January 11, 2015
Toledo Blade urges “No more prisons” for Ohio as it deals with overcrowding issues
This new editorial from The Toledo Blade makes the case for sentencing reform to deal with Ohio’s prison overcrowding problems. Here are excerpts:
Fueled largely by growing numbers of nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders from rural counties, Ohio’s crowded prison system is at a crossroads: The state must either increase capacity or take the far more sensible, humane, safe, and cost-effective route of finding community-based alternatives to incarceration.
Statistical profiles of the state’s incoming inmates underscore the need for change. They show many low-level offenders with short sentences that community sanctions could handle more effectively, at a fraction of the $25,000 a year it costs to lock up each prisoner. Ohio’s prison system costs $1.5 billion a year.
Nearly 45 percent of inmates who go to prison each year in Ohio — almost 9,000 people — serve less than a year. That’s not enough time for them to get involved in meaningful programs that would reduce their chances of returning to prison. Expanding drug courts in Ohio would ensure that more offenders who struggle with addiction were sentenced to treatment instead of prison.
Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, prudently and courageously rules out building more prisons, though he said crowding statewide could force Ohio to reopen a prison camp…. “As a state, we’re going to have to make some policy decisions,” Mr. Mohr told The Blade’s editorial page. “Are we going to invest in brick and mortar, spending $1 billion over the next 20 years to build and run another prison, or are we going to invest in people? … I’m not going to build another prison, not with so many nonviolent people coming into the system.”
The rest of the state should listen to its prison chief. Mr. Mohr recently convened a working group of judges and state politicians to find ways to divert more low-level offenders from prison. He said he would expand halfway houses and other community alternatives to incarceration, and support sentencing reforms that could emerge from the General Assembly this year.
Roughly 30 percent over capacity, Ohio’s prison system holds 50,382 inmates, including 4,049 women. That’s up about 2 percent from August, 2012. The prison population would be far higher if the recidivism rate in Ohio were not at a record low 27.1 percent, compared to nearly 50 percent nationwide. The state could lower that rate even further by starting drug treatment, including medication-assisted treatment, before prisoners are released and continuing that treatment after they go home….
The number of offenders coming from Ohio’s six largest counties, including Lucas, is down, Mr. Mohr said. But a growing number of new prisoners from the rest of the state has more than offset decreases from major urban areas. Ohio’s goal should not be to manage its prison population. It should be to reduce that population significantly, by acting now to expand cost-effective alternatives to incarceration.
Some recent related posts:
- Despite recent reforms, Indiana and Ohio still struggling greatly with prison crowding and costs
- Editorial laments how some part of Ohio are “addicted to prisons”
- Gendered perspective on Ohio’s challenges with opioids and prison growth
January 11, 2015 at 12:30 PM | Permalink
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