An overdue national debate on failed criminal justice policies has already, over the last five years, driven numerous reforms to lower incarceration rates.
Up to now, however, politicians, criminal justice professionals, and even activists have focused almost exclusively on getting low-level, nonviolent offenders out of prisons, especially those who are addicted and mentally ill.
Those efforts must continue. But significant reductions in Ohio’s prison population, which has increased sixfold in the last 40 years, will also require sentencing changes for those who have committed far more serious offenses.
That debate, while difficult, should be driven by evidence and science — not fear, unchecked emotion, ignorance, and demagoguery. The scientific and sensible idea that people can change should inform ensuing policy changes.
Criminologists argue that people, after 40, tend to age out of crime. Offenders with more serious crimes, who have served years or even decades in prison, have far lower recidivism rates than younger prisoners convicted of less serious offenses.
Discoveries in neuroscience also underscore the brain’s ability to change: New information and experience create new mental maps that alter its chemical and physical connections.
The Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee, created by the General Assembly, is giving the state criminal code its first comprehensive review in two decades. It ought to recommend that legislators enact a 20-year sentencing cap, barring exceptional circumstances, on minimum sentences.
Under the proposed 20-year cap, the state Parole Board could still reject releases for prisoners deemed to pose a threat to public safety. Those rejected for release after serving 20 years should get continuance hearings every two to five years.
In Ohio, such a cap would now affect 8,300 prisoners, including those convicted of murder: 6,500 with life or life-without-parole sentences and another 1,800 inmates with defined sentences greater than 20 years.
If even half of those were released after 20 years, the state would save $100 million a year — maybe more because older prisoners require more costly health care. Ohio could invest those savings in programs that reduce crime, including drug treatment, education, job training, and prisoner re-entry. Communities could hire more police officers.
Older prisoners with serious crimes are often the inmates correctional officers trust most. They live by the prison adage: Do your time. Don’t let your time do you.
Many mentor their peers, raise money for outside causes, and do charitable work such as fixing bikes or making hats for the homeless. Finding meaning and purpose becomes as important as freedom itself.
Some of these prisoners could be an enormous asset to their communities. The Operation Peacemaker program in Richmond, Calif., which cut homicides in half in that city, uses ex-prisoners convicted of violent crimes, some of whom have been pardoned by the governor, to persuade young shooters to put down their guns.
In Detroit, inmates serving life sentences for murder have created a nationally renowned Youth Deterrent program that encourages young offenders, through dialogue and questions, to avoid the traps of street life. In Ohio, inmate lay counselors, many of them lifers, comfort dying prisoners in a hospice program in Columbus.
Giving these inmates a second chance through sentencing caps would require more from everyone. Prisoners who have committed horrible crimes need to acknowledge their debt and do the hard work of personal change. Voters and taxpayers would need to forgive and understand that a single act need not define a person forever.
Ohio’s 27 prisons hold more than 50,000 inmates, 30 percent more than its capacity. Lowering the population to levels not seen since the 1970s will require the Recodification Committee and General Assembly to re-examine length of sentences for serious offenses.
Doing so would not only safely save hundreds of millions of dollars but also unlock the talents and potential for good of hundreds of men and women who have turned their lives around.
First Published April 18, 2016, 4:00 a.m.