Monday, February 22, 1999
Parole harder to get in Ohio, says veteran board member
Newer members reflect tough-on-crime stance
The Associated Press
TOLEDO — The state parole board, aggravated with criminals and the crimes they commit, is making inmates serve more time before being released on parole.
“Things have turned about 180 degrees since I was first appointed to the board in 1983,” Marguerite Ghee, chairwoman of the parole board, told the Blade for a story Sunday.
New members tougher
“As new members replaced others on the board, I think the board began to reflect the attitudes of the communities they came from. People were sick of crime and criminals and getting out of prison early became more and more difficult,” Ms. Ghee said.
Ms. Ghee said it would be next to impossible now for a convict who committed a violent crime to be released without serving a substantial portion of his or her sentence.
The board has a grid system similar to the sentencing guidelines applied in federal courts in determining when a prisoner should be released. The guidelines take into account the seriousness of the crime and the inmate's criminal history. Using the grid, parole board members can determine a range of months that should be served.
William Hudson, one of 12 parole board members, said the guidelines are taken seriously.
“I think it makes it better for the prisoner, too,” he said. “After we con duct our first interview, we can tell that person when he can expect to be released.
“Even if it's well into the future, the inmate can settle into a routine in the institution and have a level of certainty about when the sentence will end.”
The exceptions
Release dates are not given in advance to inmates convicted of sex offenses or to those with life sentences, Mr. Hudson said.
Each prisoner's case is reviewed individually about nine months before the release date.
Mr. Hudson said if a prisoner gets a degree, as many as six months of his sentence could be reduced. Infractions involving drugs, alcohol or weapons could extend the release, he said.
But the parole board's policies may be of no consequence in the future.
A sentencing law that went into effect July 1, 1996, requires inmates to serve their entire sentence without any chance for parole. Before that, prisoners had been interviewed by the parole board after completing two-thirds of the minimum of their prison term.
Nevertheless, most of the state's 48,000 prisoners were sentenced before the sentencing structure changed and will be the responsibility of a parole board in the future.
Defense lawyer Jon Richardson sees a problem with giving parole boards sentencing power.
Mr. Richardson, a member of the commission that created the truth-in-sentencing law, said sentencing power ought to be returned to the judges.
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