Solon Working On Agreement To House Some Twinsburg Prisoners

The Solon Police Department is working on an agreement with the city of Twinsburg to house its prisoners, a move that will add another revenue stream for the Solon jail.

Police Chief Chris Viland said the agreement has been preliminarily approved by Solon's law department. City councils in both cities must first approve of the contract.

The proposed two-year deal says Twinsburg will pay Solon $75 per prisoner per day. A day counts as eight hours. Any prisoner who stays for less than a day will cost Twinsburg $42.50.

Twinsburg Police Chief Chris Noga said he pursuing the contract to potentially house female and special-needs prisoners, such as diabetics, at Solon because its a full-service jail.

"We will continue to operate the Twinsburg City Jail, which is a 12-day facility operated by part-time staff or, in their absence, officers working in our patrol division, to house the majority of our prisoners," Noga wrote in an e-mail.

Viland said he has been pursing "cost-effective" ways to operate the jail since he took over as police chief earlier this year. One way to do that is to increase revenue streams by bringing in more outside prisoners.

Solon already contracts with Shaker Heights, Bentleyville, Woodmere and Orange.

Not many communities have a full-service jail. Others include Euclid and Bedford Heights. Solon's maximum daily jail capacity is 26 prisoners, Viland said.

To see prisoner, revenue and expense data from the jail, check out the , our monthly look at Solon's jail statistics.