Advocacy

Save Lives and Save Money!
Help People Leaving Jail Get the Treatment They Need to Stay Out for Good

Every day in Ohio, people leave jail without help or hope. Many are uninsured, unemployed, and struggling with substance abuse or mental illness. Without access to the help they need, they often end up right back behind bars.

Helping people enroll in Medicaid when they leave jail will save lives and taxpayer dollars. That’s why we’re calling on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) to require jails to assist those who are leaving with Medicaid enrollment.

Other Medicaid expansion states are working to enroll their jail, probation, and parole populations, and Ohio should do the same. With better access to the physical and mental health care they need, the formerly incarcerated can begin to get healthy, rebuild their lives, and stay out of jail in the future.

Taxpayers will also benefit, because funding treatment and rehabilitation is much less expensive than subsidizing a never-ending cycle of illness and incarceration.

Tell the ODRC to make the smart (and humane) decision by requiring jails to assist those who are leaving with enrollment in Medicaid. We’ve already prepared language to get you started.

Tell Hamilton County to Keep Early Voting in Downtown Cincinnati!

Update: On February 21, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of allowing the deadlocked Hamilton County Board of Elections (BOE) to move their operations to suburban Mount Airy.

Husted’s vote allows the BOE to move early voting from its current downtown location, but leaves unsettled where exactly the new site should be.

Husted continues to urge the board to come to some kind of compromise on where to hold early in-person voting in Hamilton County and the ACLU of Ohio continues to advocate for an early voting site in downtown Cincinnati, where it will best serve all voters.

We still need your help!

Please take a moment to tell the Hamilton County BOE to put politics aside and do what is best for voters.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections (BOE) is considering a plan to move the county’s early voting site from downtown Cincinnati to the suburbs.

This move will reduce access to the polls for many low-income, inner-city voters who rely on public transportation (for more background visit our voting rights issue page).

Please take a moment to tell the BOE to put politics aside and keep early voting downtown, where it will best serve all voters. We’ve already prepared language to get you started.

Stop the Next Botched Execution.
Tell Ohio Governor John Kasich to Act Now.

Update: Amid public outcry, Ohio Governor John Kasich has delayed the March 19 execution of Gregory Lott until November. This temporary reprieve will give officials time to complete a full investigation into the controversial execution of Dennis McGuire.

The Governor’s action proves that our collective voices are powerful. However, Ohio still has five executions scheduled for 2014, possibly using the same flawed drug combination that led to the botched killing of Dennis McGuire.

The ACLU of Ohio will continue to call for an immediate halt to all scheduled executions in Ohio. We will also continue to keep you informed of new opportunities to take action on this important issue.

On Thursday, January, 16, 2014, Ohio conducted its fourth botched execution since 2006, killing death row inmate Dennis McGuire using an experimental drug cocktail that had never before been used in a lethal injection. Witnesses say the drugs left him clenching his fists and gasping for air for over 20 minutes before he finally died.

Tell Ohio Governor John Kasich to stop the next botched execution by putting an immediate halt on all executions.

Ohio’s next execution is scheduled for March 19, 2014, possibly using the same flawed drug combinations that led to this debacle.

The problem is not going away. It is time for the governor to act.

Read the letter from ACLU of Ohio executive director Christine Link and board president Jack Guttenberg to Governor Kasich, calling for a halt on all executions.

Halting future executions is not about Dennis McGuire, his crimes, or those of others awaiting capital punishment on death row. It is about our duty as a society that sits in judgment of those who are convicted of crimes to treat them humanely and ensure their punishment does not violate the Constitution.

It has never been clearer that this system is broken.

Please take a moment to ask the governor to stop future executions in Ohio. We’ve already prepared language to get you started.

Keep the Doors Open for Ohioans with Disabilities

Ever had a door slammed in your face? Not been able to enter a building? That can be daily life for Ohioans with disabilities.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state law require that buildings, sidewalks and other public areas be accessible to Ohioans with disabilities.

But H.B. 333, which has a hearing in the Ohio House Judiciary Committee this week, would make it harder for individuals with disabilities to challenge barriers to access in court. Send a message now to the Committee. Urge them to reject this bill. It only takes a minute.

H.B. 333 radically undercuts current law to favor big businesses with deep pockets over Ohioans with disabilities who struggle for accessibility.

It also violates the spirit of the ADA, which seeks to enable all people to participate in and contribute to our society by removing barriers that unfairly exclude some of us.

Please take action now to protect the rights of Ohioans with disabilities.