Arrivals to resume at prisons in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio prison system plans to resume accepting inmates from county jails to begin their prison sentences, a practice that was suspended to reduce overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning Monday, the state will take up to 50 inmates a day at the Correctional Reception Center in central Ohio. Authorities will hold inmates a minimum of 35 days before transferring them to facilities around the state based on their security level and other factors.

The agency needs to resume housing inmates as Ohio courts reopen, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

“Reopening the reception process will be done in a gradual, controlled manner while we continue to carefully monitor county jail operations,” Smith said.

The announcement comes even as positive cases of covid-19 continue to rise in Ohio prisons along with inmate deaths. More than 4,500 inmates systemwide have tested positive, or nearly one in 10, and 60 inmates have died, with deaths spread across seven institutions.

More than 570 employees have tested positive and two, a guard and a nurse, have died.

Ohio is second-highest after Tennessee in its per-prisoner case rate, and it has the fourth-highest covid-19 prisoner death rate, according to an analysis of state prison cases by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit investigative news organization focused on the U.S. criminal justice system.

However, Ohio hasn’t ordered testing of all inmates, as Tennessee has done. That means Ohio’s numbers could be higher.

Prisoner-rights advocates immediately criticized the announcement, saying it flies in the face of what inmates and staff members are experiencing. The advocates say Gov. Mike DeWine should take the opposite approach and release thousands of inmates from an overcrowded system.

“This new influx will roll back the small amount of progress made over the past several weeks,” said Piet van Lier, education researcher for Policy Matters Ohio.