The recommendations come months after a Dayton man who was released from prison allegedly went on a crime spree that ended when he crashed a stolen police cruiser downtown, killing two young girls.
Implementing the Working Group on Post-Release Control proposals won’t be easy and won’t happen overnight, but DeWine said he is committed to seeing them through to make communities safer.
Some changes to post-control policies already have been made, others are underway, and some will depend on securing funding in the next state budget, DeWine said.
There’s no way to know if the proposed reforms could have prevented specific past tragedies, but they should make a difference moving forward, working group members said.
“It’s impossible to say that lives can be saved with recommendations alone,” said Dr. Reginald Wilkinson, co-chair of the working group. “It’s going to take training of staff and it’s going to take due diligence that I think we already have, but what we’re suggesting here and the recommendation is to intensify that.”
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Last year, DeWine asked the working group to thoroughly review the Ohio Adult Parole Authority’s policies and practices related to supervising released prisoners.
DeWine said he wanted to take a closer look at the policies after a high-profile case involving Raymond Walters, who is accused of stabbing his father and then stealing and crashing a Riverside police cruiser in downtown Dayton, killing two young cousins and injuring about 10 others.
A review determined that Walters’ parole officer followed agency policies, but DeWine questioned whether those policies are flawed and need strengthened.
Walters was released from prison 16 days before his alleged crime spree.
The working group’s initial report makes 11 recommendations for reforms, and DeWine said he hopes the document will become the “bible” for the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.
“This is what they will follow, because the safety of the public must be — must be — the most important thing that we do,” DeWine said.
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Nearly 10,400 people were placed on post-release control in 2018, and too many parole officers are overwhelmed with cases, which is a recipe for trouble, DeWine said.
On average, parole officers have supervised 76 released offenders. Some have more than 100 cases.
The General Assembly, as part of the biennial budget, increased funding so the Adult Parole Authority could add 40 staff, and new resources helped free up 60 parole officers to focus exclusively on offenders released from prison, DeWine said.
Caseloads are expected to drop to 60 per parole officer by June 2020, but DeWine on Monday said he has directed the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Adult Parole Authority to reduce general caseloads down to a ratio of 50 to 1.
He also ordered that caseloads not exceed 40 to 1 for specialized officers, who oversee the “most dangerous individuals,” like sex offenders and ex-inmates suffering from mental illness.
DeWine said he is going to ask Ohio lawmakers for more funding to increase agency staff.
The Adult Parole Authority has fewer than 500 parole officers who supervise about 34,000 people, state corrections officials said.
DeWine also said the most experienced parole officers should be assigned the cases of the most dangerous ex-inmates.
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The working group also recommended around-the-clock monitoring of people on electronic GPS supervision.
Right now, people on electronic monitoring who commit violations at night or on the weekends are not held accountable until the next business day, DeWine said.
“This is ineffective and frankly dangerous and it must cease,” he said. “Criminals don’t only operate Monday through Friday, 8 to 5.”
DeWine said he wants the corrections department and the Ohio Department of Public Safety to work together to develop a plan so they will instantly react when someone violates the terms of their release.
The public safety department already has analysts and incident commanders who work 24/7 who can help respond when violations occur, DeWine said.
Following a recommendation from the working group, DeWine also has ordered that all ex-inmates on GPS monitoring should be subject to restrictions on their movements.
DeWine ordered the development of standardized “exclusion zones,” where released offenders are prohibited from visiting.
In 2018, about 30% of ex-inmates on electronic monitoring were considered low risk, which ties up resources that could be used monitoring more serious offenders, he said.
DeWine said he will ask the General Assembly to amend state laws that require low-risk people convicted of certain statutes to be placed on electronic monitoring.
DeWine also called for the state to develop “crime scene correlation” technology that would allow law enforcement to check whether someone on GPS monitoring was at the scene or in the area when a crime was committed.
Some states already has this tool, which could help solve crimes before an offender commits additional offenses and goes on a crime spree, he said.
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Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said she was concerned and troubled after the deaths of the two girls in Dayton and looked at best practices and other ways to improve the system.
Days before the fatal crash, Walters failed to report for a drug test.
Neighbors said Walters was delusional and acting erratic and may have been using methamphetamine and other drugs leading up to his alleged crime spree.
Chambers-Smith said she approved a policy change for people on post-release control that considers a missed drug-testing appointment a failed test.
“That’s not the way it was done in the past — that’s the way it will be done in the future,” she said.
Hopefully victims’ families, survivors and loved ones see that the state is making significant efforts to make communities safer and prevent future trauma and loss of life, said Elizabeth Poprocki, executive director of the Ohio Victim Witness Association, and a member of the working group.
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