Parole getting harder to come by

Apr. 16, 2012, Port Clinton News Herald

By Jessica Alaimo
CentralOhio.com

Ohio's longest-serving prisoners are finding it increasingly difficult to get out on parole, an opportunity not even afforded most of those sent to prison since 1996.

In 2011, just 7 percent of the 1,918 inmates getting release consideration hearings were paroled. This compares to 20 percent of the 2,121 inmates getting hearings the previous year. In years before that, the number was closer to 50 percent.

The drop in release rates comes as Ohio officials strive to decrease the prison population despite the 1996 sentencing law which ended parole for any future sentence.

Columbus defense attorney Barry Wilford said these are the toughest times he's known to be an inmate facing the board, because the board has gotten tougher. Wilford is also the Public Policy Director for the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

But JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said that after 16 years all the inmates likely to be paroled have been released already, leaving behind 3,200 of the state's worst inmates to cycle through the process again and again.

Read more in the Port Clinton News Herald.

Throwing away ‘throw away the key’

May 8, 2011, Marion Star

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Judge Richard Berens knows there are problems with Ohio’s corrections system and more needs to be done to help ex-prisoners adjust back into society.

But the Fairfield County Common Pleas judge also thinks the people he sends to prison belong there.

State lawmakers have proposed sweeping reforms to Ohio’s corrections system. A comprehensive bill passed the House on a 96-2 vote Wednesday, and it’s been the subject of ongoing Senate committee hearings. Gov. John Kasich supports the measure.

While Berens supports the bill’s efforts to reduce recidivism and boost rehabilitation, he fears some provisions will tie judges’ hands and put more stress on county departments.

The legislation would mean first-time, nonviolent, low-level felony offenders could not be sent to state prison, and instead would get three years probation. The bill also doubles the threshold for felony-level thefts, meaning more would head to the county jail on theft charges.