Toledo Blade...
The Price of Safety  
October  2,  2011 

A new state law that takes effect today aims to reduce acute overcrowding in Ohio prisons by, among other things, assigning more low-level and nonviolent offenders to community-based corrections programs instead of locking them up. These goals are valid and vital. 

But they will not be achieved if the state stiffs local and county governments on adequate funding of such things as probation agencies and diversion, intervention, and crime-prevention programs. When public safety is at stake, Columbus cannot resort to its standard tactic of solving its budget problems by dumping them on communities. 

State officials had no choice but to address the cost and overpopulation of its prison system. Ohio prisons house about 51,000 inmates, nearly one-third more than their capacity. The state faced a choice of paying costly federal penalties or embarking on a prison construction plan it couldn’t afford. 

The new law is designed to punish the most violent felons and worst repeat offenders with more-severe mandatory sentences. At the same time, it reduces maximum prison terms for many lesser felonies. It also emphasizes treatment and rehabilitation of low-level drug offenders, restitution by first-time property criminals, more discretion in handling juvenile offenders, and tougher supervision of criminals on probation to prevent them from returning to prison. 

The law does other useful things. For example, it makes penalties for possession of rock and powder cocaine the same, as they should be. 

Some judges, in Lucas County and across the state, complain that the new law denies them needed flexibility in sentencing. Advocates insist it gives judges more options in such areas as early release of some inmates. 

More alarmingly, other judges, prosecutors, and lawyers say the law will place new stresses on already overstrained community programs, without enough resources to deal with their new duties. To the contrary, they add, many local governments face further budget cuts.

The state must be ready to share the money it will save in prison costs with local governments. Even lower-level offenders, whether they are released or diverted from prison, need close supervision by probation officers and other community corrections officials. Failure to provide these resources would be a dangerously false economy. 

It’s proper for Ohio to move away from a wasteful lock-’em-all-up mind-set to a more nuanced, balanced approach to public safety. But it would be equally unrealistic to proceed on the belief that effective criminal justice can be delivered on the cheap. 

Properly funded, Ohio’s new sentencing law can do the important things it is intended to do. But if state government refuses to invest in community corrections programs that work, Ohioans will pay a much higher price than can be calculated in dollars and cents. 

Read it at the Toledo Blade