Bill puts checks on jailed violent offenders

Act keeps dangerous offenders from early prison release.

Reagan Tokes would not have a bill named after her if the legislation that bears her name was in effect in February, when the Ohio State student was kidnapped, raped and murdered.

Sen. Kevin Bacon, R-Min- erva Park, said Brian Golsby, the man accused of the murder, would have been locked away in prison because of bad behavior behind bars — 45 offenses that included assault, defying correction officers, drugs and theft.

Golsby had served a six- year sentence for rape when he was released in November. Under Senate Bill 201, Bacon said, the judge would have made six years the min- imum sentence, and required Golsby to serve nine years Lisa McCrary-Tokes, mother of Reagan Tokes, speaks while standing with husband Toby Tokes to announce the Reagan Tokes Act in September. It seeks to increase monitoring of violent criminals. because of bad behavior.

“This gives (the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) a powerful incen- tive to encourage inmates to engage in programming and behave well in prison,” Bacon told a Senate committee Wednesday, adding it also keeps dangerous offenders from being released prematurely.

Senate Bill 201, one half of the Reagan Tokes Act, seeks to undo more than 20 years of determinant sentencing in Ohio, where convicted felons serve the sentence given to them regardless of behavior while in prison.

The bill would not impact current sentencing ranges for various felonies, but would require a judge to set a minimum prison term within that range, and a maximum term equal to 150 percent of the minimum.

With good behavior, the offender could get out at the end of the minimum term — or even 5 to 15 percent sooner for really good behavior, if he is not a sex offender.

The bill is limited to first-, second- and violent third-degree felonies. For others, including drug offenders, definitive sentencing as passed in Senate Bill 2 in 1996, will remain intact.

“It’s not about the bulk of the people in prison,” Bacon said, adding that state prison officials can often predict which felons will re-offend once released.

“For some offende r s, there is no incentive to help yourself or not commit acts against other prisoners,” he said. “There’s a realization that that component of Senate Bill 2 failed.”