State Officials Argue that Community Control Sanctions are Cheaper, More Effective than Incarceration

There is a very interesting article that appeared on the website of the Willoughby News-Herald concerning the relative cost and effectiveness of using community control sanctions to punish offenders as opposed to prison. Community control sanctions include supervision by a probation department, community service, restitution, drug treatment, counseling, and other programs designed to reduce recidivism.

According to state officials, 60% of people sent to prison serve less than 12 months. Those prisoners are mostly fourth and fifth degree felonies. In Ohio the maximum sentence for a fourth degree felon is 18 months and for a fifth degree felon it is 12 months.

In 1996 Ohio adopted a new sentencing protocol in which judges who are sentencing fourth and fifth degree felons were to presume that community control sanctions should be applied unless the sentencing judge could make specific findings to overcome that presumption. The 1996 law also mandated that when judges sentenced defendants convicted of first and second degree felonies, there were to presume that such defendants should be sentenced to prison.

From 1998 to 2004, following the application of the 1996 sentencing protocol, the state's prison population declined. However, over the last three years, the state's prison population has begun to increase. In 2008 there were 50,371 inmates incarcerated in Ohio's prisons. If this trend continues, there will be an increase of 11% in Ohio's prison population over the next 10 years. The State projects that it will cost 925 million to accommodate this increase in the state's prison population. The cost would include both new facilities and additional operating costs.

Part of this increase may be due to a Ohio Supreme Court decision. In 2006 the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down the State v. Foster decision. (This decision is found at 109 Ohio St.3d 1, 2006-Ohio-856.) This decision declared unconstitutional certain aspects of the sentencing protocol adopted in 1996. As a result of this decision, Ohio judges no longer had to worry about applying the presumptions in favor of community control sanctions for fourth and fifth degree felonies. Whether this decision led to the increase in the state's prison population is not addressed in the News-Herald article.

The News-Herald article points out that in Lake County, the sheriff's office estimates that it costs $24,220.00 per year to house a prisoner in the jail. It only costs $1500.00 to supervise a defendant who is on probation for one year. The same result was also reported for Geauga County.

What the News-Herald article doesn't address, however, is a comparison of the recidivism rates for fourth and fifth degree felons who are sent to prison as opposed to being put on community control sanctions. Only if that information is know, can a true comparison of the effectiveness of both sentencing schemes be analyzed.

Despite the lack of that information, however, the News-Herald article is well worth the time it takes to read it.

(If you have any questions about Ohio's criminal sentencing laws, send them to judgejameskimbler@yahoo.com. If I can ethically answer them, I will.)