Imagine a city bigger than Bowling Green, Fairfield or Lima - populated entirely by 45,000 rapists, killers, thieves, drug pushers and child molesters. Each year, 20,000 new criminals arrive and about 18,000 move out to mingle with the rest of us.
That's our prison system. Crimetown.
''If we were a city, we'd be the 13th biggest city in Ohio,'' said Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
To Clermont County Prosecutor Donald White, it's already one of Ohio's biggest problems.
''They don't seem to know who to let go and who to keep,'' Mr. White said. ''We have this problem all the time.''
The problem lately is Jesse James Cowans, who was arrested on Sept. 2 for the murder of 69-year-old Clara Swart of Monroe Township. Mr. Cowans moved next door to Mrs. Swart after his second parole last May 17, less than a month after the parole board's risk assessment rated him 37 out of a maximum 40 - redline in the danger zone.
''How could that happen?'' Mr. White asked. ''I didn't know that. It's unbelievable. We never find those things out.''
He compared the Cowans parole to a young man he convicted 5 years ago on a drunk driving homicide. The sentence was 4-10 years, and ''he's been a model prisoner,'' White said, earning a college degree while Cowans was fighting with inmates, assaulting guards and using drugs in prison.
''We don't want to be in the position of recommending his release,'' Mr. White said. ''But we're almost ready to in this case.''
The Cowans file is stuffed with letters from the Hamilton County prosecutor warning against release, but he was paroled anyway. In the drunk-homicide, ''We're not objecting to parole, but they won't release him,'' Mr. White said. ''They want him to serve 10, the maximum. Nobody serves that. . . . None of it makes sense. Who are these people on the parole board?''
Good question.
Twelve parole board members are appointed by the director of corrections and rehabilitation - Mr. Wilkinson. All but one, a former prosecutor, have degrees and - or career experience in corrections. Salary starts at about $55,000.
Mr. Wilkinson said he has been asking questions about the Cowans parole, and ''there is always an administrative review in cases like these.''
''I'm not convinced they erred, but the system itself can be corrected to give more scrutiny than Jesse James got in his last parole hearing,'' he said.
''He was not the most egregious case. But obviously, he was not one of our more model prisoners. There was nothing to indicate he would go out and kill someone, but there was a good likelihood he would violate the terms and conditions of his release.''
Mr. Wilkinson said, ''It would be hard to second guess even what I would have done sitting on that panel.'' But he added that a risk score of 4 (which was a maximum 5 before it was crossed out and reduced) usually means ''it's more likely you won't be released.''
When Mr. Cowans was arrested for murder, a parole board member said his evaluations indicated he was unlikely to commit another crime. But leaked parole records showed he was three points short of the worst risk possible.
I asked Mr. Wilkinson if such records should all be made public, so the public can find out if the parole board is turning loose dangerous inmates or denying parole to inmates who deserve release.
''I certainly understand that the public needs to know about some of these guys we parole,'' he said. ''Maybe there is a compromise, but it's hard to say right now without thinking it through.''
Hearings by the full board were opened to the public on July 1, but most hearings are still conducted behind closed doors by a few members. And records - including risk assessments and prison behavior - remain confidential.
A Parole Authority spokesman said the state's open records law exempted parole files mainly to protect victims and witnesses. Mr. Wilkinson added that, ''Judges and prosecutors need an opportunity to be candid with us without knowing it would be shown to the world.''
Here's another theory from Peter Ryder of CURE Ohio, a prisoner advocacy group of about 800 inmates and their families: ''The parole authority wants it secret, not prisoners,'' he said, because ''they let SOBs like Cowans out while they give other people 20-year flops (added time) for no apparent reason. They have absolute power. Public scrutiny would be a good start.''
Ohio lawmakers should rewrite that 1963 exemption for parole files, and at least make risk assessments and prison files public, so we can find out if the parolee who moves in next door from has made any ''rehabilitations and corrections,'' or left the College of Criminal Knowledge more dangerous than before.
Mr. Wilkinson said parole is twice as tough as it was six years ago. In 1990, 42 percent of parole requests were granted; now, it's 19 percent. ''We have the lowest parole release record in the country,'' he said. ''We're the most conservative parole board in the world.''
But still . . .
''Quite frankly,'' he said, ''I cringe whenever I hear someone has been killed. I check right away to find out if it was someone we paroled.''
Turning loose 18,000 possible Jesse Jameses each year is enough to make Ohio cringe from Akron to Zanesville. We should be able to check right away too - on the people who are turning the keys.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
They don't have to lie or twist the truth the way the Clinton campaign has. Just tell it. The White House file cabinet is so full of inviting targets they can't close the drawers with a crow bar. There aren't enough letters in the alphabet for all the Clinton scandals. Go to file ''C'' and you find ''Cattle Futures'' and ''Castle Grande S&L fraud.'' Skip to ''W'' and it's stuffed with ''Waco,'' ''Whitewater'' and ''Webster Hubbell.'' The ''F'' file is crammed with ''FBI-Filegate,'' ''Firings, Travel Office,'' ''Files Found in Hillary's Library'' and ''Foster, Vincent.''
Start anywhere. But start yesterday.
Instead, the Dole-Kemp campaign is tiptoeing down the ''high road'' to oblivion. Here's an actual debate exchange on Medicare:
Kemp: ''Folks, they have no plan. They have absolutely no plan.''
Gore: ''Let me make clear what the president's position is. We will save Medicare and we will stop efforts to hurt Medicare.''
Did Mr. Kemp respond with an incredulous ''SEE?!'' Did he roll his eyes and say, ''Wow, Al, that's specific.'' Did he even ask the question Democrats fear most: ''So how will you do that?''
No. He launched a cruise missile on foreign policy that exploded in the sand: ''Don't bomb before breakfast.'' SEE?!
It was more of the same the next day.
It started promising enough.
Ohio Gov. George Voinovich said, ''Regardless of what the pundits say, this election is about character and keeping your word.'' The crowd cheered.
Colin Powell launched laser-guided smart bombs. The crowd cheered.
Jack Kemp said, ''Clinton thinks the job of the president is to take care of the American people. Bob Dole thinks the job of the president is to cut taxes and let the American people take care of themselves.'' The crowd cheered.
Bob Dole said, ''Building a bridge to the truth, that's what I want to talk about today.'' The crowd cheered.
But then he flinched and went off on - stop the presses! - taxes. The crowd yawned. At least I did.
Mr. Dole said, ''What oughta scare you is four more years of Clinton-Gore.'' But he didn't say why more indictments could bring a Watergate crisis if Mr. Clinton is re-elected.
He said, ''This election is about trust.'' But he didn't say why people who still trust Mr. Clinton live in two states: self-delusion and denial.
A woman standing next to me held a toddler in one arm and a large sign in the other that said, ''Four generations of women support Bob Dole.'' I asked her and her mother what Dole should do.
''He ought to do a little more to attack Clinton's character,'' said Jean Ann Zimmerman of Lakeside Park, Ky., Generation Two.
''If he does, they will say he's a mean man,'' warned her daughter, Amy Russert of Hyde Park, Generation Three.
That about says it all. This campaign is so ''clean'' it's sanitized of messy truth. So we talk about Generation One (Medicare) and Generation Four (more spending for ''the children''), but if Mr. Dole's Generation Two dares to question the below-zero morals, ethics and integrity of the first president from Generation Three, that's ''mean.''
Maybe I'll get that flu shot after all. I may need it before they debate again.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
