Prisoners Rights

02.19.19

“Why Are Our Prisons So Overcrowded?” Asks Lawmaker As He Votes For Sentence Enhancement Bill

By Emma Keeshin

I wish this was a satirical headline published by The Onion. But it’s something we actually see and hear in the halls of the Statehouse from the officials we Ohioans have elected to represent us.

Because of policy decisions, our state’s incarceration rate has more than quadrupled since 1970.

01.28.19

Cuyahoga County Running an Inhumane Facility – It’s Not the First Time

By Emma Keeshin

Protest photo outside of Cuyahoga County Justice Center – Tuesday, January 8, 2019

You’ve likely seen the headlines: seven people died in the Cuyahoga County jail between June and October 2018, prompting a U.S. Marshals investigation and then, scathing report detailing the shocking conditions people are subjected to at the hands of the County.

02.05.18

Cleveland’s Youth Deserve Justice; Systemic Failures of the Cuyahoga Juvenile Detention Center

By Celina Coming

In September of 2017, Cleveland.com released shocking surveillance footage of officers at Cuyahoga County’s Juvenile Detention Center standing guard as teenagers fought each other. Grainy footage shows a gray industrial common area, adorned in concrete and linoleum, as a burly detention officer enters with two young men.

11.09.17

Death Penalty: A Poster Child

By Celina Coming

Alva E. Campbell Jr. is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. on November 15th at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH. It will be the third execution this year in Ohio, following a moratorium on the death penalty after a severely botched execution took place in 2014.

10.19.17

Rethinking the Concept of “Failure to Appear”

By Celina Coming

Historically, a judge set bail based on a single consideration: whether a person would reappear in court to answer for the alleged crime. It wasn’t until later in the 20^th century that nationwide reforms allowed judges to consider public safety as a reason to deny bail.

06.26.17

Bail Reform Key to Solving Jail Overcrowding

By James Kosmatka

“On Wednesday, June 14^th, Sheriff Jim Neil declared a state of emergency at the Hamilton County Justice Center due to jail overcrowding. The ACLU of Ohio has taken bail reform head on, and it is rapidly becoming one of our main criminal justice focus areas.

03.28.17

Ohio (and the Nation) Should Cut Ties with Prisons for Profit

By James Kosmatka

The ACLU of Ohio has been fighting “prisons for profit” for years. The trend to privatize prisons as a method to reduce costs has been ineffective, and only contributes to the surging rates of mass incarceration, with Ohio prisons at 130% of capacity.

12.16.16

Truth in Sentencing

By James Kosmatka

Sentenced to ten years, out in two. Outrageous!

And false.

The myth that prisoners serve small fractions of sentences is one of the most destructive falsehoods driving the tragedy of mass incarceration. In Ohio and elsewhere, the use of parole and probation has shrunk to levels that can only be described as harmful to us all.

08.23.16

The DOJ Is Ending Its Use of Private Prisons: But What About Ohio?

By Steve David

Last week, the Department of Justice announced an end to using private prisons to hold federal prisoners. This decision followed a scathing report which highlighted that private prisons are less safe, provide less services and programs, and do not substantially save on costs.

07.08.16

Locked Down, Locked Away: What’s It Like Being Released from Solitary Confinement?

By Adrienne Gavula

Mr. Kenyatta is a prisoner rights activist and businessman who was released from prison 13 years ago. He spent time in solitary confinement at both of Ohio’s maximum-security prisons and was part of the ACLU lawsuit, Austin v Wilkinson, which drastically changed prisoner classification in Ohio to ensure more humane living conditions.

06.17.16

Orange is the New Black Tackles Prisons For Profit

By Dan Rogan

Orange is the New Black – the binge-worthy, Peabody Award Winning, Netflix series – returns with Season 4 on June 17. Last season, the fictional Litchfield Correctional Facility faced closing its doors due to lack of funding and is soon after taken over by a private prison corporation.

06.08.16

A Family Surviving Solitary Confinement

By Adrienne Gavula

This post is part of the joint report between Disability Rights Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio – “Shining a Light on Solitary Confinement: Why Ohio Needs Reform.” Take action to reform solitary confinement in Ohio.

Justin committed a crime. He was found guilty of aggravated murder and robbery, along with two others.

02.03.16

“Prison for Profit” ACLU of Ohio Documentary Wins 2nd Award

By Steve David

The ACLU of Ohio’s groundbreaking film “Prisons for Profit” has been recognized as one of the top documentaries in 2015 by an international audience.

Most recently, the film has been selected as the Silver Award Winner in the 2015 Spotlight Documentary Film Awards.

12.11.15

Ending De Facto Debtors’ Prisons in the United States

By Shakyra Diaz

This piece is also featured by the Vera Institute.

John and Sam were trapped in a vicious cycle of incarceration. When money was scarce, John would make Sam’s court payment instead of his own so she could stay out of jail and care for their child.

12.04.15

A Call for Justice: ACLU of Ohio’s Pay-to-Stay Press Conference

By Dan Rogan

On Monday, November 9^th, 2015 the ACLU of Ohio held a press conference to launch its newest and powerful report, In Jail & In Debt: Ohio’s Pay-to-Stay Fees.

