Sheriff overseeing troubled Ohio county jail to resign

CLEVELAND – A sheriff who oversees a troubled county jail in Cleveland says he plans to resign this summer for personal reasons.

Clifford Pinkney became Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County’s first black sheriff when he was appointed in August 2015. A county spokeswoman says Pinkney’s last day will be Aug. 2.

The jail in the last year has become the subject of investigations, lawsuits and indictments against corrections officers and high-ranking officials, including the jail’s former director and warden.

Pinkney has no publicly listed phone number and couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday.

The U.S. Marshal’s Service issued a report last November calling conditions at the jail “inhumane” and unsafe for inmates and staff.

Eight inmates died between June and December of last year. A ninth died earlier this month.