The average annual cost of incarceration in Ohio is $25,000 per prisoner. The state’s prison population is 51,145 and growing with prisons operating at 30 percent over capacity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

To address these issues, the ACLU hosted a panel discussion of reform of the Ohio criminal justice system at Ohio State’s African-American and African Studies Community Extension Center Tuesday.

Stephen JohnsonGrove, a staff attorney of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center in Cincinnati, was one of two panelists for the event. He was joined by Gary Daniels, associate director of the ACLU of Ohio.

“Nearly 50 percent of individuals in Ohio prisons serve less than a year for low-level offences,” Daniels said. “This says that the state of Ohio has not yet made the distinction between imprisoning those who are truly a danger to our society and those who aren’t.

With Ohio spending so much on incarceration, the state’s budget was the first in a litany of issues to be addressed by panelists.

“Ohio is broke and we will still be in a tremendous amount of debt by the start of the next two-year budget cycle,” JohnsonGrove said.

The state’s budget was just part of a larger discussion that focused on Ohio Senate Bill 22. Introduced in February 2009, the bill was cited by panelists as a major reform vehicle for the Ohio criminal justice system.

If passed, it would increase the number of days prisoners can earn each month toward early release, eliminate the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity, eliminate mandatory minimum sentence for many low-level drug crimes, increase diversion programs for low-level drug offenders in lieu of conviction, raise the threshold used in determining penalties in theft-related crimes, and provide diversion programs for child support violators, according to the ACLU of Ohio website.

Since its introduction, Ohio Senate Bill 22 has sat idle. In addition to the bill, the Ohio General Assembly considered adding criminal justice reform to the state budget bill but has taken no further action, according to the website.

“The fact that nothing has been done with this legislation is a travesty,” said Sam Gresham Jr., former president of the Columbus Urban League.

Panelists were critical of democratic legislators, labeling them major opponents of the bill.

“There seems to be this fear of another Willie Horton commercial when election time comes,” Daniels said.

Willie Horton, a convicted murderer, was released as part of a weekend furlough program in Massachusetts and during his release, raped, beat, stabbed and gagged two victims. Michael Dukakis, a democrat, was governor at the time and a supporter of the furlough program. He was later criticized for his support and blamed for Horton’s crimes in a television advertisement during the 1988 presidential campaign.

For some, disproportionate incarceration rates with regard to race and class, and re-entry obstacles for those convicted of crimes, took precedence over other issues addressed by Ohio Senate Bill 22.

“In order for America to live up to the ideals expressed in the country’s most sacrosanct documents — the Bill of Rights,
Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, the mass incarceration of African-Americans is an issue that will have to take center stage in the American body politic,” said Judson L. Jeffries,
Ohio State professor and director of the African Studies Community Extension Center.

Todd Stapleton, a Columbus native, held re-entry obstacles for those convicted of crimes at high level of significance.

“This is an issue that is extremely important to me because I know from personal experience that society continuously punishes individuals who have criminal records,” Stapleton said.

Stapleton, who is the chair of legal redress for the local NAACP branch, is an adamant proponent of Ohio Senate Bill 22 and plans to hold his own panel discussion on criminal justice reform in Ohio.

Despite differing opinions on the most important of the issues, all agreed that none of them will be remedied without pressure from the community. The necessity for citizen involvement was repeatedly reiterated.

Daniels said that it is about more than just coming out to a discussion and then returning home, not paying the issue a second thought. He stressed the need for the community to contact legislators and make their voices heard.

“There is an action component that goes along with this discussion,” Daniels said.

Sponsors of the event included the Ohio Innocence Project and the Ohio Justice and Policy Center.