Jewish group lobbies for sentencing reforms

Group wants to ‘restore people rather than punish.’

Mike Fliegel COLUMBUS — knows it’s not easy to return to society after being incarcerated because he watched his daughter struggle with it for years.

He’s also worked with incarcerated Jews while they were in prison, mentoring them inside and on the outside.

Wednesday, Fliegel was at the Ohio Statehouse with a group called Reform Ohio, telling his personal story in hopes of motivating others to help former inmates find a life on the outside.

“The concept of doing Teshuvah is not just for you and me at shul,” he said to a group of about 70 other Jews in the Statehouse Atrium. “It’s an everyday thing and we need to remind ourselves part of our job is to help those people around us do Teshuvah.”

Teshuvah is a core Jewish value, outlined in the Torah, the Jewish holy book, and translates to repentance and return, said Rabbi Rick Kellner, of reform synagogue Congregation Beth Tikvah in Worthington.

Reform Ohio hosted the event, a project of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which is the social justice arm of the union for Reform Judaism, Kellner said.

The topic was Senate Bill 66, introduced in the Senate in February, which proposes amending state sentencing laws, including allowing rehabilitation as an option for sentencing felons, and making record-sealing possible for offenders convicted of more than one lower-level felony.

Currently, offenders with two or more felonies, no matter how minor or old, can’t have their records sealed, said Rabbi Lindsey Danziger, lead organizer of Reform Ohio. Having felonies on a person’s record can make it difficult to find a job, apartment, mortgage and other things, she said. The bill is especially important now, with the opioid epidemic, she said, as drug addiction often leads to criminal behavior.

“We view it as a Teshuvah bill,” Danziger said. “We’re kind of advocating for the criminal justice system to restore people rather than punish them.”

Fliegel’s daughter struggled to readjust after she was released from prison, and it took her 11 years to get a job interview because of her criminal history. She was arrested on drug charges after she was caught trying to smuggle drugs across the border from Mexico. While she was incarcerated, she got her GED and began to plan what she could do with her life. But once she got out of jail, things were not easy.

“We need to remove those stumbling blocks,” Fliegel said.

Now, Fliegel’s daughter has a job in the legal field, but it was a long road to get there. That, and Teshuvah, is why the group was at the Statehouse Wednesday, to lobby lawmakers for criminal justice reform.

Senate President Larry Obhof and the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Charleta Tavares, Columbus Democrat, and Sen. John Eklund, a Republican from Chardon in northeastern Ohio, met with the group on before they went to talk to other lawmakers.

“This is what I think is one of the most-important issues facing the state of Ohio today,” said Obhof, a Republican from Medina.

“The Ohio legislature has come to recognize we’re all in this together,” Obhof said. “(Senate Bill 66) gives people a second chance on life, but it also gives us a better neighborhood.”

Religious Action Center has intentions beyond this one bill, said Danziger.

“We are looking at just a new model of doing social justice,” she said. “We’ve always, I think, been present in the fight for equality ... but we’re looking at really systemic change and how we can be a part of that.”