“These sweeping changes are necessary to show (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) and (Ohio Department of Youth Services) employees that their safety is valued by the state. It’s shameful that it took a death of a husband, a father, a great American,” said Rep. Mark Johnson, R-Chillicothe, whose district includes Ross Correctional Institution.
Johnson spearheaded the bill alongside Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp.
The measure passed the House 82-3 before Thanksgiving.
Johnson told his colleagues on the House floor that Lansing’s death prompted him to open up his home and his schedule to learn more about the issues facing Ohio’s prison system. He described what he learned in the months since as a “serious, grave problem.”
“Our prisons are the most dangerous places of employment, I believe, in the United States. I truly believe that,” Johnson said.
His bill proposes three changes to Ohio’s minimum sentencing structure, all of which H.B. 338 would require to be posted, conspicuously, in Ohio’s correctional facilities.
- First, it would require a sentence of life in prison without parole if an inmate murders an employee of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction or the Department of Youth Services, which runs the state’s juvenile detention centers.
- Second, it would require a seven-year consecutive sentence for inmates who commit a felonious assault against correctional officers.
- Third, it would require a three-year sentence for throwing bodily fluids, like urine, at officers.
These minimum sentences would be posted in a conspicuous place within all correctional facilities in the state.
On the House floor, the measures were regarded as a way to dissuade violence from inmates. Plummer, a former Montgomery County sheriff, told this outlet in an interview he believed the enhanced penalties would significantly affect the behavior of inmates.
“I think it’ll work 90% of the time,” Plummer said. “You know, you got 10% that really don’t care, because they’ve got a problem. But, if you’re two years from getting out and you commit a felonious assault and you pick up seven, I think that word’s gonna travel.”
A few Democrats, including Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, have argued the bill doesn’t address concerns of safety, particularly through rehabilitation, enough. Tims told this outlet in an interview that the most tangible outcome of increased penalties is more time in the system.
“It adds more time to people who are already in prison or in jail for doing bad things, or they have experienced a very low moment in their lives, and I don’t think that solves the problem,” Tims said.
She argued that the most functional way to ensure no one else meets the same fate as Lansing is to ensure that there’s adequate staffing at Ohio’s correctional facilities.
“The reality is, they need more staff,” she said, noting that she hoped to see more funding go toward the ODRC.
“I don’t think the bill alone addresses how we actually (stop) these issues from happening,” she said.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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