Chief Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo warns fellow common pleas judges on illegally jailed inmates after 7 recent jail deaths, a current FBI investigation, and a possible federal takeover over the jail that serves Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland....Data show that Blacks in particular, and others, are often jailed illegally by the judges....Community activists want both jail and court reforms via consent decrees monitored by a federal judge.... By Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog
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| Cuyahoga County Presiding and Administrative Judge John Russo |
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Chief Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Russo, via a letter to his judicial colleges, is urging the other 33 judges on the general division bench to clear their dockets of people they have illegally jailed, a demand or gesture in response to an ongoing FBI investigation over seven county jail deaths in the last six months, inhumane and unconstitutional jail conditions, and an impending lawsuit seeking a federal takeover of the jail.
The overcrowded county jail last year merged with the Cleveland jail, which paid the county $5.6 million during the transition and merger period and is now paying the per diem rate.
Whether the largely White common pleas judges, who have jurisdiction separate from Ohio municipal court judges and, according to sources, who are uneasy over the jail controversy and a national eye on Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, are releasing inmates in droves, remains to be seen, and is unlikely, sources say, given their egos and propensity for covering up public corruption with skill.
The administrative and presiding judge since 2013 on the felony court that serves Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, Russo will lose some of his power if a federal court intervenes over the jail, power that even now limits his authority, which he does not have over other judges, though he does hand pick judges for some cases.
At one time he could decide if municipal court judges in the county were relieved from cases for conflict or bias as presiding judge over the county's common pleas court, but the state legislature, in 2014, amended the state law and that authority now rests with the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, currently Maureen O'Connor, a Republican and former lieutenant governor from Lyndhurst, a city in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold and the state's second largest county that is roughly 29 percent Black.
Elected chief judge by an annual majority vote of his judicial peers, only two of them Black, with Deborah Turner, also Black, joining the common pleas bench next year, Russo does their bidding in conflicts with jail administrators, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who is also under fire, and the 11-member Cuyahoga County Council, among others.
He is good at handling the mainstream media when the judges are under scrutiny.
The city of Cleveland is currently under a court monitored consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice over its police department and questionable killings by police of Black people, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, who were gunned down by police shooting 137 bullets in 2012, Tanisha Anderson, rapper Kenneth Smith, and Brandon Jones, whose family reached a million dollar settlement with the city this week.
What role the federal government will play, other than the federal court itself, in any oversight of the jail, is not clear.
Community activists have been picketing the county jail over its conditions.
They want both jail and court reforms via consent decrees with the federal government that are monitored by a federal judge.
A damning report released last month by U.S. Marshals on county jail conditions generated local and national news, a dreadful look at how inmates are mistreated such as withholding food for punishment, jailing juveniles with adults, rat and roach infested jail facilities, and a paramilitary jail corrections officers unit dubbed "The Men in Black" that intimidates and harasses inmates.
Pregnant women are jailed on the floor, heath care is inadequate, and the jail is one of the worst nationwide, data show. This is coupled with malicious prosecutions, excessive bonds and heightened criminal sentences that disproportionately target the Black community.
Indictment fixing by prosecutors, judges and the office of the county clerk of courts is routine, public records reveal.
Data show that Blacks in particular, and others, are often jailed illegally, sometimes to appease the prosecution, other times for political favors, and generally to perpetrate a money enterprise that centers around resources the county gets for jailing people.
Those fiscal jail resources, which further greed and public corruption, investigators have said, include a per diem rate to the county for each inmate, a jail shopping store that delivers food and other goods weekly to inmates, and expensive phone calls simply for an inmates to talk locally to family members, and sometimes even to their lawyers.
According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Ohio incarcerates roughly 50,440 people at an average cost of $67.84 per inmate per day.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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