Pubdate: Sun, 03 Aug 2014
Source: Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (OH)
Copyright: 2014 Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
Contact:  http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3143
Author: Jona Ison

MORE OHIO WOMEN IN PRISON THAN EVER BEFORE

Drug-Related Crimes in Rural Counties Fuel Increase

Last month, Ohio set a record for the number of women behind bars, 
and drugs are to blame, officials said.

State prisons director Gary Mohr said he is alarmed by the increasing 
number of women in prison, which hit an all-time high the week of 
July 7 with 4,160 women, eclipsing the record of 4,132 set the week before.

The population first crested 4,000 in June 2013 and has typically 
remained above that number, regularly changing the record high, 
especially during the past two months. Drug charges in rural counties 
are fueling the increase, he said.

"These ladies are highly drug addicted. ... The majority of these 
folks have crimes with their male counterparts, and they're often not 
the lead folks in this," Mohr said.

Cramped quarters

Although female prisoners are typically less violent than male 
prisoners, Mohr describes the institutions as depressing, crowded and 
concerning.

"I think of their kids. This is not just them. Children of the 
incarcerated are six times more likely to be incarcerated 
themselves," Mohr said.

Some of the children will be born in prison. According to the monthly 
prison report, there are 31 women pregnant and three women with 
babies in the nursery at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

The maximum capacity at the state's three female prisons, located in 
Dayton, Cleveland and Marysville, is 4,266.

Although the overall capacity hasn't been hit, the Northeast 
Reintegration Center in Cleveland was at 160 percent of its capacity, 
according to the July 28 population count. Marysville sat at 77 
percent capacity, and the Dayton Correctional Institution, which was 
double-bunked and transitioned to women in 2012, was at 94 percent capacity.

"The population is ballooning, and the density is getting to a point 
I don't like," Mohr said. "If our job is to reduce recidivism among 
those we touch, just jamming more of these nonviolent folks in here, 
I think, is a real concern."

In 2011, in an effort to reduce prison populations, sentencing reform 
began directing first-time, low-level felony offenders toward 
community programs. Comparing fiscal year 2010, the year before the 
law went into effect, with 2014, there has been a 12 percent drop in 
new incarcerations.

During the past two fiscal years, however, that number has been 
moving back up; there has been a combined 11 percent increase in the 
number of women sent to prison, which, though not wiping out the drop 
attributed to sentencing reform, has counteracted the previous trend.

Although there are fewer offenders going to prison than several years 
ago, fiscal year 2014 saw a 47 percent increase in the number of 
low-level felony offenders committed than the previous year, keeping 
prison populations high.

Couple that with no significant changes in the number of more serious 
offenders with sentences averaging two to six years and you have the 
recipe for total population growth.

Meanwhile, the male population hasn't seen similar growth. Last 
fiscal year, there was a 2 percent decrease in the number of men 
committed, which followed a 2 percent increase.

Addiction fuels increase

The bulk of the charges are drug-related, and the increase has been 
fueled by burglaries and illegal manufacturing of drugs.

Since fiscal year 2003, the number of women sent to prison with 
burglary or attempted burglary as the most serious offense has 
increased 113 percent; the number of women sentenced for making meth 
has increased 1,040 percent.

Although meth-making also has been on the rise for men - there has 
been a 473 percent increase since 2003 - Ohio Judicial Conference 
Director Mark Schweikert said heroin continues to be the primary 
concern statewide.

"This heroin problem is a tremendous problem. I hear it reported from 
judges all over the state, and I don't think it has a preference for 
gender," Schweikert said.

The 99 women Scioto County sent to prison last fiscal year 
constituted the most per capita in the state - 25 per 10,000 women - 
and that total is more than twice the number from year before. The 
majority of charges, 38 percent, were third-degree felonies.

Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini said the increase is no surprise 
as opioids continue to be a huge problem despite the state's focus to 
pump resources into the southern Ohio community touted as being hit 
hardest by the opioid epidemic.

"We're seeing a lot more often females are being used as mules to 
transport narcotics from one location to another or they're present 
during drug sales," Donini said.

Although pain clinics have been replaced by treatment clinics, Donini 
said, the Suboxone used to treat the addiction has become a problem 
and is regularly sold on the street.

"I'm not so sure we've accomplished anything," he said.

Since 2000, Mohr said, there has been a 418 percent increase in the 
number of people sent to prison for addiction to heroin and opioids.

Community answers

Mohr said he believes the answer to the ballooning number of women in 
Ohio's prison is the same as for men: Judges need to be sentencing 
more people to community-based alternatives instead of prison.

"I don't know from a research standpoint or analytically that putting 
people in prison is a nexus to their offense, to getting them better, 
to improving public safety," Mohr said.

In rural counties, choices are fewer when it comes to community 
options, especially inpatient drug treatment, so it's not surprising 
they tend to send more women to prison out of the total female population.

In fiscal year 2014, Fairfield County sent seven out of every 10,000 
women, whereas the state's largest three counties sent between two 
and and four women per 10,000; the state sent five.

The problem communities struggle with, however, is finding funding 
for those resources while the department of correction struggles with 
providing more money for community programs because of the growing population.

"It's like a big ship out in the ocean that's carrying a lot of 
weight - you can't turn right right away. The challenge is: 'How can 
we start to get this population down, which allows us to expand more 
resources to the community?' " Mohr said.
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