Feb. 2, 2011
Judicial Leaders Participate in Prison Policy Roll-Out
Two Ohio Supreme Court Justices joined representatives from the executive and legislative branches today in unveiling a policy framework designed to avert growth in the prison population and save money.
In 2008, state leaders launched an effort by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center and the state of Ohio to develop a data-driven strategy to reduce spending on corrections while improving public safety in Ohio.
The framework addresses three challenges facing Ohio’s criminal justice system that were identified in July:
Property and drug offenders cycle through a costly “revolving door” by serving short prison sentences and being released to the community with no supervision.
Community correction programs do not have clear criteria, making it difficult for these programs to effectively divert people from prison and reduce crime.
Ohio’s probation system is a patchwork of independent agencies without consistent policies.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, who chairs the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, highlighted the policies relating to the probation system. “About 75 percent of people under the control of Ohio’s criminal justice system are on probation, yet without data or coordination, the effectiveness of supervision at holding offenders accountable is largely unknown,” she said. “This framework has the potential to modernize and strengthen probation and result in cost savings.”
Today’s report estimates that enacting the policy framework would gradually return the prison population to a 2007 level. Doing so would generate more than $62 million in corrections cost savings over the next four years. The report calls for reinvesting $20 million of those savings in grant funding to improve local felony probation supervision and reduce recidivism rates among probationers by 10 percent.
Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said she was pleased that input from judges was included in the process. “Ohio’s investment in a network of community correction programs leads the nation,” she said. “These policies will ensure they target people for whom intensive programming is appropriate and who otherwise would have been sent to prison at substantially higher costs to taxpayers.”
The Justice Reinvestment Initiative is the result of a 2008 request by state leaders to the CSG, Pew Center on the States, and U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance to help develop a statewide policy framework for the corrections system.
A bipartisan work group including state agency directors, legislative leaders, top officials from the court system, and other public sector representatives, was established to guide the intensive technical assistance provided by the CSG Justice Center.
Also on hand at the announcement were Sen. Bill Seitz, who championed a similar corrections proposal in the last General Assembly, House Speaker Pro Tempore Louis Blessing and Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr.
Contact: Chris Davey or Bret Crow at 614.387.9250.