Ohio Issue 1 is a proposed constitutional amendment which would reclassify the lowest-level drug possession offenses, making them misdemeanors instead of felonies. It would do away with prison time for such offenses (except in cases of repeat offenders). It would allow those previously convicted of such low-level offenses to ask a court to reclassify their crime as a misdemeanor (helpful when seeking employment and housing). It would allow many current prisoners to seek sentence reductions up to 25% if they participate in rehabilitation programs. Any cost savings from the reduction in incarceration would be directed toward more drug addiction/treatment programs.
Issue 1 does not legalize drugs. Drug possession for distribution and sale would still be a felony. The state legislature would still be free to deal with opioids, fentanyl, etc. as they wish. There are no "outside special interest groups" looking to profit from passage of the amendment. The only special interest group is the for-profit private prison industry, which opposes Issue 1, and the Ohio GOP which takes their money.
In the past few years, five other states -- California, Connecticut, Utah, Alaska and Oklahoma -- have "de-felonized" certain drug offenses, with positive early results: prison population and expense is down; crime has not increased; drug dealers have not flooded those states (as Mike DeWine claims will occur in Ohio).
The main argument against Issue 1 is that it would remove a "tool" from our drug courts -- using the threat of jail time to compel lesser-felony drug users into treatment programs. (Are prison threats the only thing that works? C'mon!) However, not all arrested drug users appear before a drug court. It takes a prosecutor's recommendation, and bias can come into play. An Ohio Dept. of Corrections 2014 report found that of all those referred to jail diversion programs, 70% were Caucasian, just 27% African American. Also, rules for drug court eligibility vary by county, and not all Ohio counties have a drug court. Proponents of Issue 1 point out that it would add resources to treatment programs and increase access to them over existing levels. Drug courts would still have a role to play and could be effectively reconfigured to deal with repeat offenders and some higher-level offenses.
A new "analysis" from Tim Keen, Ohio's Director of Budget & Management, claims that Issue 1 "could actually increase costs to the state." Please consider the source. Keen is a career Republican political appointee, and Republicans oppose Issue 1. Keen's specious forecast is that prosecutors and judges will ignore the intent of Issue 1 and will over-charge drug possession offenders and imprison them anyway, thereby costing us all more money. Really, Tim?
In the bigger picture relative to Issue 1, Ohio's jails and prisons are over-crowded and expensive to operate. Our prison population is rising, and so is our rate of incarceration. Ohio's prison population is disproportionately African American.
These conditions are not unique to Ohio. The U.S. is
Incarceration Nation, with the single highest rate of imprisonment in the world, higher than Russia and China. It's not that we're the most criminal of countries, we just like to put people in jail. Reducing or eliminating jail time for low-level drug offenders won't solve all our prison problems, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Vote "Yes" on Ohio Issue 1.
(Taking this step via constitutional amendment is perhaps not the ideal method, but there's literally no way our gerrymandered GOP-dominated state legislature would have ever done anything like this if left to their own devices. We must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. "Yes" on Issue 1.)
No comments:
Post a Comment