Greene County has a new jail.
The Greene County Gene Fischer Justice Center will house 508 men and women awaiting trials or serving short sentences.
It’s named after former Sheriff Gene Fischer who died in 2021.
This new complex sits behind the new Popeye's Chicken off U.S. 35 at the entrance to Xenia. It has an upgraded security system, a locker and shower space for staff, an expanded kitchen and a health and dental clinic for inmates. Something Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said will enable staff to better support inmates.
"The people that go into the jail many times have mental health problems, many times they have drug addiction problems, many times they have both of those problems," DeWine said. "This is going to make it much, much easier for the services that need to be delivered to those individuals to be delivered and it's so important because virtually every one of them is coming out and they're coming back out into society."
The sheriff and coroner offices are now housed in the same building. There is also space for seven video courts.
Wednesday afternoon, county and state officials joined for a ribbon cutting ceremony. A $15 million state grant from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections covered some of the more than $75 million cost. DeWine said it was needed.
"Having a jail that's so overcrowded you can't lock someone up that the judge orders locked up, that's a problem and that happens many times in Ohio today with our older jails," DeWine said. "They don't have enough facilities so also the jailers who work in here the deputies need to work in a good environment they need to work in a safe environment. Some of the old jails frankly are not as safe as they should be for the people who work there."
Wachtel & McAnally designed this complex. Danis Construction and Granger Construction companies built it. They broke down this project by the numbers:
- 155,000 masonry bricks were used weighing 504 tons, the weight of 84 elephants.
- 2,728 cubic yards of concrete was poured weighing 365,000 tons, the same as 1.5 Empire State Buildings.
- 1,000,000 feet of low voltage wire was laid, stretching nearly 190 miles, the distance between the new complex and Chicago.
- 13,000 bags of mortar was used, enough to fill half of an Olympic sized pool.
- 217 tons of steel was installed, equal to the weight of roughly 36 Orcas.
- 240,000 total people hours were invested in building the new jail.
According to DeWine, the state is committed to addressing aging jails in other counties as well.
Next spring, Greene County’s adjoining adult detention center will be renovated. This is a second jail housing people who are in "minimum custody" and some who are in "medium custody."
