By Troy Pierson
Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Last summer's widespread protests were a call for increased police accountability. Now state legislators are proposing legislation that would require law enforcement to receive emotional-intelligence training to better handle themselves while on duty.

House Bill 362, which Rep. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati, introduced in June, aims to create a multi-step training program that educates officers on how to manage their emotions while dealing with the public.

"This bill is specifically for peace officers' training," Ingram said. "But this kind of training, this kind of awareness of yourself also goes along with everything else that's going on. The pandemic actually exacerbated things that we were talking about when this bill first came to fruition, when we first started talking about it. ... Even more so with our police officers, because they're out in the field every day, but they're people just like the rest of us. They have hardships, they have issues and they have family lives and all those other things that they need to deal with."

The call for increased training stems from recent public concerns on how police perform their duties, which drove citizens across the country to participate in Black Lives Matter protests last summer after the death of George Floyd.

According to the National Institute of Justice, an agency that researches the impact of crime for the U.S. Department of Justice, the stress police face while working can result in serious health complications, such as PTSD. A lack of funding also places departments under stress to provide training for their officers.

"What we keep getting tasked for with law enforcement is to do more and more with less [funding]," said William Balling, the Sidney, Ohio, chief of police. "Right now, law enforcement is in a very dynamic situation for different reasons. It's hard to attract and keep officers [with] the pressures that they're under, with the stress they're under, [and] the dangers they have to go through and the different conditions of the job. It's getting harder to get people in, and when you have that, you're stressing the current officers and the staff to the point that it's a rubber band almost ready to break."

Legislators are seeking advice on how to train law enforcement from leadership professionals such as Jack Slavinksi, who has worked with agencies such as the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police to implement emotional intelligence training programs among their staff.

In a June 2020 editorial in the Columbus Dispatch, FOP/Ohio Labor Council Executive Director Gwen Callender praised Slavinski's training model as a successful means of educating officers to deal with themselves and the public.

"Police officers have tough jobs that are under constant pressure, stress [and] uncertainty . . . so there's this constant pressure in their role, and it's definitely on the increase because of what's going on in our society," Slavinksi said. "So that affects their overall ability to make decisions, to think clearly, to adapt, to use judgment to de-escalate things. So emotional intelligence and the resiliency-building elements of it to deal with stress and adversity and anxiety and all that enables them to better manage their brain functions, so that they're able to maximize their physical processes."

Balling said there needs to be a solid foundation for funding projects such as emotional-intelligence training, so legislators do not have to revisit funding multiple times when appropriating budgets for law enforcement. He recommended using surcharge programs such as Kentucky's Law Enforcement Foundation Program Fund, which states use to generate revenue outside of taxes. Balling says programs such as surcharges can continually bankroll training for officers.

"That money then goes into a fund that's used every single year for training," Balling said, "and then the state could decide what is the training that's needed to help fund the training for all officers across the state. And this would be a fund that wouldn't be dependent on officers writing tickets or arresting people because that always leads to a bad taste in citizens' mouths; but this could be a dedicated fund that's not in the general budget, that is nondependent on a budget year to year to year to be approved, but it's a consistent revenue stream."

While Ingram said there currently are no appropriations in the bill to cover funding for this training, she aims to advocate funding "from every direction possible" so a pilot project can be established.

The bill will be revisited in September when the General Assembly returns to session.

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

An Alabama woman is on a mission to help people who've been incarcerated for decades successfully transition back into society. The mission to support returning citizens started with Kelly Lang's own fight for justice. Her loved one was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole at age 15 in 1994. And after years of advocacy, Lang came face-to-face with the gaps in Alabama's criminal justice system. Determined to make a difference, she co-founded On the Way Home, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people rebuild their lives.

"My loved one's juvenile sentenced, so he has no family, he has no one. I have another couple guys that I know that are incarcerated that have no one, they have no family. They have no one to go home to, they have no one to help them - they have nothing, but they've been in for a long time," Lang said.

Lang added her journey to reduce her loved one's sentence has been fraught with challenges, largely due to Alabama's rigid parole system. Through this struggle, she realized that many people reenter society with no support system and very few resources. On the Way Home was created to help fill that void.

Lang explained the organization plans to offer more than a roof over a person's head after they're released. It will provide psychological support, life skills training and crucial resources to help them transition back into society with dignity and independence.

"Most reentry centers house people, multiple individuals to a room. So, we plan to have their own space - so everybody will have their own room. No one will be in the shared space. We plan to offer counseling services, education services, training services - even basic training services, like cooking, driving, how to fill out applications," Lang continued.

She aid so far with the help of her co-founder, the group has been able to provide welcome-home packages with essentials like toiletries and clothing, easing the financial burden of those starting over. Lang's long-term vision is to build a 'tiny home' village for people who've served their time.

Tennessee's justice system may be getting a makeover, as a forum on Thursday will cover new ideas to modernize it.

The Sycamore Institute event will focus on using data-driven approaches, increased funding and policy changes.

Brian Straessle, executive director of the institute, said they want to provide clarity for people to learn about criminal justice policy in Tennessee. One session, with representatives from the District Attorney General Conference and Administrative Office of the Courts, will discuss criminal justice data reporting in the state.

"Last session in the Legislature, there were a couple of laws passed that required each of those entities to develop some unified case reporting and data reporting tools," Straessle explained. "Because right now, it's hard to get a real good sense of what is happening in the court system across the state of Tennessee."

More than 44,000 people were in state prisons and local jails across Tennessee in 2023. Straessle added the goal of the forum is to provide insights into the approaches groups are taking to implement their plans and identify areas for improvement.

Straessle added the second session will focus on paying for incarceration. He noted during the pandemic, the state saw an increase in crime, which in turn created concern about the capacity of Tennessee prisons.

"The winds have shifted a little bit to more of a 'tough on crime' focus at the state level, and that means, you know, more people behind bars for longer," Straessle pointed out. "There's questions about, what does that mean for Tennessee's jail and prison capacity? And whatever we end up doing, we need to know what that will be and what it's going to cost if we need more capacity."

While pre-pandemic interest in reform was high, rising crime has led to stricter laws. The final session will be a conversation with state lawmakers about public safety and criminal justice policy.


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Researchers have found that higher copays for health care obstruct access to receiving care behind bars, even as prison populations in Mississippi and nationwide face increasing rates of physical and mental health conditions.

One in 10 people with at least one chronic condition in state and federal prisons had not been seen by a clinician since they were incarcerated.

Wanda Bertram, communication strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative, said the copays are often less than $7 but they represent massive barriers to health care.

"If you want to be seen, you have to pay, typically anywhere from $2 to $5, or in the case of Mississippi prisons, $6,," Bertram outlined. "and if you can't pay that, either you can't see the doctor or that becomes a debt that you have to the prison."

The research found medical copays in prisons significantly impede health care access for more than 500,000 people with chronic conditions, from heart or kidney disease, to asthma and hepatitis C.

People in Mississippi prisons are not compensated for the jobs they may have while they are incarcerated, so Bertram pointed out it is up to their families to cover any medical costs. She added some states have dropped their copays for people behind bars. Her group thinks Mississippi should do the same.

"We have been advocating for years for states to abolish these copays," Bertram explained. "And some states are doing this, Nevada, I believe, abolished prison copays, either this year or last year. California has also abolished copays. To force people to pay to see a doctor, you know, causes people to not see doctors when they actually need help."

Bertram added the research revealed alarming gaps in mental health care access for incarcerated individuals. More than one-third of those with diagnosed chronic mental illnesses have not seen any mental health clinicians since entering prison.


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