some people step into the challenge while others crumble under pressure. And to that point, I am glad that Butler County, Ohio, hasn’t lost its way and has some of the country’s best people when the pressure is applied. Politics is a blood sport. It’s good to never get to a point where you can’t at least be friendly with people. Because, in the end, it’s all about serving a public need. And once the rubber hits the road, we can all be proud of our Butler County Jail.
The reality of any free society, especially when there are so many people in it, is that there will always be 1-2% who fall off the rocker and can’t live in a free society. For whatever reason, they can’t function in a world where free people need to be free. Crime threatens that freedom and has to be dealt with. This means you either have capital punishment and get rid of those people, or you lock them up so they can’t hurt anybody and perhaps hope to reform them. But if you do that, you must feed and house them. And doing that with other people who are also on the fringe of society is difficult. I’ve been to the Butler County Jail several times but only seen Sheriff Jones’ office, the conference room, and their press conference area. I’ve never been past those front office areas into the booking area and the general population, which is a vast complex. It doesn’t look like a county jail; it resembles a prison system on a large scale. After visiting the jail, it is easy to see why the federal grants are essential and why the operation would cost over 80 million dollars. It’s a prominent place with a lot of moving parts. And you have to have it. Police work is not like a school where you can debate the merits of education and what it provides to society. When you have criminals who can’t be roaming around causing trouble, you must put them somewhere.
So, as I was walking around with the jail staff, I was thinking about how many people it takes to staff a place like that, three shifts a day, seven days a week. I did tour the cell pods, specifically a cell within the pod where a couple of inmates were removed from their daily routine and placed in the laundry room to see how they lived. Their cell was not much larger than a closet. It had a little sink and a toilet, with a bunk bed beside it. There was a tiny television and a little table where two people could sit and play a game or talk. There is little room to walk around and do anything else. And to imagine being in there for more than a few hours would be devastating to a human mind. And there are many cell pods for as far as the eye can see. Each of them has to have at least one officer to maintain the population of that triangular pod. In each pod is a shower, a rec room, and a place where they can make phone calls to the outside world or receive visitors, all of which must be monitored by jail staff. One thing that surprised me, and I was curious about, was the recreational areas attached to the jail pod. They have a little screen window that allows fresh air into a half-court basketball court. But there isn’t any accurate indicator as to the outside world. An inmate could go for a long time without seeing if the sun was out or the day was sunny.
Touring the jail, you could feel the hatred of the inmates. They see you coming and going, but they have lost that freedom and hate you for it. While I was touring, the inmates were placed in their cells, and they gazed out at the inspection with ruthless hunger. It’s hard not to feel sorry for them, for everyone, even the jail employees. It’s a rough job, but yes, somebody has to do it, and for the staff there, everyone I talked to, it takes a unique person even to want to do a job like that. It’s not like they can call off work. Somebody has to be there to deal with so many inmates, who are always just a fringe moment away from chaos and mayhem. It does help that Sheriff Jones has such a big personality because it does take that to pull all those elements together. Human beings and emotions can be messy, but intent goes a long way. And to run the Butler County Jail and the criminal justice system so that ordinary people, the rest of the 400,000 people of Butler County who expect to roam about freely without impediment, without the Butler County Jail and a system of prosecution, there is no mechanism to have a free society. If anything, the jail should be more prominent and have more employees because running a place like that takes a lot of time to hold so many people who have fallen off the rocker in society. I spent a lot of time talking to the guards and getting my mind into their shoes, and I appreciate their work. It takes money and personality to bring attention to these things. I would like to see a lot more people going to jail. But you can’t put everyone there. And I’m glad people who want to do it work at the jail. It’s essential work that is taken for granted all too often.
Rich Hoffman
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