The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Ohio’s jail and prison population continues to swell, the ACLU of Ohio says, thanks to “mass incarceration by 1,000 cuts.” The civil rights group’s Statehouse-to-Prison Pipeline report highlights legislation introduced in the previous General Assembly that’s likely to increase the number of people behind bars.
It’s the fifth such report the group has published. ACLU Chief Lobbyist Gary Daniels said over that ten year stretch more than 500 measures expanding incarceration have been filed and 76 of those have become law.
“I started with the ACLU of Ohio back in 1995,” he said. “Our prisons were overcrowded then. Here we are 30 years later, and they remain above capacity.”
According to the report, Ohio’s prisons were built to house roughly 37,000 people, but as of December 2024, there were 45,490 people behind bars, or more than 120% of capacity.
What ‘pipeline’ bills look like
Lawmakers filed nearly 80 proposals in the last General Assembly that create a new criminal offense, enhance the punishment for an existing one, or expand the scope of who can be charged. The ACLU classifies these as pipeline bills.
Of those, the governor signed 14 into law. Daniels explained those measures operate on two tracks — the micro and the macro. But both contribute to mass incarceration.
On the macro side, he pointed to House Bill 230, which after failing last session has returned as House Bill 88. The bill increases drug trafficking penalties with a specific emphasis on fentanyl.
“It’s not a popular bill to oppose,” Daniels acknowledged. “We get that.”
“The legislators are absolutely right and correct to be concerned about and searching for solutions and a way out of this,” he argued. But increasing penalties in 27 areas while adding more mandatory minimums isn’t the right approach with an already overburdened prison system.
At the same time that lawmakers advance wide-ranging sentencing changes they also regularly file narrower knee-jerk-reaction bills.
“Certain issues make the headlines and boom, all of a sudden, you’ve got legislation to address it,” Daniels described.
“In Ohio this most recent legislative session,” Daniels continued, “it was catalytic converter thefts and increasing the penalties for that. It was increasing penalties for retail thefts, assaults on sports officials and referees.”
Scope and stakes
The share of bills filed each session that would increase incarceration is relatively small. In the most recent General Assembly, the 79 pipeline bills represented just 7.5% of the total. The 14 signed into law account for only 1.3%.
But with the added dimension of time, Daniels argued, those proposals pile up, and they have a meaningful impact on prison populations.
When lawmakers see a problem, they often respond by increasing punishments. But understanding how their limited provision on catalytic converters fits into a broader program of mass incarceration isn’t always obvious.
“Term limits are certainly a factor here,” Daniels said.
“They learn this over time,” he explained. “And sometimes you get people who are well positioned to make an impact and really start fundamentally getting this issue, and then they’re right back out of office.”
The consequences of that steady accumulation, Daniels said, show up in the state capital budget.
“You have counties and cities that have been lining up, quite literally at the Statehouse to get new and additional funding to both build new jails and to renovate existing jails,” he explained.
In the last capital budget, lawmakers earmarked $50 million for local jails and more than $250 million for improvements to state prisons.
The ACLU report also highlights some positive moves from lawmakers. One example was legislation reducing the use of driver’s license suspensions as a form of punishment. Another directs state corrections officials to help those preparing for reentry to get documents, like a Social Security card, birth certificate or ID card, they’ll need to get a job.
But even these bright spots are bittersweet.
Lawmakers continue to “address the back end of this problem,” Daniels explained. “What are we doing with people already in prison, in jail, in the criminal legal system instead of looking at, and making those efforts, and turning that focus to can we keep them from getting there in the first place?”
