Our Gov. Mike DeWine has been receiving well-deserved accolades from Ohioans as well as from national commentators for his deft handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, some have been whispering that he should replace tRump on the Republican ticket.
While I too have been appreciative of the professionalism of his daily press briefings, there is a chink in his armor and it has to do with the exceptionally large number of prisoners in Ohio prisons that have contracted the virus and are dying. A much larger percentage of Ohio prisoners are infected than in states with similar-sized populations — and I’m not surprised. Additionally, Ohio has released fewer low-level felons than states with similar prisons populations.
When a reporter asked Governor DeWine a few weeks into the pandemic if the state was considering releasing some low-level prisoners, his answer was dumbfounding.
He stated that the corrections department was looking into it but he has to go very slowly since he was not about to release dangerous prisoners; they had to determine which convicts posed the least amount of danger to society (I’m paraphrasing the governor here).
That answer, while sounding very politically appropriate, was pure, unadulterated horse manure. Every state in the union knows exactly whom they have in custody; they know every little detail about every single prisoner, and the information is available virtually at the touch of a button — guaranteed.
Upon entering prison every individual is evaluated 10 ways to Sunday: the crime they committed, their age, the number of previous incarcerations, the strength of family ties, and, most importantly, their chances of success upon release. The odds they will become recidivists are all totaled up and a corresponding number is assigned.
Penology is a relatively exact science, and while some prisoners do go on to commit additional crimes upon their release, prison officials could have told the governor within an hour (if that long) which low-level prisoners posed the least amount of risk to society and which ones are the best bet for release.
Again, DeWine is doing an excellent job during the pandemic in most respects, but after all, he still is a Republican governor. Let’s hold off on placing a statue of him on the lawn of the State House until we see how many prisoners die from the virus on his watch.