Senior Policy Director Mike Brickner spoke briefly to the media about what these fees are and their negative and lasting impact.

11.09.15

Pay-to-Stay Jail Fees: The Newest Way People Are Profiting Off Mass Incarceration

By Mike Brickner

It is already incredibly difficult for people leaving prison and jail to succeed on the outside. They must contend with criminal records that follow them at every turn. It prevents them from getting certain jobs, or even living in certain apartment buildings.

11.06.15

A Call for Justice: Piper Kerman at the 2015 Ed Likover Memorial Lecture

By Dan Rogan

“We must talk seriously about criminal justice reform because of how close it is connected to racial justice,” said Piper Kerman, discussing the intrinsic relationship between the two issues. Piper’s words struck a chord over 300 attendees at this year’s Ed Likover Memorial Lecture.

10.16.15

The Harsh Realities of Prison, Through the Lens of Piper Kerman, Author of Orange is the New Black

By Dan Rogan

Prison is not the easiest topic to make entertaining, but The Washington Post called “Orange is the New Black” “the best TV show about prison ever made.” Of course “Orange is the New Black” is not all entertainment, and not entirely fiction.

09.14.15

“Orange is the New Black” Author to Speak at Upcoming Ed Likover Memorial Lecture

By Dan Rogan

Are you hooked on the Peabody Award-winning, critically acclaimed Netflix series “Orange is the New Black?”

The stories of main character Piper Chapman’s time in prison have been shown on screens across the country, and brought prison issues to the conscience of the general public.

08.11.15

Use of Force in Ohio’s Prisons

By Adrienne Gavula

When we think of the term “use of force,” we usually think of police officers applying force in cases of imminent danger posed to themselves or the public. Force also applies to the work of corrections officers and security staff when interacting in situations in which prisoners pose risks to others in the prison environment.

08.03.15

Ohio’s Selling Another Prison to A For-Profit Company – And No One Noticed

By Mike Brickner

In 2012, Ohio made history as the first state to ever sell a publicly owned prison to a for-profit company, and now it’s poised to do the same again. In a play of legislative sleight of hand, politicians amended the sale of the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, into an unrelated bill just before summer recess and passed it without any chance for testimony, public discussion, or media coverage.

07.06.15

My Interview With a Corrections Officer

By Adrienne Gavula

Often, when we as a society talk about reforming our criminal justice system, it’s about finding jobs for individuals released from prison or diverting them to treatment in the first place. Rarely do we focus on the conditions of incarceration and its impact on people once they’re released.

06.30.15

Summer Break at the Statehouse: A Review of the First Six Months

By Lisa Wurm

The Ohio General Assembly has now passed the state budget, and the first quarter of the two-year legislative session is over. As always, the ACLU of Ohio has been very active at the Statehouse in what was a very busy first six months.

06.24.15

How a Hunger Strike Caused Change in Youngstown Prison Policy

By Adrienne Gavula

If you go without food for just eight hours, your body will decrease its use of energy, the heart will pump slower, you will produce less heat, and hunger pains build.

Earlier this year, the ACLU of Ohio watched in dismay as people in Ohio’s super-maximum security prison in Youngstown went on a hunger strike.

06.17.15

Prisons for Profit: Let’s Not Repeat the Same Mistake

By Steve David

Shortsighted policy decisions to cut spending often cost the state more than it saves. That’s one of the lessons history teaches us, particularly when it comes to prisons for profit.

In September 2011, Ohio completed the sale of Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut to the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest for-profit prison company.

05.25.15

Does Being in Jail Mean You Give Up Your Religious Rights?

By Shakyra Diaz

Given our state’s overcrowded jails and prisons, it’s only fitting we keep a particularly sharp focus on prisoners’ constitutional rights by guarding their First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

Incident One: December 2014

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by the federal lawsuit initiated in December 2014 by a 24-year-old Rocky River woman, who is a Muslim.

05.11.15

Solitary Confinement is NOT Rehabilitative

By Adrienne Gavula

It was a chilly October last year when my colleague and I visited the super-maximum security (super-max) Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Before entering, I thought there was nothing more restrictive than the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, aka Lucasville prison. I could not have been more wrong.

04.29.15

Ohio Prisons, Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness

By Adrienne Gavula

Let’s imagine…

You are locked inside a room the size of your bathroom for 23 hours a day and let outside for one hour, but only when it’s warm and only in a cage the size of a walk-in closet. Your meals are eaten inside this room, and there is limited reading and television access.

04.20.15

Name Game: Ohio Can’t Hide Solitary Confinement

By Adrienne Gavula

It doesn’t matter whether you call it local control, disciplinary control, administrative segregation, or restrictive housing, it’s extreme isolation. Putting people in solitary confinement is something the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed “physical and mental torture.”

Since 2012, Ohio has operated a tiered system in which prisoners are given a level ranging from 5b down to 1.

04.10.15

Is Being Alone Bad For You?

By Adrienne Gavula

Putting people in isolation is devastating and makes recovery next to impossible. If you didn’t have a mental illness going into isolation, it’s likely you will have one coming out.

Research shows that prolonged solitary causes a persistent and heightened state of anxiety, nervousness, headaches, insomnia, nightmares, and confused thought processes.