By Andrew Keiper
Kent State-Ohio News Connection

Across Ohio, opioid addiction and pretrial detention stemming from unaffordable bonds have led to a dangerous jail overcrowding problem, advocates and corrections officials say.

An analysis of 83 inspections of county-operated jails found that 34 percent were overpopulated in 2016. More than a dozen jails were within ten inmates of being over capacity. The overcrowding problem plagues both urban jails, such as the Hamilton Justice Center near Cincinnati, and rural ones, including Allen County Jail near the northwestern Indiana border. Male and female populations are similarly affected.

Opioids are often blamed for the large-share flood of low-level offenders in county jails, but they’re certainly not the only cause.

“Part of the problem is that individuals who are addicted often lose their jobs, therefore they have no money to pay the bail or bond and lay in jail until their court date,” said Robert Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association.

An overcrowded facility can lead to a number of dangers for inmates, both mentally and physically.

Stephen JohnsonGrove, deputy director for policy at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, said inmates are at increased risk for mental or physical health crises.

At Hamilton County Justice Center, JohnsonGrove said inmates are sometimes relegated to sleeping in curved plastic “boats” in hallways when overcrowding reaches critical capacity.

“We have to look at and see the misuse of the criminal justice system,” JohnsonGrove said. “We have to see if we are misusing a hammer to drive a screw or a sledgehammer where we need a scalpel. So many social problems have been defined as criminal justice problems instead of being treated as a health problem or a community-social wellness problem.”

Solutions, too, are as myriad as the problems; Cornwell says there is no single answer.

“Well the solution to the problem, I’m not sure of, but part of it would be a long-term treatment program to allow the individuals to withdrawal from their addiction and then moving them towards some type of meaningful employment,” he said.

His organization has also been working with Ohio lawmakers to find a bipartisan answer to jail overcrowding.

“[We] are working with the Ohio legislature, in trying to look at the potential for bail/bond reform and what that may or may not look like,” Cornwell said. “And it has to be coordinated with the judicial branch to ensure that they are satisfied that the individuals will return and go to court.”

A policy reform, however, isn’t the only fix in Cornwell’s eyes. He sees jail overcrowding primarily as a product of the opioid epidemic – which he said warrants state and federal investment into long-term treatment centers.

Advocates like JohnsonGrove are also shouldering the task of finding a solution, although in a different manner. He similarly sees legislation prompting bail reform as a potential solution, but his organization is pushing a ballot initiative for 2018 – something Cornwell said is shortsighted.

“All problems can’t be solved by making constitutional amendments, and people who think that are misguided,” Cornwell said. “This has to be a legislative action. It can’t be an action done by a change in the constitution.”

Two counties are taking matters into their own hands to find solutions – one through the court system, the other through corrections.

Ken Mills, the director of regional jail services at Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, has helped pioneer a plethora of programs to help inmates attain GED’s, job skills and even health care.

“We’re trying to address all the issues to best set these individuals up when they leave here from coming back again, to prepare them to get into society and be successful,” Mills said. “Building bigger jails isn’t the solution.”

Mills, with the support of the county executive, sends inmates to the Euclid Jail Annex for six months of career and skills training. The program began in 2016, and he said there are plans to expand it to a third location to help incorporate the female population and additional programs like welding. He said there has been about an 80 percent success rate for individuals who have been through the entire program.

The CCCC facility was overpopulated by 368 prisoners when inspected in 2016, although Mills said the layout and million square feet of the jail help mitigate some of the issues.

Judge Becky Doherty is taking a different approach to helping defendants beat their addictions: through incarceration. She presides over the Portage County drug court and routinely uses high bail and temporary incarceration to help defendants detox.

“It’s not always the answer, but if I have someone who is routinely using while they’re out on bond, or while they’re on probation, taking them into custody sometimes is the only thing that’s going to stop them in their tracks and keep them out of a dangerous situation,” Doherty said.

Although the Portage County Justice Center was under capacity by three inmates in 2016, she said a few inmates a day can push the facility over the edge. Portage County, she said, is desperately in need of an outpatient drug treatment center, which would drastically reduce the jail population.

At the end of the day, the well-being and future success of inmates and addicts is at the heart of any debate about overpopulation.

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded by the George Gund Foundation.


