Parts of new $360-million Franklin County jail remain empty nearly 5 months after opening
Hiring difficulties have slowed a consolidation of Franklin County's jails into a new, single location that opened earlier this year, though it's unclear by how much.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office opened its new $360 million James A. Karnes Corrections Center on Fisher Road in Columbus in March. The building was set to become a centralized hub for corrections and aims to do jail differently by providing more in-house comprehensive mental health and addiction services, among other offerings.
But county officials said staffing the new 430,000-square-foot facility with 864 beds has proven to be a challenge in the post-pandemic job market that saw a large number of job resignations as Ohioans searched for better, higher-paying positions.
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Like other industries, Franklin County has struggled to hire as well, county Commissioner John O'Grady said.
"I want this thing to move faster, I want this downtown jail to be torn down," O'Grady said. "It's slowing down everything, but we can't do what we can't do until we get hiring and staffing needs addressed."
The sheriff's office is hiring for both civilian and law enforcement roles, said Geoffrey Stobart chief deputy of corrections for the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Job listings online show full-time positions for a cook and a corrections coordinator with pay starting at $47,652 for each. The county is also looking to hire new sheriff's deputies in corrections with starting pay of $58,406, according to a job posting.
Plans to consolidate the county's jails at the new corrections center are still moving forward despite the shortage of job applicants, Stobart said.
A downtown jail closed after more than 50 years of operation in March when the new corrections center open. A facility on Jackson Pike remains open, though female inmates will be moved to the new Fisher Road center once phase 2 — which will include 426 more beds — is completed in the coming months.
Some housing units in the new corrections center remain empty for now as hiring difficulties persist, and the sheriff's office works out any minor issues that arose after the new building opened.
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Stobart hopes that the new facility will attract more job candidates as word spreads about it and what sets it apart from the county's previous jails.
The new corrections center, which was built in partnership with the National Institute of Corrections, is the opposite of the the former downtown jail, which Stobart said was "dark, damp and had no window in sight." The new center has floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the building and offers customizable housing units and updated state-of-the-art equipment.
"A lot of the things that provide a great benefit to the folks that are incarcerated here — the natural light, the skylights — all of those types of things are also great things for our staff," Stobart said. "We're pretty excited to keep cranking away."
mfilby@dispatch.com
@MaxFilby
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hiring trouble slows plans to consolidate Franklin County jails
