Ohio
Implementing the Strategy
| October 11, 2011: Congressional Staff Briefing on Justice Reinvestment in Ohio and North Carolina. |
Ohio’s criminal justice system faced pressures that, in 2008, led a bipartisan group including the governor, chief justice, and legislative leaders to employ a justice reinvestment approach. With nearly 51,000 people locked up on any given day, the prisons were 33 percent over capacity. The state projected that the system would grow by another 3,000 people by 2015. Much of that could be traced to people convicted of property and drug offenses, who received short sentences and were subsequently released from prison with no supervision.
Outside the prison walls, Ohio’s probation system-a patchwork of 187 independent agencies-had no consistent policies or minimum standards from one county to the next. No statewide probation data system existed. For example, it was not clear on any given day how many people in Ohio were on probation. The significant investment made by the state in community corrections programs was yielding little. Research conducted by the University of Cincinnati showed that some programs were increasing recidivism rates, because no criteria were used to filter out those participants who would not benefit from the intensive programs.
—Ohio Governor John Kasich
Over the course of 18 months, a bipartisan, inter-branch working group reviewed exhaustive analyses prepared by the CSG Justice Center, and, drawing on that information, designed a 13-point policy framework, which the group recommended to the General Assembly. The framework addressed three core issues. One set of provisions required first-time property and drug offenders to serve probation terms and attend treatment. A second set of provisions established statewide criteria for community correction programs, prioritizing placement of people who would benefit most from community supervision and treatment. The legislation also established statewide standards for probation, to ensure an even quality in community supervision from county to county.
The framework, along with a number of other policies championed by state lawmakers, was consolidated into one bill, House Bill 86, of which Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) was the lead sponsor. HB 86 incorporated legislative language that had been introduced before the justice reinvestment initiative was launched, which expanded earned credit provisions and made some reforms to the juvenile justice system.
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| Governor John Kasich holding Ohio’s Justice Reinvestment legislation |
The Ohio General Assembly approved the legislation with sweeping bipartisan majorities-30 to 3 in the Senate and 96 to 2 in the House. Governor John Kasich signed the bill into law on June 29. It is estimated that the new law will enable the state to avert all growth that had been projected in Ohio’s prison population through 2015, thereby helping the state avoid an estimated half-billion dollars in spending. In addition, the new statute will ease prison crowding as the population gradually declines to levels last seen in 2007, generating $46 million in savings by 2015. Most important, however, are the enhancements the law makes to public safety. Through the adoption of a common set of risk assessment instruments across the state’s criminal justice system, community supervision and treatment resources will be consistently targeted toward offenders who need them the most. The state will also reinvest $20 million over four years to improve felony probation supervision by providing incentive funding for agencies who reduce recidivism.