The undersigned are asking that The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and Governor Mike DeWine  grant every incarcerated individual who is not serving life without the possibility of parole or who are condemned and also have not had any rule violations within a six month time period a one time 12 weeks of credit off of their sentence.    Below we have listed the facts we have found in court documents along with facts that can be found on the internet, with links provided.  

In Case No. 2:20-cv-2471 ANNETTE CHAMBERS-SMITH, The Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and corrections has stated the following facts to be true.  

“On April 14, 2020, I testified before the CIIC to request that they declare an overcrowding emergency at ODRC pursuant to O.R.C. 2967.18. The CIIC unanimously voted to declare an overcrowding emergency. The next day, consistent with the statutory procedure, Governor DeWine signed a certified authorization declaring an overcrowding emergency and allowing ODRC to begin reducing the sentences of some inmates by 90 days.”

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections admits that there is currently an overcrowding emergency within its prisons during a global pandemic that calls for Social distancing.  While they have released some offenders who met O.R.C. 2967.18. This was not the case for a lot of currently incarcerated individuals in Ohio.  Many are ruled out of getting the 90 day reduction based on being denied a judicial release by the judge who sentenced them, which many have been denied based on the offender not having any programming or classes completed.  However at this time this is not something the offender nor The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections has control over because programming had to be put on hold in all facilities to protect everyone.  The offenders have also had in person visits from Family stopped, some for months now. They have had to deal with staff shortages due to the virus, which has affected the way they are used to things going.  The loss of Recreation time, being put on quarantine, The loss of programs and classes, just to list a few things.  One way The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections could help those currently incarcerated is by looking at what California did in lowering their numbers and also giving credit to those who have been incarcerated  during this pandemic.  Below are some facts on both California and Ohio to help us look at the numbers more, which will show the need for Ohio to also grant the 12 weeks of credit to all incarcerated individuals.  

California has 35 Prisons with a total population of around 92,484 incarcerated persons.  There have been 15,614 Covid-19 cases in California.  The population of California as of 2019 was 39.51 million people.  

Ohio has 28 prisons with a population of around 44,665 incarcerated persons.  There have been 6834 positive covid-19 cases in Ohio prisons.  The population of Ohio as of 2019 was  11.69 Million people.

In looking at the numbers we can see that .23% of people are incarcerated in California with a .4% having Covid-19, while in Ohio .38% of people are incarcerated and .6% having Covid-19.  

Ohio has not currently offered any programming credits to those who have been incarcerated during covid-19 even though almost all programming and classes have stopped, and as they slowly return  classes must be smaller to social distance which is adding to the already long waiting list of offenders who cannot currently get into classes or programming.  We have seen that in California CDCR issued 12 weeks of credit to incarcerated people who had no rules violations between March 1, 2020 and July 5, 2020, excluding those serving life without the possibility of parole or who are condemned. https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/memo-positive-programming-credits/

Meaning ALL offenders currently incarcerated received 84 days off of their sentence.  This helped with the overcrowding, it helped with social distancing , and it also helps give the offenders a positive to look at while facing so many negative things during Covid-19.  

We are asking that The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections look into the 12 weeks of credit that California has issued its incarcerated population.  We feel that by The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections doing this it will only bring positive outcomes for all involved.  In granting 12 weeks of credit it will help to move more incarcerated people out faster for a longer period of time.  Which will help with the prisons having more room to social distance.  This is a global pandemic we are all currently facing with a lot of unknowns and things we are having to deal with for the first time.  We understand that it is not The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections fault that programming and classes had to be stopped, it was a safety measure to keep everyone as safe as possible at the time.  We ask that you make this retroactive to the date the overcrowding emergency was granted and reduce all sentences, who are eligible because they are not serving life without the possibility of parole or who are condemned and also have not had no rules violations within a certain time period.  

We agree with the Memorandum CDRC posted that says, Incarcerated individuals “provided exceptional assistance in maintaining the safety and security of a prison.” By practicing positive behavior throughout this time of suspended visits, program modifications, staffing shortages, and service impacts, these inmates have played an important role in enabling staff to maintain institutional security and focus on providing care to those who are ill.”  We feel that all Ohio incarcerated individuals have also done this and deserve the 12 weeks of credit for it.

We humbly ask that The Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and corrections and the Governor of the state of Ohio take this into consideration and grant the 12 weeks of credit.  We thank you for taking the time to read this.