New Ohio jail standards

 Ohio’s  Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) accepted a set of 180 revised standards proposed by the Department of Corrections for the operation of Ohio jails yesterday --- the first time they’ve been updated since 2003 -- covering everything from meals to emails, according to WLWT.com.

  A Fox 19 article adds that the proposed changes are a result from a 2012 statewide jail survey and assessment. The new standards are expected to go into effect sometime next month, but won’t be enforced until 2015 and each of the state’s 88 sheriff's offices can decide for themselves if they want to enforce the new standards.

  Fox News quoted Clermont County Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg as saying, "You have to meet the minimum standard, you have to come up to the bar, but you can go more than that.” Clermont County is in good shape financially, so they don't need to make a whole lot of changes, he said, (but) "Some of the smaller counties are really hurt and by cutting back on some of this they might be able to trim enough off to keep them out of the hole so to speak.”

  Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones told FOX19 they plan on supporting nearly all of the changes, saying “if you combine the different departments and multiply the savings from multiple cutbacks, the state will save millions, something that benefits taxpayers..”

  While the final version of the rule changes won’t be available for another couple of weeks, draft versions can be accessed on the Ohio Registry here.