By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio prisons would get a big boost from the capital and revamped operating budgets proposed by Gov. John Kasich, including $53.5 million to hire corrections and parole officers and expand community corrections programs.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is also slated to get $130 million for renovations and repairs to state prisons and community corrections facilities.
The $53.5 million operating budget money was outlined yesterday by state Budget Director Tim Keen to the House Finance Committee. Keen said the Kasich budget proposes $14 million in the current fiscal year and $39.5 million in the budget year beginning July 1 to hire corrections officers, parole officers and medical staff. An additional $10.2 million over two years would add 700 community corrections beds to place offenders as alternatives to prison.
Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the money would be used to hire 80 parole officers and support staff, plus 48 employees at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, 28 at the Toledo Correctional Institution and 15 at the Ross Correctional Institution.
All that proposed new spending is in addition to the Smart Ohio Plan announced by the agency yesterday. That involves shifting $10.4 million in existing funds to 29 counties so they can handle additional low-level offenders without sending them to expensive state prisons. In central Ohio, Marion County will get $711,750 and Ross County $250,000 from the Smart Ohio Plan.
Ohio prisons chief Gary Mohr said the idea is to identify sentencing alternatives to prison. “It is a matter of treating people differently by keeping noncompliant, dangerous offenders in secure settings while supporting the successful transition of those committed to turning their lives around.”