By Andrew Keiper
Kent State-Ohio News Connection

Across Ohio, opioid addiction and pretrial detention stemming from unaffordable bonds have led to a dangerous jail overcrowding problem, advocates and corrections officials say.

An analysis of 83 inspections of county-operated jails found that 34 percent were overpopulated in 2016. More than a dozen jails were within ten inmates of being over capacity. The overcrowding problem plagues both urban jails, such as the Hamilton Justice Center near Cincinnati, and rural ones, including Allen County Jail near the northwestern Indiana border. Male and female populations are similarly affected.

Opioids are often blamed for the large-share flood of low-level offenders in county jails, but they’re certainly not the only cause.

“Part of the problem is that individuals who are addicted often lose their jobs, therefore they have no money to pay the bail or bond and lay in jail until their court date,” said Robert Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association.

An overcrowded facility can lead to a number of dangers for inmates, both mentally and physically.

Stephen JohnsonGrove, deputy director for policy at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, said inmates are at increased risk for mental or physical health crises.

At Hamilton County Justice Center, JohnsonGrove said inmates are sometimes relegated to sleeping in curved plastic “boats” in hallways when overcrowding reaches critical capacity.

“We have to look at and see the misuse of the criminal justice system,” JohnsonGrove said. “We have to see if we are misusing a hammer to drive a screw or a sledgehammer where we need a scalpel. So many social problems have been defined as criminal justice problems instead of being treated as a health problem or a community-social wellness problem.”

Solutions, too, are as myriad as the problems; Cornwell says there is no single answer.

“Well the solution to the problem, I’m not sure of, but part of it would be a long-term treatment program to allow the individuals to withdrawal from their addiction and then moving them towards some type of meaningful employment,” he said.

His organization has also been working with Ohio lawmakers to find a bipartisan answer to jail overcrowding.

“[We] are working with the Ohio legislature, in trying to look at the potential for bail/bond reform and what that may or may not look like,” Cornwell said. “And it has to be coordinated with the judicial branch to ensure that they are satisfied that the individuals will return and go to court.”

A policy reform, however, isn’t the only fix in Cornwell’s eyes. He sees jail overcrowding primarily as a product of the opioid epidemic – which he said warrants state and federal investment into long-term treatment centers.

Advocates like JohnsonGrove are also shouldering the task of finding a solution, although in a different manner. He similarly sees legislation prompting bail reform as a potential solution, but his organization is pushing a ballot initiative for 2018 – something Cornwell said is shortsighted.

“All problems can’t be solved by making constitutional amendments, and people who think that are misguided,” Cornwell said. “This has to be a legislative action. It can’t be an action done by a change in the constitution.”

Two counties are taking matters into their own hands to find solutions – one through the court system, the other through corrections.

Ken Mills, the director of regional jail services at Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, has helped pioneer a plethora of programs to help inmates attain GED’s, job skills and even health care.

“We’re trying to address all the issues to best set these individuals up when they leave here from coming back again, to prepare them to get into society and be successful,” Mills said. “Building bigger jails isn’t the solution.”

Mills, with the support of the county executive, sends inmates to the Euclid Jail Annex for six months of career and skills training. The program began in 2016, and he said there are plans to expand it to a third location to help incorporate the female population and additional programs like welding. He said there has been about an 80 percent success rate for individuals who have been through the entire program.

The CCCC facility was overpopulated by 368 prisoners when inspected in 2016, although Mills said the layout and million square feet of the jail help mitigate some of the issues.

Judge Becky Doherty is taking a different approach to helping defendants beat their addictions: through incarceration. She presides over the Portage County drug court and routinely uses high bail and temporary incarceration to help defendants detox.

“It’s not always the answer, but if I have someone who is routinely using while they’re out on bond, or while they’re on probation, taking them into custody sometimes is the only thing that’s going to stop them in their tracks and keep them out of a dangerous situation,” Doherty said.

Although the Portage County Justice Center was under capacity by three inmates in 2016, she said a few inmates a day can push the facility over the edge. Portage County, she said, is desperately in need of an outpatient drug treatment center, which would drastically reduce the jail population.

At the end of the day, the well-being and future success of inmates and addicts is at the heart of any debate about overpopulation.

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded by the George Gund Foundation.


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President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have promised to pass a new tax bill, and a new report breaks down the expected winners and losers.

