The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Nine inmates and one corrections officer died in the 11-day riot in April 1993.
No one predicts another prison riot. But with Ohio’s prison population predicted to hit 70,000 in less than a decade, state officials say they need to figure out how to handle those numbers in a system built for 37,610.

The overcrowding is not just a problem for the convicts – killers and other violent criminals whose comfort is probably low on Ohioans’ priorities.

It matters because:

-- Corrections officers watch more inmates. In 2001, the state’s inmate-to-corrections officer ratio was 5.6 inmates to one officer. Today, it’s 6.6 to one.

-- Rehabilitation programs such as sex offender counseling, anger management and GED classes are stretched and have waiting lists. As a result, some convicts are released – sent home to all 88 counties – with the same problems they arrived with, and are more likely to reoffend. A 2003 study showed 10 percent of those released in 2001 headed to Cincinnati.

-- More crowding leads to more diseases – such as staph infections – and more fights, which can lead to the ultimate nightmare: a full-blown riot. Fights – and use of force by corrections officers – are climbing. Altercations involving four or more inmates climbed 17 percent from 2004 to 2006, going from 223 to 262.

Use of force – verbal or physical – by corrections officers climbed 14 percent, going from 3,660 to 4,190, according to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s annual reports.

“We keep control essentially because the inmates let us keep control,” said Peter Wray, a spokesman for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, a 36,000-member union that includes corrections officers.

“We’re trying to be proactive instead of reactive,” said Tim Shafer, president of the Corrections Assembly, a unit of OCSEA, with 10,108 prison union members. “So we don’t have to react to a situation like 1993 (riots) at Lucasville.”

‘We’re at the max’

Lebanon is a quaint town known for its historic charm, the Golden Lamb Inn and an annual apple festival.But just outside the city are two prisons: Lebanon Correctional Institution and Warren Correctional Institution. Last week, Warren’s inmate count had soared to 1,403, or 176 percent of its designed capacity. Less than a mile away, Lebanon Correctional Institution housed 2,487, or 182 percent of its designed capacity.

The Enquirer visited Warren Correctional Institution this month. Driving As one drives down Ohio 63, just past Traders World, both state prisons rise out of the barren landscape, set far off the road and ringed with fences and razor wire.
Inside, two men are crammed into tiny 75-square-foot cells designed for one. Outfitted with a bunk bed, dresser, toilet and sink, there’s just enough room for an inmate to turn around.

“The prison population is growing so fast, our concern is making sure we can accommodate all the growth,” Warden Wanza Jackson said. “Right now we’re at the max, really.”

Whatever the solutions, they won’t be easy or inexpensive, Ohio prison officials say.
Among the options:

-- Lima Correctional Institution, which was closed by Gov. Bob Taft in 2004 as a cost-cutting measure, could reopen.
-- Sentencing laws could be revamped. Sixty percent of the state’s convicts are held for a year or less, most on low-level felonies, according to prison officials.
Fewer prisoners mean less tax money spent. It costs about $70 a day to house an inmate. At 50,000, that’s $3.5 million a day. If the population climbs, as expected, to 70,000, that daily cost climbs to $4.9 million.

The Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit agency that works for reforms in the Ohio justice system, is closely watching what’s being done about overcrowding, Executive Director David Singleton said. Singleton hopes to see changes in sentencing policies to help reduce the overcrowding. “I think at some point we may have to consider some litigation,” he said. “Obviously it’s not our first choice.” Singleton’s agency successfully sued the state to get increased medical care for inmates.

One reason for the rising population: politicians who continue to pass laws calling for mandatory or longer sentences. Ohio Prisons Director Terry Collins said changes should be targeted at nonviolent offenders. “I’m a firm believer that the state prison system is for those violent, predatory, assaultive individuals who preyed on members of our state, that need to be in the system, and many of them probably need never get out,” Collins said. “But if we’re going to have space for those, we’ve got to get rid of the nonviolent offenders.” Those offenders can be better served in the convicts’ hometowns in local jails, treatment facilities or in other programs, Collins said.

But county lock-ups aren’t necessarily the answer, especially in Hamilton County, where the jail is at capacity. A Hamilton County tax increase that would have generated millions to pay for a new jail and public safety programs – including jail beds and programs for juvenile offenders – failed in the November election.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071222/NEWS01/71222019