The WeDemand list

PRESS RELEASE

TO: Press Organizatios

FROM: Jason Gloyd
Campaign Director
513-240-4996

RE: WeDemand Coalition Discusses Solutions Today!


IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 12, 2007

The WeDemand Coalition that placed the Super-Sized Jail tax on the ballot, and campaigned for the defeat of Issue 27, today denounced the campaign of fear and panic spread by Sheriff Leis and Commissioners Portune and Pepper, in the wake of the defeat of Issue 27 at the ballot, and introduced its own set of ideas to resolve the public safety and jail crowding issues facing our community. "Instead of coolly and rationally dealing with the incarceration issues facing our community," said WeDemandABetterPlan.Com Chairman Jason Gloyd. "Commissioners Portune and Pepper, and Sheriff Leis, have embarked on a campaign of fear and panic, appearing to retaliate against voters for their rejection of Issue 27." The Coalition proposed a series of significant initiatives to address the fiscal and public safety issues facing our County.

Represented at the press conference were the NAACP, COAST, Cincinnati Progressive Action, the Green Party of Ohio, the Libertarian Party of Ohio, No Jail Tax PAC, and the Hamilton County Business Owners Association. These groups' members, and others, gathered 55,000 signatures to place the sales tax issue on the ballot, and coordinated the county-wide campaign to defeat Issue 27, resulting in a 56% victory on election day. Many of the ideas were embraced by the entire coalition, and other ideas were advanced by individual group members. The issues advanced were:

The manufactured and retaliatory safety crisis
1) Within hours after the defeat of Issue 27, the Sheriff announced that he would start releasing this week 300 inmates, to make up for the 300 beds in Butler County that he and Commissioners Portune and Pepper claim we no longer can afford. This is clearly an attempt to retaliate against the voters for rejecting Issue 27, as the jail beds in Butler County have been contracted through the end of the year.

2) Commissioner DeWine presented budget saving proposals in January of 2007, and then again in August. Although the majority of those savings were rejected at that time, the Commission now appears poised to adopt all of them in its 2008 budget. Had they adopted them earlier, it would have resulted in $2.5 million in savings, paying for the Butler County contract for 150 days into 2008. If there is a crisis, it has been exacerbated by the majority on the Commission itself. We wish they had not put themselves in this position.

3) The County could easily prioritize its spending to fund Butler County indefinitely or to alleviate the need for some or all of the Butler County spaces if it so chose. The reality is that the County has chosen not to prioritize safety spending, resulting in the "funding crisis" and "safety crisis" they now claim. Once again, the coming weeks will present a series of proposed budget savings going forward to fund Butler County well into 2008.

Major new funding sources proposed
In addition to re-prioritizing funds from other, lower priorities, to the so-called pressing fiscal and safety crisis, the Commissioners and Sheriff also have several options to generate millions upon millions of dollars per year to fund inmate retention in facilities other than Butler County.

4) First, in early 2007, the Commission learned that it had a huge surplus income stream from the hotel/motel tax increase to build the new convention center expansion. Commissioner Pat DeWine, Councilmember Chris Monzel and State Representative Tom Brinkman, Jr. proposed at that time that this income stream be re-directed into the public safety issue. The Commission at that time refused. Commissioner DeWine and State Representative Brinkman will re-introduce that idea this Wednesday, asking for the Commission endorsement of legislation allowing the diversion of this income stream to inmate retention costs. In 2007 alone, the Commission spent $2 million from this fund on "convention promotion" and for a grant to the Film Commission, clearly lower priorities than public safety. This income stream will generate an estimated $84 million over the life of the convention center tax.

5) Second, Ohio law requires cities, villages and townships who charge inmates under local ordinances or resolutions only, to pay the cost of incarceration, both pre-trial and during their sentence. Our investigation has revealed that the County for some reason is not levying these charges to certain municipalities and townships, but is charging to others. Although the City of Cincinnati has jailed hundreds of individuals under the new marijuana ordinance and housing code, the County has levied no charges at all against the City for housing these inmates in recent years. Commissioner DeWine will propose that the County immediately charge back costs of incarceration due to local ordinances and resolutions, to the extent that state law so allows, immediately. "If the City of Cincinnati wants to make laws that target low income and minority individuals and jail people as a result thereof, then the City of Cincinnati should pay the cost of that incarceration," said WeDemandABetterPlan.Com Chairman Jason Gloyd. "The same applies to each of the other 47 jurisdictions in Hamilton County."

6) Presently the Sheriff spends money from drug forfeitures outside of the priority setting by the Commission. His "priorities" have included funds for teddy bears, coloring books, and donations to the Boy Scouts (we are not kidding). Today there is a balance of over $6.5 million sitting in these funds! The coalition calls upon the Sheriff to direct at least half of these funds into incarceration of dangerous criminals that need to be kept off of the streets. In addition, the Sheriff should consider selling portions of his armed vehicle fleet, including two helicopters, a hovercraft, a tank, and other excessive equipment.

7) Commissioner DeWine will be presenting a series of budget cuts to re-prioritize spending in the direction of public safety instead of frills at the County. As other coalition members have not analyzed these options, these are proposals from Commissioner DeWine only at this point.

Process changes to alleviate "crowding" crisis
8) As was emphasized during the Issue 27 campaign, 81% of the persons in jail in Hamilton County are simply awaiting trial. That's up from 37% only six years ago. The reasons are (i) excessive bonds and (ii) the slowness of bringing people to trial. Judges could start immediately to alleviate the crisis by setting reasonable bonds for all, allowing all but those who present a safety threat to others or are a true flight risk. It may be helpful to the Judges to set a "bond matrix" to help them to ascertain a reasonable bond amount, taking into account home ownership, family in the County, employment, the severity of the crime, etc. The excessive bond placed on Marc Frison, who it scheduled to be tried Tuesday for having a pocket knife in his backpack when entering the Courthouse, is illustrative. Mr. Frison has served 61 days in custody not because he is a threat to public safety or because he is a flight risk, but because Judge Winkler chose to set an excessive bond of $100,000.

9) The coalition will propose establishing a night court to try minor criminal offenses more quickly, freeing jail spaces.

10) The coalition has called for months for the termination of the policy of housing 35 federal inmates in the justice center. These inmates take up needed space for no reason. The federal government will not set them free; it will find spaces elsewhere. In addition, the County loses money by housing federal prisoners since they reimburse us less than what it cost to rent beds in Butler County.

11) Last February, Commissioner DeWine introduced a resolution that would have freed up 245 jail spaces through a variety of alternative punishments. The full Commission, however, refused to implement these ideas during their campaign to pass the jail tax. Now that the election is over, the County should move forward immediately with the proposal. This proposal and the proposal to end the housing of federal inmates alone would free up virtually as many spaces as the County is currently renting from Butler County.

12) The coalition will approach the Bar Association for more pro bono attorneys to represent minor criminal defendants to process their trials more quickly.

13) Lawmakers and judges should consider an "amnesty" program for minor (non-violent) offenses with outstanding warrants older than five years if the financial penalties were paid. This could be a potentially significant revenue raiser.

14) The Commissioners should release the new reports from the Vera Institute and the Criminal Justice Commission before implementing their policy changes and fiscal decisions. Why has the work and draft reports of these Commissions been maintained as secret throughout the campaign and still until this day?



For further information please contact Jason Gloyd at (513)240-4996