Residents urge commissioners to end ICE detainee contract and press for jail oversight; board extends public‑comment time to three minutes
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Summary
Two residents told commissioners they oppose Butler County Sheriff’s contract to hold ICE detainees and urged termination of the agreement and increased oversight of the jail. The board also adopted a change to public‑comment time limits, increasing allotment from two to three minutes effective at that meeting.
Two residents used the public‑comment period to urge the Butler County Board of Commissioners to terminate the sheriff’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to increase oversight of county jail operations.
Anne Jansen, of 218 West Elkton Road, said she obtained the sheriff’s contract with ICE and criticized the absence of an expiration date in the contract: “I can see that there is no end date to this contract. No expiration date,” she said, adding that the lack of a public process made residents “complicit” in what she described as inhumane treatment of detainees and raising liability concerns.
Anne Wengler of Hanover Township said she supported Jansen’s remarks and asked for additional checks and balances on Sheriff Jones and jail practices. “I’m very concerned that there is not some kind of oversight over Sheriff Jones and the jail system that we have in this county,” Wengler said, and expressed worries about families and children affected by immigration enforcement.
Separately during the meeting the board moved to increase the public‑comment time limit from two minutes to three minutes per speaker and said the change would take effect at that meeting. The chair announced commissioners would bring a resolution to formally amend the public‑comment policy at a subsequent meeting.
Discussion only: residents’ remarks were made during the public‑comment period; commissioners did not take formal action on the ICE contract during the meeting. Direction: commissioners agreed to change the public‑comment time allotment to three minutes (effective immediately) and to place a resolution amending the standing policy on a future agenda.