Low-level drug dealers can’t get prison diversion

The state budget that Ohio lawmakers approved Wednesday eliminates prison diversion for low-level drug dealers, wipes out changes to wrongful incarceration procedures and permits the sale of prison farm land, possibly without bids.

The changes were among more than 100 budget amendments approved late Tuesday by a joint Ohio House-Senate conference committee.

The budget proviso affects the Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison program advocated by Gov. John Kasich and Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The program was intended to divert nonviolent offenders who were not charged with a sex offense to less-expensive community treatment programs, as opposed to state prisons.

After state Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican candidate for attorney general, complained that the diversion would allow some drug traffickers to avoid prison, the Ohio Senate narrowed the program to the 10 largest counties. The conference committee then eliminated drug-trafficking offenders from the diversion in the 10 counties, which would impact an estimated 350 inmates per year.

The conference committee also chopped out changes to a state program expanding financial reimbursement to wrongfully incarcerated ex-offenders. Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, advocated the change because he said an Ohio Supreme Court decision incorrectly interpreted the 2003 law he sponsored.

Attorney General Mike DeWine and Ohio prosecutors opposed Seitz’s proposal, while Mark Godsey, a University of Cincinnati law professor and head of the Ohio Innocence Project, supported the change.

Godsey said he expects the wrongful incarceration changes will be reintroduced in a separate bill.

“The Supreme Court in 2014 overturned legislative intent. It needs to be corrected, and we’re confident it will be,” Godsey said.

Conferees also put back in the budget a provision advocated by the Kasich administration to sell 6,900 acres of prison farmland through “negotiated real-estate purchase agreements,” competitive bidding or public auctions.

Prisons got out of the farming business last year after more than 100 years of inmate farming. The state sold off livestock and equipment and is now selling off the land as well.

Department of Administrative Services spokesman Tom Hoyt said the state still plans to sell the prison property through competitive bidding, although the budget allows no-bid options.