CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County’s troubled jail is about to get a new leader. On Friday, a county spokesperson confirmed that Greg Croucher has been hired to fill the jail’s vacant warden position.
According to his resume, Croucher has 19 years of corrections experience and currently works as a jail inspector for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
Croucher is expected to start his new job August 5, and there’s plenty of work to do.
He’ll take over day-to-day operations of a jail that U.S. Marshal’s inspectors called one of the worst they’ve ever seen. Last fall in a scathing report, those inspectors described conditions inside the jail as “inhumane.”
The county’s jail has dealt with chronic overcrowding and nine inmates have died in the last 13 months.
The jail’s former warden, Eric Ivey, was demoted in February after the county’s inspector general found Ivey violated the county’s nepotism policy.
Then, in April, Ivey was indicted for tampering with evidence after investigators say he ordered a jailer to turn off his body camera during the death of an inmate last year. Ivey is also charged with lying to investigators about that incident. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Croucher will make $95,014.40 a year according to the county. According to his resume, Croucher currently earns $66,000 annually in Minnesota.
