Gov. Ted Strickland threatened Monday to close a prison by 2011 if Ohio doesn’t cut the number of people it locks up. Whether he gets what he wants or not, Ohio can count on more criminals on the street if he gets a second term, which would begin in 2011.You read the first sentence right. The Governor is threatening to close a prison – unless we cut the number of prison beds we need, and then we can keep it open.
No one in the mainstream media asked him why he thought that made sense.
Strickland’s threat to close yet another prison is part of a high-stakes game of chicken with the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate. The Senate is strong on law-and-order issues that matter to the folks back home. The Governor wants legislation that diverts more criminals out of prisons and into “community-based” alternatives.
In plain English, those criminals are either going back on the street on probation, or back to your county jail. (A few will probably go to community based correction facilities, which are already operating near capacity.)
The Senate is going to want them to stay in prison. The Governor doesn’t, because he wants the money for Medicaid, Medicare and schools. And so, his gambit: those criminals are leaving prison. Do you want them to leave in an orderly way, or do you want me to just close the prisons?
Not every petty criminal should be in prison. But public safety is the first task of government. All the development and health care and roads and schools in the world are worthless unless we live in a well-ordered, safe society.
We should lock up the people who need to be locked up, not decide how many beds we want to pay for. But we’ve been doing it backwards -- deciding how much we want to spend on prisons first, then deciding which bad guys to let go.
It’s like deciding you’re only going to spend $15 a week on groceries, forcing yourself to skip lunch four days a week – while you’re still paying the cable TV bill.
The crowding problem in Ohio prisons was created by politicians. Ohio has 1330 fewer prison beds today than in 2002, thanks to budget cuts and closure of two prisons by the last administration.
It’s a problem politicians should fix – and it won’t be fixed by closing another prison while the bad guys are still out there committing crimes.
6 comments:
I'm sure there are plenty more people that need locked up, and I'm sure that at least a few that are now incarcerated would be better in alternate programs. Such is life in a fallible justice system.
But I agree that the priority is safety. It seems to me that we're playing a game of chicken when we willy-nilly put people back on the street. How many times have we heard of offenders who repeat or even escalate...and then found out that they were kicked out of prison over budget cuts? This strikes me as a fool's errand.
This stimulus bill has become an excuse to implement an agenda, not to fix the economy. Strickland is already getting 5 billion if it passes as is...and his response is to slash at the justice system??
Dave,
But you beg the question: "Are these guys truly 'bad guys?'"
Did they commit acts of aggression on someones' person or property? Or, are they bad simply because state law says they are bad.
In Ohio, it is illegal to blow a whistle while riding a bike. True. Would you consider someone bad if they committed such a "crime?"
Gee Whiz do you mean to say if we finish and staff the jail as the taxpayers voted to do that would mean we would fill it up with criminals?
Dave responds to Jim Fedako:
Good point -- but no one is in prison in Ohio for blowing a whistle while riding a bicycle. You don't go to prison unless you've committed a felony.
Not all felons have committed a felony worthy of prison -- that's why we have judges set sentencing. Every person who is in prison is there because 1. they committed a felony and 2. an independent judge found that prison was the appropriate sentence.
Felonies are established by the Legislature; prison sentences are meted out by judges. The executive -- the Governor -- doesn't get to decide what offenses warrant prison, and to attempt to do so is to exceed to his power as the head of one of three co-equal and independent branches of government.
Dave,
My point is that laws do not define evil, or even bad.
Example: Most folks in prison are there for drug related offenses. Make drugs legal and these folks are no longer criminals.
So it is the law that is defining bad, not the actions so to speak.
When alcohol was outlawed, regular folks became crimanals because they broke the law. Once the laws were repealed, these folks were no longer criminals. Did they somehow become good with the stroke of a pen? (Think Papa Joe Kennedy)
Mandatory sentences fill the prisons. They restrict what the Judicial Branch is allowed to do. Visit a prison and see all the young people there because of drugs. Also, if you have the money you don't do the time. Reference good lawyers with unlimited money against resource limited courts
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