By Laura A. Bischoff
The Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio could save $62 million in the next four years and steer clear of spending $500 million more on prisons if state lawmakers move quickly to change sentencing laws and shore up the probation system, according to a report released Wednesday by the Council of State Governments.
Ohio needs to send first-time, nonviolent offenders to probation and drug and mental health treatment programs; make smarter use of community-based corrections programs; and strengthen the probation system, the report said.
More than 10,000 inmates admitted for low-level offenses spend less than nine months in prison and then are released with little, if any, follow-up supervision. Ohio has a disjointed, duplicative probation system run by 180 agencies keeping track of 250,000 people.
State Sen. Bill Seitz and state Rep. Lou Blessing, both Cincinnati Republicans, are introducing bills that will incorporate the council’s recommendations and reform criminal sentencing laws with the goal of tamping down prison costs and reducing recidivism by 10 percent.
“This is low-hanging fruit and it should have been done a long time ago,” Seitz said.
Ohio, which already locks up nearly 51,000 prisoners, is on course to add 2,871 inmates by 2015. At that level, the state would risk federal court-ordered changes that could cost Ohio dearly, he said.
Seitz’s bill calls for:
- Giving prisoners up to five days a month off their sentences if they participate in treatment or education programs.
- Bumping up the threshold for being charged with felony theft from $500 to $1,000.
- Sending deadbeat parents to community-based programs instead of state prison.
- Making other changes that would shift nonviolent, first-time offenders to less costly punishments.
The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association Executive Director John Murphy said prosecutors’ “main hang-up” is with proposals to give inmates time off for participating in programs.
The prosecutors were the main opposition when Seitz pushed his colleagues unsuccessfully to adopt prison sentencing reforms last legislative session.
Copyright 2011 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.