Sun staff
Drivers in the village of Bethel charged with an infraction, such as operating a vehicle under the influence, and sentenced to jail time will serve their term at the Butler County Jail.
The village council passed the resolution during the May 12 meeting authorizing the village administrator and fiscal officer to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office for the housing of inmates.
“We currently have an issue inside of our mayor’s court that if it is mandatory jail time for a mayor’s court offense, such as OVI — if you’re caught OVI and you’re convicted, it is a three day minimum — the judge traditionally puts them at a recovery center,” Sergeant Steve Teague explained. “If the person refuses to go to that recovery center, our only option is a three day incarceration.”
He added, “Clermont County will not take our mayor’s court warrants for that incarceration. We used to use Brown County, but the Brown County Jail is shut down right now, so we have no place to take our people that need to be incarcerated through our court.”
Bethel sends one or two offenders to jail each year through the mayor’s court, according to Teague.
“The Clermont County Jail traditionally would refuse them because of spacing issues, so someone would show up three days in a row, and every day, they would say, ‘Okay, one day served, see you tomorrow,’” Teague said. “So, they would never serve any of the three days, but on the books they had served, because they would show, and they got the credit.”
The agreement gives Bethel’s magistrate another “tool,” said Mayor Alan Ausman.
“Right now, he doesn’t have a place to put someone if he needs to incarcerate someone, which is state minimums,” Teague explained.
Per the agreement, inmates will be housed at the Butler County Jail for a fee of $70 per day, a cost that Bethel hopes to recuperate through court ordered restitution.
“In theory, as long as they pay their bills, and I’ll say in theory because we know some people don’t, we will get restitution from that person who is incarcerated,” Teague said. “Our actual cost will be reimbursed by them as part of their fines.”
Teague further noted that the agreement only applies to those sentenced through the mayor’s court.
“If we arrested someone on the street or something like that, we will still take them to Clermont County Jail as usual,” he said.