With elections coming that will decide who occupies key county offices related to the local justice system, some activists are launching a campaign seeking big reforms.
Faith-based racial and economic justice advocates the Amos Project and progressive group the Ohio Organizing Collaborative are pushing for bail reform, reduced sentencing for non-violent offenses and for minors, investment in mitigating trauma in local communities and transparency when it comes to asset forfeiture by local law enforcement agencies.
To kick off that effort, the groups are holding a forum where candidates for Hamilton County Sheriff and Prosecutor will weigh in on those issues. That forum will happen from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at Incline Missional Community in Price Hill. The event will also feature stories from those who have experienced struggles with the justice system, from long sentences to high cash bails to juvenile incarceration.
“We think we can have safety without over-incarcerating people,” the Amos Project’s Paul Graham says. “We can save people money, creating a lot more economic prosperity, if we invested in people instead of spending money locking them up. We’re going to be telling these stories at the forum and pining all the candidates on these issues, saying, ‘Will you support ending cash bail? Will you stop prosecuting low-level felonies and misdemeanors? Will you stop detaining immigrants for deportation? Will you start treating kids like kids and stop locking them up in aggressive detention centers?’ ”
Cincinnati native and ACLU Ohio organizer Mike Mitchell, who is involved in the campaign, knows some of the issues the forum will address first-hand. Mitchell, a student at Walnut Hills High School and the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, went through the juvenile justice system and found himself in adult prison by the time he was 18. He spent time in and out of prison on drug charges until 2016, when he began rebuilding his life by working with the ACLU and starting his own business.
“I went through the system when I was basically a child,” he says. “I was shackled before I reached puberty, actually. I want to help in the effort to end this stuff.”
Mitchell says he’s still struggling to find an apartment in Columbus due to his past convictions.
“They ask you on all the applications if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime, and you have to describe it. But it’s like, I can afford to live here, and I’ve rehabilitated my life. At 18 years old, I didn’t know that when I took pleas for certain things, that it was a life-sentence, so to speak. You don’t have to be doing time in prison to be doing a life sentence. I’m 40 now. This was 22 years ago.”
Many others have faced problems due to excessive bail, including loss of jobs and housing because they can’t pay for their release as they await trial. ACLU Ohio Organizing Manager Greer Aeschbury says she’s worked with Cincinnati residents who have stayed in jail for months, missing work shifts, rent payments and family, only to have their cases dismissed later.
The forum — and other recent candidate forums put on by the Cincinnati NAACP and the Woman’s City Club of Greater Cincinnati — come as a pitched primary battle is underway for some county offices.
Former Hamilton County Justice Center Director Charmaine McGuffey is challenging Sheriff Jim Neil for his spot in the Democratic Party’s primary March 17. The winner of that battle will take on Republican Bruce Hoffbauer. All three have been invited to the forum; so far, only McGuffey has confirmed she will attend.
One of the big issues in the race revolves around jail overcrowding. The county’s 850-bed justice center routinely houses as many as 1,400 inmates.
McGuffey, who is backed by the county Democratic Party, says the county doesn’t need a new jail but should focus on reducing incarceration. But Neil believes the county needs more space to hold those with substance abuse or mental health issues. Also sure to be a hot issue: recent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents within the county courthouse. The sheriff’s office provides some but not all security in the courthouse — something Neil caught heat for when news of those arrests broke. The sheriff’s office has said it had no knowledge of the arrests and does not work with ICE.
Democratic Party candidates for Hamilton County prosecutor Gabe Davis and Fanon Rucker will also be at the forum, though incumbent Republican Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has not confirmed he will attend. A number of questions around bail and sentencing reform are at play in that race.
Last year, Cincinnati City Council approved legislation instructing its municipal prosecutors not to pursue cash bail for minor, non-violent offenses and to forego criminal charges for those caught with small amounts of marijuana. A county prosecutor friendly to those reforms could expand them to some extent at the county level.
All of these issues are part of the campaign Amos and Ohio Organizing are launching, Graham says.
“A new jail will cost easily $200 million,” Graham says. “And we can really get money back to families and individuals by ending cash bail. Our forum is part of a multi-year strategy. We really want to hold our prosecutors and sheriff accountable.”
This article appears in Feb 19-28, 2020.