Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

For those on the political left, opposition to the jail plan sometimes took different forms than the reasons advanced by the right:  progressives maintained the first priority was getting people out of jail who should not be there in the first place.  While the campaign rhetoric from the right—claiming, sometimes, a need for more jail beds and not “nicer” jail beds—may have seemed to undermine the progressive objection, the failure of Issue 27 has now forced the issue upon the Hamilton County Commission.  And it looks like they are implementing some new concepts that will finally get the important work started of cleaning up the process problems that clog our jails with people who don’t need incarceration.

Commissioner David Pepper, who chairs the Structure and Process sub-committee of the Criminal Justice Commission, has released some new, low-and-no-cost plans which can address the problem of unnecessary imprisonment.

“The debate about the jail is over,” explains Pepper.  “There will be no tax.  There will be no new jail.  We will no longer have Butler County at the end of the year.  We are going to have to find new solutions.”

In many ways, perhaps newly proposed measures by the sub-committee will be more receptive in the post-election environment.  Since Hamilton County, as a whole, tends to vote conservative (with a hard-line towards “criminals” ), measures which could be conceived as “loosening” penalties might have been unpopular just a month ago.  But now, faced with budget shortfalls and shrinking jail space, everyone can agree that it is time to re-evaluate our current criminal justice practices.

What are some of the big “front-burner” issues identified by Pepper’s sub-committee? 

“Old warrants are clogging up the system, and most of them are ultimately dismissed,” explains Pepper.  Eliminating this symptom could ease the problem of incarcerating people who are not a real threat.  Pepper also identifies treatment in lieu of conviction as an underutilized option.  “This is a judicial order that is rarely used, but it could help deal with the overcrowding.”

Pepper’s committee also identifies the “Separation of Charges” as a big issue.

“Court and jail time and resources are being wasted because cases are being jointly pursued at both the common pleas and municipal court level,” explains Pepper.  If one person has two charges, why not deal with them at the same time?  This inefficiency clogs our justice system unnecessarily.

The committee has also targeted “holds” as an area in need of further study.  This is when people are arrested in Hamilton County, and they get held because another jurisdiction wants them.  “We need to get our arms around ‘holds’ in the system, and their impact on the overcrowding,” said Pepper.  “They may be taking up numerous jail beds unnecessarily.”

One idea that has gotten some press attention recently is the idea of charging jurisdictions for local ordinances.  Would the Cincinnati prosecutors, for example, take such a hard line on pursuing convictions if the City’s shrinking budget could not afford to fund the expenditure?  Would that force City prosecutors to stop towing such a hard line, arguably for no other reason than to beef up their resumes?

The committee still has work to be done, which will be easier once the results from the Vera Institute come in December.  How many people, for example, get arrested due to “homeless crimes”?  Do we have homeless people in jail for public urination?  Could other out-of-the-box concepts address these problems (like port-o-lets made available in areas with high incidences of such arrests)?

The next few months could be big for Hamilton County in terms of fixing a broken justice system that puts more people behind bars than need to be there.

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