Linda Spurrier, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Hamilton and helps organize BCIJ, told the Journal-News, “What’s really motivating me here is what’s happening to (immigrant) families ... it’s heartbreaking to me that this is what’s going on.”
About 20 people spoke during the public comment portion of the commissioners meeting, asking commissioners to end the contract.
“The ICE contract has to end,” said Dorothy Joseph of Oxford. “It’s not a question of if killings occur in our Butler County, but when they occur during these ICE actions and tactics.”
Ellen Price of Oxford said she believes the “contractual cooperation with ICE implicates us in a larger system that is as shortsighted and impractical economically, as it is inhumane and cruel morally.”
One man spoke in favor of ICE.
Edward Patrick of West Chester Twp. called Renee Good a “domestic terrorist” and said she “tried to murder an ICE agent.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter spoke after public comment, saying commissioners “do not direct or manage day-to-day operations of independently elected county officials,” which includes Sheriff Richard K. Jones.
“We do not tell other elected officials how to run their offices, and we do not use our administrative authority to make political statements,” she said.
She said the sheriff operates a “modern, state-of-the-art jail that is widely regarded as one of the best in the state of Ohio.”
Three Ohio lawmakers disagree.
Last week, state Reps Christine Cockley, D-Columbus, and Mark Sigrist, D-Grove City, along with state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, wrote a letter to letter to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Annette Chambers-Smith, voicing concerns about the jail.
The officials said their concerns are grounded in “documented evidence of dangerous and deteriorating conditions” discovered during a July 2025 inspection.
Their concerns included overcrowding, noncompliance with food service standards and heating deficiencies.
A full copy of the letter can be found at tinyurl.com/bcjail2026.
Jones, in a response broadcast live via Facebook, referred to the legislators as “the Three Stooges” for their misrepresentation of the jail’s conditions and labeled their three-page letter “the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
He countered that the jail is actually 200 beds under capacity, and not overcrowded as claimed.
Jones said other jails and state prisons also serve the “Warden Burger” and it’s approved by a dietitian.
County Commissioner Don Dixon told Journal-News following the meeting the jail is not at “100% capacity” and the county has an “obligation to house prisoners.”
Dixon also said the commissioners “always” have made certain that there is a public comment forum “whether you are for or against an issue.”
Melanie Stearns, a Lakota Schools teacher who lives in Hamilton, said she joined the protest for the “voiceless.”
“I disagree with what ICE is doing,” she said. “I think it’s a waste of money for the people that are hard-working citizens in Butler County.”
Sterns said she wants people to know that not everybody in Butler County agrees with the ICE contract.
Spurrier said BCIJ will continue to visit commissioners’ meetings and speak against the ICE contract.
“Yes, (the Sheriff) has power, but our voices do, too,” she said.
About the Author
