Bipartisan support bodes well for Ohio bail reform in General Assembly
A bail reform COLUMBUS — bill introduced in the Ohio General Assembly by two Republicans is drawing interest from politically unlikely bedfellows and one sponsor believes meaningful change could come by the end of the year.
House Bill 439, co-sponsored by Republicans Jonathan Dever of Madeira and Tim Ginter of Salem, has already received two open hearings and a private meeting of interested parties. Input is coming from across the political spectrum, as both conservatives and liberals are advocating for greater fairness in the way Ohio courts set bail.
Dever, a lawyer, said during a recent interview that several Democrats in the House told him they would have gladly co-sponsored the bill if asked. But Dever said he isn’t inclined to seek more co-sponsors, fearing too many could stall progress.
What would bill do?
The bill is intended to address the way suspects are treated in the first 72 hours following arrest, when bail amounts are often pre-set based solely on the nature of the crime and don’t reflect the likelihood of a suspect not showing up later in court, Dever said.
Current language in the bill would eliminate the use of pre-determined bail schedules and require judges to consider a data-based assessment of whether a suspect is a flight risk or would commit crimes if released. It also would have the Ohio Supreme Court come up with a model for supervising defendants who have been freed while awaiting trial.
Another component in the bill calls for courts to collect data on defendants in order to analyze the effectiveness of the reforms.
The goal of the bill is to bring fairness and consistency to bail decisions and to save communities money by reducing unnecessary jail stays, Dever said.
What are hurdles?
Creating uniform bail reforms will take some doing, Dever said, largely because the criminal justice system in Ohio is so fractured, with 88 counties and multiple courts within some counties. For example, there are 13 municipal courts in Cuyahoga County.
Such reforms also will cost money. Determining where the funding might come from will also be part of the legislative deliberations.
Long-term savings could result from bail reform, Dever said, but implementing the reforms will require upfront costs for such things as computer hardware, software and personnel necessary to provide the pretrial risk assessments and the supervision that would be necessary to keep more people out of jail.
Dever said it costs anywhere from $60 to $80 a day to keep a suspect in jail while awaiting trial, far less than the cost of risk assessment and supervision of freed suspects.
If we can find a way to send some of those folks home ... then that’s what we should be doing,” he said.
Why the optimism?
Dever said he is bringing a lot of opinions to bear on the legislation, from prosecutors and defense attorneys to the bail bond agents whose livelihoods are threatened by reforms.
What bodes well for eventual passage is that parties that are often on opposite sides of a political issue see the value in bail reform. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, for example, is pushing for changes, as is the conservative Buckeye Institute.
ACLU lobbyists testifying to the House Criminal Justice Committee described HB 439 as a “meaningful start” to bail reform,” but that it doesn’t go far enough in some areas. For instance, the bill would only subject misdemeanors suspects to pretrial risk assessment, according to the ACLU, and it believes use of risk assessment should be applied to those charged with felonies, too.
Written testimony from representatives of the conservative Buckeye Institute came on the heels of its recently published “Money Bail: Making Ohio a More Dangerous Place to Live,” a report on bail abuses that calls for the end of for-profit bond agents.