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Columbus
Dispatch...
Prisons ‘about to
blow’?
Violence data part of argument for Senate bill
By Alan Johnson
Violent or destructive incidents involving six or more inmates in Ohio
prisons have almost quadrupled in just three years.
Such confrontations occurred an average of once every 28 days in 2007,
but by last year they were breaking out once every 7.6 days.
That’s keeping Gary C. Mohr, the new director of the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction, up at night.
“Seven days a week, I’m watching these things show up on my
Blackberry,” said Mohr, a longtime veteran of Ohio prisons picked by
Gov. John Kasich to return to the department. “This is not the same
system I left eight years ago.”
State Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, also is concerned. “We are sitting
on a tinderbox, and it’s about to blow.”
Seitz and Mohr cited the statistics yesterday in testifying in support
of Senate Bill 10, a major overhaul of Ohio sentencing, parole and
probation law. Backers say the legislation would save the state $78
million over three years, reduce the prison population to 2007 levels
and avoid the need to spend $500 million building prisons.
State prisons now house nearly 51,000 offenders, 33 percent more than
they were designed to hold.
At the same time, budget cuts in recent years have forced staff
reductions, including removing some corrections officers from
cellblocks and dormitories, Mohr said.
Incidents of violence or property destruction, or both, went up
correspondingly, he said.
Seitz said he visited a prison recently where he saw two officers, one
on each of two floors, in charge of a prison dormitory housing nearly
250 offenders.
The legislation is a combination of reform proposals Seitz tried
unsuccessfully to get passed in the last session of the General
Assembly, plus a new “Justice Reinvestment” proposal developed by the
Council of State Governments. The measure has bipartisan support from
officials in all three branches of state government.
Among its many elements, the proposal would provide inmates with the
possibility of receiving an “earned credit” reduction of up to 8
percent of their sentence by successfully completing drug-treatment,
job-training and education programs. It also would increase the
threshold for felony theft charges to $1,000 from $500, provide
nonprison sentencing options for nonviolent offenders and revamp the
probation system statewide.
The legislation has critics, including county prosecutors who say it
violates the principles of the state’s 1996 “truth-in-sentencing” law.
State Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, chairman of the Senate
Judiciary-Criminal Justice Committee that is hearing the bill, also has
a lot of questions.
Yesterday, the Chesterland Republican challenged the idea of diverting
low-level felony offenders from prison, or reducing the sentences of
those incarcerated.
“Today’s low-level offender is tomorrow’s violent offender,” he said.
The committee also heard testimony from the sponsor of Senate Bill 17,
which would allow those with concealed-carry gun permits to bring their
weapons into restaurants and bars - as long as they aren’t drinking.
Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, said Ohio is one of six states out of
48 that issue concealed-carry permits where gun owners cannot take
their weapons into bars and restaurants.
He said his bill “does not allow a concealed-carry holder to consume
alcohol while carrying” and “will not change current law that prohibits
a person from possessing a firearm while under the influence of drugs
or alcohol.”
Earlier yesterday, a House committee heard supportive testimony on a
mostly identical bill.
A similar measure failed to pass in the last General Assembly session,
but this one is considered to have a better chance since Republicans
took over both chambers at the beginning of the year.
Read it at The Columbus Dispatch
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