Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine today announced that his administration is recommending the release of a small proportion of Ohio’s 48,991 prison inmates due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move comes after recent revelations that three guards at Ohio’s Marion Correctional Institution have tested positive for COVID-19. That prison is minimum security and inmates there gather in large groups and sleep as many as 200 to a dorm.
That news intensified criticism from inmate rights activists, who point out that prisons can easily become epicenters of contagion due to the movement of personnel in and out of prison facilities. Some groups are calling for a much wider release of inmates in the state.
DeWine says the state has measures in place to limit contagion, including daily screening of incoming inmates, employees and contractors. Nevertheless, DeWine says, the state is recommending the release of at least a handful of prisoners.
“We’ve started to look at different prisoners who it might make sense to let out early,” DeWine said today. “We are sending today letters to judges around the state and suggesting that they may want to look at these prisoners.”
DeWine said a total of 38 inmates who have not been convicted of violent offenses.
“These are not people who are sex offenders, these are not domestic abusers, they’re not murders,” DeWine said. “We screened out in the process a lot of different people.”
Among the inmates who could see early release are 23 women who are either pregnant or who recently had a child that is with them in prison. Another 15 are inmates over 60 years old who have less than 60 days left on their sentences.
According to DeWine, judges in the communities in which the inmates were convicted would decide whether those inmates will be released.
“No one is saying that taking this many people out of prison is going to open up a lot of space in our prisons. We’re trying to be very careful, very respectful of the local courts, the local victims and public safety,” DeWine said today. “That’s why we set a very strict criteria about who we would even consider. Will we look at additional? Yes, we could look at additional ones. But we want to take this very carefully.”
Some want the state to go much further.
An inmate in the Belmont Correctional Facility filed a complaint in the Ohio Supreme Court against the state March 19 seeking release from the prison, claiming that there was no way to maintain social distancing in the prison.
“Bed areas are so crowded that I am within three feet of at least twelve people and those twelve are in the same position this means that there are 126 people in my ‘dorm’ that are within 3-4 feet of each other,” inmate Derek Lichtenwalter’s complaint reads. “The common areas are overcrowded and what this means is once it gets to the prison it will be spread quickly through the population.”
Lichtenwalter is serving 30 months for leading police on a chase.
The state asked the courts to dismiss Lichtenwalter’s complaint.
Civil rights law firm Friedman & Gilbert today filed with the state an application for a categorical reprieve of Ohio prisoners in light of the COVID-19 crisis. That filing seeks release of non-violent offenders, those with a low risk of re-offending and those whose medical needs make them particularly vulnerable to the virus.
“The State has taken great strides to protect Ohio’s population, but people in Ohio prisons and the surrounding communities remain in grave danger,” Friedman & Gilbert partner Jacqueline Greene said in a statement. “Release of prisoners from Ohio’s prisons is necessary to flatten the curve of the effects of COVID-19 for the entire state.”
The attorneys who filed the application cite Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections data from last year showing that 15,000 inmates have conditions that could make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. They also say that conditions in Ohio’s prisons often don’t allow for proper social distancing and other measures limiting the spread of the virus.
“What we’re hearing from our clients inside Ohio prisons is that, despite efforts from ODRC, the current conditions in prison do not allow for any realistic measures for health and safety,” said Kimberly Kendall Corral, an attorney at Patituce & Associates who helped file the application. “Our clients are afraid and have no means to protect themselves.”
This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2020.
Yay!!! Why not release ALL of these criminals out onto the streets of Cleveland!!!
They will all blend right in with the countless of other daily murders, hijackings, shootings, and burglaries that take place on a daily basis around this crime-ridden city!!!
Time to recall thief Budish out of office now!!!
Fuck off, Wingnut. Go watch some torture porn.
I applied to be a “Crisis Specialist” when the CDC posted job listings in November ’19 in all the cities having a covid surge right now.
I’m over qualified to work at the grocery so I’m waiting on my 1200 UBI credits.
My fiance is at ELKTON FCI right now for drugs!!! He got caught with 2 ounces of cocaine and a hand gun that he had a PERMIT TO CARRY but it JUST wasnt registered under his name and he got 12 fucking years for that!!!! 12 years…..he could of killed someone and got less time…anyhow I PRAY TO GOD THAT THEY WOULD MAYBE LET HIM OUT DUE TO THUS DAM VIRUS……they need to look into cases as my finances and really think about letting those people out!!!!!! I honestly thunk he got FUCKED our laws are so FUCKED up it makes me want to puke!!! Just thought Id comment since NOT EVERYONE IN PRISON IS VIOLENT OR BELONGS IN THERE!!!!!!
Before you all go voting people out of the office over this you need to take a look at the big picture prisons are packed with thousands of inmates the prison guards there have no choice but to interact with these prisoners if you think for one second that these people have any sympathy for the inmates you’re dead wrong start thinking about the COS prison only has so many CEOs you get a prison filled with this Coronavirus whatever Co is on duty is going to get it then they have to step out and set another Co has to relieve their position and then they’re going to get it it’s on avoidable for the CEOs and the interaction with the inmates co’s have families children wives that they could also take it home to it will start being a domino effect to them just like it is the front-line workers and then think about the picture when there’s no cos left then you have the potential for prison riots in which they could take over the prison and there’s a lot of criminals out there doing life that would not turn down a chance to get out then you really do have the murderers out on the streets and bigger problems to worry about they are not letting murderers or violent offenders out in the people that are getting released are not getting an out of jail free card it says it they are being confined to house arrest ankle monitors in which if they break they will be put back right where they came from they are simply trying to lower the prison populations so they can control the people that you and I don’t want out of prison in a better manner and the reasoning of them letting out people 3 months or less of their sentences is because they cannot hold people longer than what they’ve been sentenced to and if this virus breaks out in the prison before they get released and they come home to it that’s putting this the whole city to where they live at risk anybody they come in contact with once again look at the bigger picture