Prison watchdog may be scrapped
The state’s watchdog agency for juvenile and adult prisons that was muzzled last year might be put to sleep.
The duties of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, a legislative agency that survived an execution effort by Republican legislators last year when Director Joanna Saul agreed to resign, appear likely to be shifted by the legislature to the inspector general’s office, which is part of the governor’s administration.
The idea to move agency
duties was broached last week by Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina, at a House Finance subcommittee meeting in which Inspector General Randy Meyer testified. Meyer welcomed the idea and potentially an increase in funding for his agency to add employees and cover the inspectioncommittee’s duties. The committee’s proposed twoyear budget is $921,690. Faber, as Senate president, led the charge last year to eliminate the inspection committee, which was established in 1977 to provide a legislative check on the state prison system. The inspection committee conducted regular prison inspections, responded to complaints from inmates and family members and issued reports on hot topics such as prison crowding, food problems, gangs and drugs and contraband.
The agency touched nerves with its watchdog reports, prompting Faber’s push to fire Saul because, he said, she displayed “insubordination and rogue behavior” and attempted to exert power she did not legally possess.
The agency was saved when Democrats intervened and Saul agreed to resign from her $65,833-a-year job during a late-night legislative session May 25. Saul insisted she was doing her job as a watchdog, but she agreed to step aside if it meant the agency would survive.
Since then, however, the agency has not had a permanent director or issued a public report. It is unclear whether prison inspections have been done. The agency’s biennial report was not posted in January as required by Ohio law.
The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing workers at juvenile and adult prisons, criticized moving the agency’s duties in a statement released Wednesday to The Dispatch.
“The governor, (prisons) Director (Gary) Mohr, and the legislature say they want to operate in an evidenced-based, transparent way when it comes to state agencies. We couldn’t agree more,” said union President Chris Mabe.
“When it comes to prisons, it’s important that stakeholders have evidence that inmate programming is working, for example, or that violence on staff or gang activity is not at dangerous levels. Eliminating an oversight body like the CIIC that tracks those things goes against these principles,” the statement said.
Michelle Deitch, a corrections expert and professor at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, said shutting down the inspection committee means “the public won’t know what is being done in their names and with public money. I would be concerned about any restructuring of the CIIC that does away with the publicreporting function. The media, citizens, advocates and families all need to have easy access to information about what is going on inside prison walls.”