Joe Hughes, senior policy analyst with the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says based on Trump's campaign proposals, the top one percent - those making more than $900,000 a year - will see their tax bill go down by more than $36,000, on average.

"The top 5% of households make more than $360,000 a year. They will likely see their taxes go down. For the other 95% of Americans, they will likely see their taxes go up," he said.

Hughes added that Americans earning between $55,000 and $94,000 a year would have to pay over $1,500 more in taxes. The combined increases would further shift the tax burden - to pay for bridges, schools, health care and highways from corporations and higher-income individuals to low- and middle-income families. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that increasing tariffs on foreign goods would cover revenues lost due to tax cuts.

Hughes says because companies pass the costs of tariffs along to consumers, Americans will also be hit with what is essentially a national sales tax. He added the incoming administration's proposals, if enacted, could increase the national debt by as much as $15 trillion over the next decade.

"The proposals to increase tariffs are not going to raise enough revenue to offset the tax cuts that he's proposed to give to high-income individuals and to corporations," Hughes continued.

Trump has called the election results a mandate for his policies. But Hughes noted a strong majority of Americans support a tax code that's fair, one that asks those who can afford it to contribute more. They don't think billionaires such as Elon Musk should pay less than working families.

"Most Americans, even a majority of Republicans, support higher income taxes on the wealthy and on corporations," he said. "So, there is some disconnect here between the candidate that they voted for and the policies that actually poll well with voters."


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Montana citizens and environmental advocates have sued the state for withholding documents that have, for decades, been considered public information.

The division that provides bill drafting and other support to the Montana Legislature has announced a new policy that requires a legislator's approval before releasing documents to the public.

That includes all the correspondence and communication that goes into drafting a bill, including lawmakers conferring with lobbyists and other legislators.

Upper Seven Law's Founder Rylee Sommers-Flanagan said Montana's Constitution protects residents' right to know about and participate in the legislative process.

"The right to know is meant to protect our ability to examine the documents of any public agency," said Sommers-Flanagan. "This includes all Executive Branch agencies. It includes all aspects of the Legislature. Anything that relates to their official business belongs to the people of Montana."

A Helena judge over the summer ruled that correspondence used to draft bills - so called "junque files" - are not public record, reversing a 25-year-old policy.

Sommers-Flanagan argued the move undermines transparency, which she said has been the backbone of Montana's lawmaking process, and calls into question interactions between lawmakers and lobbyists who often work together to create a bill.

"We could literally be deprived of opportunity to see bribery happening in writing," said Sommers-Flanagan. "And, of course, I doubt that our legislators are engaged in bribery - but what this does is, it protects them fully from any sort of disclosure around what they might be exchanging."

The rule was implemented when a district court ruled in favor of a state senator who argued that junque files related to a gerrymandering law should not be made public.




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The state Supreme Court has upheld a law giving Nebraskans with prior felony convictions the right to vote once they have completed their sentence.

Proponents of the measure are calling it a hard-fought victory to restore full rights to citizens who have paid their debt to society.

State lawmakers challenged a clause in the state's 1875 constitution disenfranchising people with felony convictions for life.

Steve Smith, director of communications with the group Civic Nebraska, said the ruling ends a decades-long legal battle.

"Had the court ruled the underlying statute is unconstitutional, those folks would have been out of luck," said Smith. "And so, the stakes were pretty high. In a state the size of Nebraska, that's close to 10% of the electorate. It's about 100,000 voters."

Smith said eligible people must register in person by 6 p.m. on Oct. 25 at their county's local elections office.

Smith said the ruling negates an order by the secretary of state blocking county officials from registering former felons despite a bipartisan bill that eliminated a two year waiting period for people with convictions.

He said the requirements to register have been simplified.

"It is fully completing your sentence. And so, the term is 'off-papers,'" said Smith. "And most folks who have been justice-impacted understand what off-papers mean. They've served any term of incarceration. They have completed any terms of parole, probation or supervised release, and they have not reoffended."

Smith said his organization and other are urging people who are now eligible to register and to vote, calling it both a civil right and a civic duty.

"For those of you going, 'I don't know if I want to do this,' know that the Supreme Court, the highest court in our state, has said, 'You are good to go, and you should vote with confidence,'" said Smith. "If you're on the fence about not voting, think about how hard some people tried to keep your vote away from you, and then wonder why that is."

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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