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A New Mexico resident will attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union address tonight as legislation is pending to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The measure was passed in 1990, with money going to residents of the Southwest who were harmed, either from uranium mining or atomic tests in 1945. The original legislation included "downwinders" in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. But New Mexico was left out, despite the state being home to the world's first atomic bomb testing and explosion.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, has made it her life's work to get New Mexico families compensated.

"I've been working for 19 years to bring attention to the negative health effects the people of New Mexico suffered," Cordova explained. "The Trinity bomb was detonated in the middle of our state and adjacent to a bunch of towns where 13,000 people lived in a 50-mile radius."

Cordova was invited to the annual Presidential address by Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. In the coming days, the Senate is scheduled to vote on legislation to reauthorize the act, now scheduled to end in June.

Cordova pointed out the more than 30-year-old compensation program was an admission of guilt on the part of the government but left out many of those harmed. She knows families who have lost relatives to cancer, some within 10 years of the nuclear bomb testing.

"I just hope that people who know I'm present, realize that we will never give up the fight," Cordova asserted. "We will work very hard to get the RECA amendments passed this year, but if by some chance that doesn't happen, we will continue to fight this fight for justice as long as it takes."

This Sunday, the Hollywood blockbuster, Oppenheimer, about the creation of the atomic bomb, is a favorite to win best picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. The film did not address effects to those downwind of the bombing site.


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A new report finds Connecticut's recently released prison population is facing reentry challenges.

The State of Reentry report found resources and services are lacking for formerly incarcerated people. Between 2022 and 2023, 14% of the population said they would be homeless upon release.

It is just the tip of the iceberg as many of the state's Reentry Welcome Centers reported most of their clients were housing unstable.

Scott Wilderman, president and CEO of Career Resources, said it can be attributed to numerous factors including the stigma of being an ex-offender.

"We have to do a better job of educating and working with landlords and try to encourage them to give individuals a second chance," Wilderman contended. "There's no doubt about that. The sad part is, with returning citizens or ex-offenders, there's really no such thing as an ex-offender since everybody always sees the offense."

He thinks Connecticut should focus more on justice reinvestment. Other criminal justice advocates have called for using funds saved by closing prisons to invest in reentry centers. The centers are not funded by the state and have been subsisting on American Rescue Plan funds. When the money expires at the end of the year, it is uncertain how they will be able to help people with life after prison.

Given it is the third year of the report, Wilderman acknowledged there have not been many changes, but he found it surprising, noting there has been plenty of time to make improvements, specifically in areas like education.

"We know education is the great equalizer and having a high school diploma is essential," Wilderman asserted. "It just opens a lot more doors for an individual as it's often a requirement for employment, or in some cases going after further education or job training."

The report noted 66% of incarcerated people with sentences ending in six months said they did not have a high school diploma. Enrollment is down in programs for incarcerated people to complete their degrees. One reason for it is Connecticut's ongoing teacher shortage.


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After a five-year court battle, New Jersey's medical aid-in-dying law has been affirmed by the state's Supreme Court, which rejected an attempt to overturn the statute.

Signed by the governor in 2019, the law was soon challenged by a physician based on religious, personal and constitutional grounds. It allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to get a prescription they can use to end their lives.

Dr. Paul Bryman, a hospice and palliative care physician, is an advocate for medical aid in dying for people who feel their suffering is intolerable.

"I think it's important that that option is available for people who choose to avail themselves of it. It's not for everyone and it's someone's choice whether they want to use that. No one's forced to do it," he explained.

Bryman practices geriatric and internal medicine and believes there are adequate legal safeguards to make sure patients are protected. The law was briefly suspended in August 2019, but reinstated 13 days later as court proceedings continued.

The nonprofit group Compassion & Choices expressed support for the decision as well as expanded and improved end-of-life care options.

Alan Howard, Compassion & Choices attorney, urged the justices to uphold a lower court's ruling.

"We are grateful that the Supreme Court recognized that there are terminally ill New Jersey residents who are counting on this end-of-life care option to bring them peace of mind during this difficult time," said Howard. "Dying people should have this compassionate option to peacefully end their suffering if it becomes unbearable."

Bryman added a total of 186 terminally ill New Jerseyans have used the medical aid-in-dying law and believes the court made the right decision.

"I'm glad that it's finally over and that this law's available for people in New Jersey who have the right to their own health-care decisions," he said.

In addition to New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and nine other states, which represent 22% of all Americans, have authorized medical aid in dying.