While Cuyahoga County houses more than 1,400 people each day in its notorious jail, learning who is inside is often a frustrating struggle for those on the outside.
For years, many sheriff’s offices across Ohio have allowed the public to search a website database to discover who is behind bars. They’re often a quick tool for families and friends searching for missing loved ones.
Cuyahoga County is the exception. There is no database for the public to search.
In addition to families, the lack of access affects attorneys, bail bond agent and even police detectives, who say they’ve often waited hours for a jail employee to answer a phone — if the call is answered at all — to learn if someone is in jail.
They’ll all have to continue waiting as Cuyahoga County attempts to build a database, a process that could extend deep into 2025.
Advocates say having immediate access to jail rosters is vital, not only to law enforcement, but to the public. Websites help eliminate uncertainty for families and friends of those behind bars. It’s also a tool used by crime victims seeking assurances that their perpetrator is in custody.
“It’s the most obvious thing they should do,” said William Malachi, who operates transitional housing sites for 50 formerly incarcerated men in Cuyahoga County.
Recently, Malachi spent days trying to locate a man who disappeared from the facility. Malachi and his colleagues scoured East Cleveland streets before finally reaching a corrections officer on the phone. He was assured that the missing man was not in jail.
“Three days later, the man showed up after getting released from jail,” Malachi said. “The employees just tell you anything on the phone.”
But with a few computer keystrokes, anyone can find a person in an Ohio prison and many county jails.
The Medina County Sheriff’s Office added a searchable database in October 2023 because it was receiving an influx of calls each day from the public. Its website provides a person’s booking photo, birth date and arrest date.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office provides a daily PDF roster. It contains a booking photo, birth date, arrest date and the total number of days a person has been in custody.
In Summit County, the sheriff’s office publishes a daily report on its website providing each person’s name, housing unit, race, sex, birth date and their respective criminal charges.
Kelly Pongracz, Summit County’s support services administrator, said the jail has been posting its roster for at least 10 years. The website is updated daily at 6 a.m.
To prevent companies or others from abusing or profiting on booking photos, the county uses smaller-sized images to limit republishing so no one can monetize the faces of people, she said.
The public, Pongracz said, pushed for the database because they wanted to know who is in the jail.
“It’s an accountability measure. It’s about transparency. People want to know where somebody is when they are missing,” Pongracz said.
Ohio’s other large counties like Franklin, Hamilton and Lucas provide the information each day to the public.
But Cuyahoga County is still likely a year away from adding a searchable database to its website.
Chief Deputy Aaron Reese, second-in-command at the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, said he knows firsthand the frustrations of trying to locate someone in jail.
Reese spent years as a homicide leader in the Cleveland Division of Police.
Reese told The Marshall Project - Cleveland and Spectrum News 1 that it has taken him hours to reach someone in the jail. He has also heard similar complaints from prosecutors and the courts.
He said he understands the problems in trying to locate people.
“You know, no one should have to experience that,” Reese said. “You want to call and find out information about a loved one; you shouldn’t have to wait.”
Because the existing system is outdated and a searchable database cannot be added, Reese said, steps are being taken to add public access for jail rosters. The county is in the process of awarding a contract to a vendor to create a new jail management system, Reese said.
Reese hopes the new tool can be in place by next summer, but he cautioned it could take longer.
As Cuyahoga County awaits a new vendor, Reese said officials are also working with The Sheriff App to get the department added to the app available on smartphones.
Numerous sheriff’s offices across Ohio are on the app, which provides daily jail rosters, push notifications, news and information on how to provide money to commissary accounts for incarcerated people. It also allows the public to provide crime tips, Reese said.
The county could get listed on the app sometime in the first quarter of 2025, he added.
“We believe that will be a good stand-in in the meantime,” Reese said. “There’s all kinds of resources and tools we could use this app for.”
Dana Acy, owner of Dana Bail Bonds and Insurance Services, said the lack of a database is also a public safety issue in instances when crime victims can’t find out if a suspect has been released from jail.
“There’s real victims of these crimes,” Acy said. “They should be able to see if this person is in jail or did they get out of jail. I would need to know that for my safety if I was a victim. Public safety is important.”
People of all ages, regardless of their education level, cannot get information from Cuyahoga County, she said.
“We are in the Information Age,” she said. “We should be able to pull it up. This is digital information. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
