Clark County Sheriff Pitches New Jail to Commissioners, Admits Criminals Aren’t Held Accountable
BY JEFF SKINNER
SPRINGFIELD - During a presentation to the Springfield City Commissioners meeting, Clark County Sheriff Christopher Clark and Springfield Police Department Chief Allison Elliott were tasked with presenting on what their departments are doing to address the rising cause of gun violence. During the meeting, both Clark and Elliot veered into sales pitching the construction of a new jail, which led to Clark stating currently they are not holding misdemeanor crimes accountable because there is nowhere to currently house them.
During the presentation, both Clark and Elliot thanked each other for their continued partnership before outlining incredibly broad reasons for the increase in gun violence within the city. According to Elliot, the reason gun violence has increased is due to things like ‘increased access to guns and increased youth violence from youth that do not have the emotional tools to de-escalate conflicts.' While many were hoping the presentation would reveal greater information such as where the guns were coming from, especially after Opportunities for Individual Change made their presentation last meeting illustrating they spent $400,000 in federal grants for consulting fees and joint collaboration meetings with the two departments to better understand the issue, answers were left out of the presentation.
Instead, Sheriff Clark and Chief Elliot concluded the presentation by pitching the commissioners on constructing a new jail to the tune of $127 million because, according to Clark, the city is unable to hold misdemeanor crimes accountable due to limited space.
“[The current jail] is rated to house 167, our average daily population today was 192, so we are only housing the worst of the worst. We need to make law enforcement in Clark County Springfield mean something again which means starting early,” Clark said. “If people shoplift there should be penalties for that. The problem we have is if we don't pay attention to the lower level nonviolent felonies or misdemeanors, it builds a resistance almost. It builds someone's confidence in order to do the next step to to do something a little bit worse each time and then before we know it, we're we're we're dealing with violent criminals. So, we need to address the lower level misdemeanors in a way that that uh means something.”
Many across the city have voiced their frustration for months over the lack of accountability the city imposes on misdemeanor crimes from Haitian migrants who would easily be deported if just 3 misdemeanor charges were convicted. Yet the city prosecutors and judges have habitually refused to hold criminals accountable. Below is just an example of habitual misdemeanor charges being dismissed by Clark County Courts and not reported as previous charges or arrests in the system for the same offender.
Should these crimes be convicted, many criminals that Sheriff Clark wants held accountable would be deported, per federal regulations, potentially negating the need for any new taxes on the citizens to cover a jail.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident criminologist Jimmy Steward, inquired on many of the above points, asking where the "gun access" is coming from as well as pointing out that the real issue may lie in failures to convict criminals, leading to a high recidivism rate. According to Clark and Elliot the recidivism rate in Springfield for offenders is around 34.5%, however, according to data Steward has pulled from the city's own websites, the recidivism rate for domestic violence abusers is around 90%.
Steward works closely with the Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition, run by Beth Donahue, who was recently issued a cease and desist order after repeated inquiries into Springfield city government over their lack of transparency in providing crime data and potentially even skewing numbers to FBI reporting. Donahue has been an outspoke critic of the city government and reached out to the administration for comment on allegations the Springfield Police Department and Clark County Sheriff's Office were conducting policy violations, violations of the State of Ohio Code of Ethics for Law Enforcement
Federal and Civil Rights Violations and possible criminal charges. The administration allegedly responded 31 minutes later with a Cease and Desist order threatening criminal charges should she continue to inquire on their conduct.
Mayor Rue made time to give a message to the Haitian community which may see their TPS status revoked next month. Rue ensured the community was made aware that even though the status may be revoked soon, actual enforcement of that may not occur until February 2026.
"I want to take a moment to address the pending action to end TPS in early August with an effective date for those currently in the US of September 2nd," Rue said. "This continues to be a very fluid as different court actions have been initiated which may delay an enforcement action to the TPS termination date to February of 26. As a reminder, ICE has the authority and jurisdiction as granted by the federal government to engage with immigrants and local authorities. Will continue to communicate with the Department of Homeland Security to understand any proposed activities or operations that directly impacts our community. If individuals are seeking general information concerning the matter of immigration, please utilize United Ways 211 call center as they will be able to refer individuals to the appropriate agency or organization. Please do not call 911. Do not call 911 unless it is truly an emergency. Thank you.
