Sentencing Errors Might Spring Inmates

More than 14,000 ex-prisoners also might be affected

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:04 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Thousands of ex-offenders could be released from state supervision and more than 200 current inmates might get out of Ohio prisons early because of a sentencing glitch. Many of the affected current and former inmates committed felonies -- and some are sex offenders, an official said.
Ohio prisons director Terry Collins said yesterday that rulings in three related lawsuits handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court this year are forcing the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to review more than 14,000 other cases. The glitch affects only offenders sentenced after the state's 1996 "truth-in-sentencing law" took effect.

"If the sentencing order didn't say they had mandatory supervision and the number of years, the order was void," Collins said. The judges' sentencing oversight was cited in three specific cases and expanded, by virtue of the Supreme Court rulings, to cover thousands of similar cases.
The ruling directly affects three groups: 14,816 former prisoners sentenced to "post-release control" (the post-1996 successor to parole); more than 208 inmates sent back to prison for violating post-release control rules, and an undetermined number of inmates currently in prison. Collins said he didn't know the number of cases affected, or how many have sentencing problems. "My concern is that we may well have to take some people off supervision by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority," he said. "We would no longer have the ability to supervise them from a legal perspective."

Agency officials are in contact with common pleas judges statewide. A telephone hot line has been set up to help schedule re-sentencing hearings, by teleconference when possible.
In addition, the agency's victim-services department is contacting crime victims and family members to inform them that offenders who they thought were under state supervision might not be supervised for much longer. "I'm always concerned about the victims of crime," Collins added. "Every time something happens with one of these cases, it opens up memories again."
In a related development, an advocacy group representing prisoners and their families demonstrated yesterday outside the prison system's central offices, 770 W. Broad St., seeking release of inmates incarcerated under pre-1996 sentencing laws.

CURE-Ohio said that many of the 4,000 old-law prisoners who are eligible for parole should be released because many are serving longer terms than those sentenced for the same crimes under the new law. In addition, that move could save $100 million and help alleviate prison crowding, now at 32 percent over stated capacity, a CURE spokeswoman said.
Prison officials said it's doubtful the savings would be anywhere near $100 million, even if all 4,000 were released.

ajohnson@dispatch.com