CLEVELAND, Ohio – Within his first 100 days in office, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne pledges to lay out a path for a “New Cuyahoga” that achieves key campaign promises and fulfills two core responsibilities that the county has long failed to meet: providing humane detention in the jail and safe housing for children in county custody.
He’s focusing his early actions on efforts meant to immediately fix broken systems to start improving outcomes across safety and justice, health and human services -- predominantly in child protective services – housing, and infrastructure. But that’s not where his dreaming stops. “The early analysis is that, at least in the near term, there’s a probability of a hybrid,” Ronayne toldAs part of that announcement, he said he will also be making recommendations for where a new facility could be built, what it could look like and how it might be funded.
It’s not just the physical jail getting a facelift, in Ronayne’s vision for a new, healthier Cuyahoga. He also aims to overhaul the entire justice system by focusing on upstream solutions to prevent youth and adults from lingering in jail or entering the system altogether. Ronayne did not hint at what role Interim Sheriff Steven Hammett might play in the restructuring but said he would be making a recommendation in coming weeks for who should fill the role permanently.To address what he calls the “crisis of our kids,” Ronayne said he will be building out even more housing capacity to prevent youth from having to stay the night in the county Jane Edna Hunter Social Services office building.a $10.