EDITORIAL

Other provisions would rule out prison for minor, “noncriminal” probation violations, creating instead an unspecified system of rewards and punishment, and allow people already in prison to reduce their sentences by up to 25 percent, earning days off by participating in rehabilitation programs.

The wholesale sentenceshortening language is especially ill-considered. It applies to all prisoners convicted of anything other than “murder, rape or child molestation” — a fuzzy exception that nonetheless leaves in thousands of violent criminals and thus doesn’t fit with Issue 1’s stated purpose. It’s overly broad and potentially dangerous and seemingly was included in an effort to make the numbers work — to reduce prison population enough to generate the needed savings.

Which raises another serious Issue 1 flaw: the mechanism for translating those prison savings into money for drug treatment. If Issue 1 passes, the state would have to estimate how many fewer days will be served in state prisons in the coming year because of the sentencing and probation changes.

Based on a per-day cost formula, an expected savings amount would be calculated and the General Assembly would be required to add that much to the biennial budget, with 70 percent going to addiction and mental-health treatment and 30 percent to other services, including the probation changes and help for crime victims.

Major changes in the state budget and criminal-justice policy should not be based on broad ideas and guesswork — and especially not written into the constitution, where they would be hard to amend.

The changes Issue 1 backers say they are seeking would be good for Ohioans, but those changes should be worked out with far more deliberation.

The backers’ impatience is understandable; while lawmakers talk about addressing the opiate crisis and have dabbled in criminal-justice reform, they have refused for years to fundamentally rethink century-old practices that clearly are failing.

Voters should defeat Issue 1 and elect lawmakers who will do the job they’re supposed to do.