Bipartisan drug sentencing reform in Ohio thwarted by opposition from prosecutors (and former prosecutors)

As well reported in this local article, headlined "Ohio lawmakers pass one criminal justice measure, but a second, broader bill appears to be dead," a long-running effort to reform drug sentencing in Ohio failed to get completely to the finish line in the state General Assembly.  Here are the details:

The Ohio Senate passed a bill Thursday evening that urges more drug treatment and makes it easier for people to have their criminal records sealed.

But a broader criminal justice reform measure that reclassifies many smaller-level drug possession felonies to misdemeanors and requires addicts get treatment looks like it will die in these final days of the 133rd Ohio General Assembly....

“Barring a miracle, I believe it’s dead,” said the Buckeye Institute’s Greg Lawson. “Everything I’ve heard is it’s not coming to the floor.”

A large coalition that includes dozens of organizations across the ideological spectrum — from the conservative Buckeye Institute and the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity to the progressive American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and Faith in Public Life — was pushing for both bills to pass. Advocates are disappointed that SB 3 appears to have failed....

SB 3 had powerful detractors in prosecutors and judges — including Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor — who felt the bill would strip judges of discretion, would neutralize the tools that drug courts can use to nudge people through rehabilitation, and would remove an incentive to overcome addiction if there was no threat of a felony conviction.

Gov. Mike DeWine, a former Ohio attorney general and county prosecutor, has said he opposed the bill.

What that ignores, argued Micah Derry, AFP Ohio director, is that felonies follow people for the rest of their lives, even when someone does recover from addiction.  These days, with the power of data mining on the Internet, sealing a record may not shut the books on one’s past.  Many companies that specialize in employment background checks can still find past crimes, thanks to capturing and saving data over time.  “There’s not a single county prosecutor who is a person of color,” Derry said. “Not to get too racial about it, but there’s a reason why people of color have the books thrown at them more than other people.”

Earlier on Thursday, Harm Reduction Ohio, the largest distributor of naloxone in the state, reported drug overdose deaths were high in 2020, with many counties reporting records for the year — especially in Central Ohio and the Appalachian part of the state.  Final data for the year isn’t expected until mid-2021 from the Ohio Department of Health.

The crux of SB 3, mandatory treatment for addicts and reclassification of many felonies to misdemeanors, will unlikely be resurrected next year, said ACLU of Ohio’s Chief Lobbyist Gary Daniels. DeWine will still be in office.  So will Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice who hasn’t brought it to a floor vote.

Especially because I know many folks who have worked so very hard for years to advance SB3, it is really disappointing that House Speaker Cupp (a former local prosecutor) would not allow a floor vote even after the bll earned committee approval.  I sense that SB3 would have passed in the Ohio House if given a floor vote, and I suspect Gov DeWine (a former local prosecutor) might have ultimately been convinced to sign the bill or allow it to become law.  Especially because House Speaker Cupp perviously served on the Ohio Supreme Court, I wonder if the consistent SB3 opposition of Chief Justice O'Conner (a former local prosecutor) contributed to his unwillingness to even allow this bill to get a vote.

Among other stories, this sad legislative tale serves as yet another reminder of how hard it will be to even slightly revamp the war on drugs no matter how clear its failures are (as well documented by Harm Reduction Ohio).  SB3 did not decriminalize anything (and I believe it increased sentences for hgh-level trafficking); the bill simply sought to reclassify the lowest level drug-possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.  But after two years of very hard work by effective advocates on both sides of the aisle, prosecutors and former prosecutors were able to keep this modest reform from even getting a full and fair vote in the Ohio General Assembly.  Sigh.