Ohio Justice & Policy Center

     Last month, the Ohio Senate began debating SB288. This nearly 1,800 page piece of legislation has taken more than five years to paste together. It’s a variety pack of criminal justice reforms, incorporating more than a half dozen bills from previous legislative sessions. By updating and codifying the Ohio Revised Code, this measure aims to eliminate both recidivism and crime cycles. 

     Senator Nathan Manning is the bill’s sponsor. He says he’s confident these new rules will work because, “SB 288 adopts proven approaches to ensuring that the incarcerated earn the tools to succeed and reduce the chances that they will return behind bars.” 

Part of this bill focuses on helping returning citizens put their life back together after incarceration. Once they are released, formerly incarcerated people are commonly met with two major obstacles: expunging records and collateral sanctions. 

     First, SB288 broadens the scope of what can be cleared from a person’s record. The bill offers judicial discretion and allows more offenses to qualify for record sealing. In addition, it will force the juvenile court to expunge all records no later than an individual’s 23rd birthday. 

Second, SB288 goes beyond conventional reforms. During his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Manning touched on a punishment that many Ohioans may not even know exists, saying that its, “overarching goal [is] reducing unnecessary collateral sanctions on formerly incarcerated persons.” 

     When SB288 was being drafted, OJPC worked alongside Senator Manning to ensure that actionable policy was being incorporated. We know what works because we witness the effect of limited expungement opportunities and collateral sanctions everyday. For us, policy is more than research – it’s reality. 

     Life after a conviction is often referred to as a “civil death.” A previous conviction creates barriers, causing many persons with criminal records to remain unemployed. In fact, it’s estimated that the unemployment rate amongst the formerly incarcerated is nearly five times higher than the general population. 

     Our Second Chance division works to rebuild the social and professional reputations of formerly incarcerated individuals. We pushed for expanding expungement opportunities because it’s a blessing to those trying to rebuild their lives. Our staff knows it can be the difference between someone living life to the fullest or just being another statistic. 

Our Second Chance staff also assists individuals navigate collateral sanctions. These rules make persons with criminal records second class citizens. It can forbid them from obtaining certain jobs or professional licenses, limit their access to housing, and even restrict higher education. While it may seem like a small consequence compared to serving time behind bars, it’s not. A prison sentence has an end date, but sanctions can last for years – sometimes a lifetime. 

     Collateral sanctions touch the lives of many people. In fact, nearly one million Ohioans have a felony record. These formerly incarcerated individuals have to navigate nearly 1,100 rules that block them from obtaining nearly a quarter of all jobs across the state. This sanctioned population is only getting bigger. In Ohio, the number of incarcerated people has more than tripled in size since the 1980s. Moreover, the Ohio prison population is so large, that the state ranks 14th in the nation in the number of incarcerated people. 

OJPC Policy Director Kevin Werner has noted the positive impact of adopting “clean slate concept” mechanisms as outlined in SB288. He emphasized the broader impact that reforming expungement and collateral sanctions would have on the state, saying, “I know SB 288 is not an economic development bill but there sure could be a huge bonus to Ohio’s employers, our economy and the estimated 1 in 3—or approximately 3.9 million— Ohioans living with a criminal record.” 

     The legislation currently sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee but its outlook seems promising. According to Senator Manning, the speed at which SB288 moves through the legislature is up to his colleagues, saying, “this is going to be a member-driven process.” Senate President Matt Huffman appears to support the initiative. Meanwhile, a pioneer in criminal justice reform, Representative Bill Seitz, says he is “enthused” by SB288 and has promised to help it become law. 

https://ohiojpc.org/2022/03/31/weekly-policy-update/ 

     The Department of Homeland Security is warning Cuban exiles in Florida that their planned flotilla to show support of protesters in the Communist-controlled island is illegal and could result in a 10-year prison sentence. 

     But the organizer of this flotilla in Miami seems undeterred.  

     Osdany Veloz says if he can get at least 100 boaters, they will sail towards Cuba to “show a peaceful protest against the [Cuban] regime,” regardless of the DHS warning. Veloz plans on remaining 12 miles off the coast to stay within international waters but said boaters will go further if allowed.  

     “If Cuban authorities open up and let us through, then we will definitely go in and hand over anything useful that we have on board,” he told the Daily Mail.  

     “We realize the danger,” he added. “But we are trying to follow the rules and guidelines and make it safe for everyone. Everyone who is going has families here, most have families there in Cuba. They don’t want to risk anything. We want to get it done the right way.”

     And Veloz, who was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. when he was three, isn’t alone in his passion.  

     “The purpose is to stay on the border, not trespassing, stay in international water and just let the Cuban people know we’re also fighting for their freedom, so once and for all they can be a free country,” Jorge Lopez, who also plans on making the trip planned for this week, said.  

     But if the voyage sets sail, the boaters will be looking at more than just prison time – including seizure of the boats and fines of $25,000 per day.

“It is illegal for boaters to depart with the intent to travel to Cuba for any purpose without a permit,” the DHS advisory said.  

     The DHS offered advice for those who plan on going anyway, saying they should bring “working communication equipment” and monitor the Coast Guard’s emergency channel. Boaters should also exercise caution while sailing in the midst of hurricane season, as they are likely to encounter strong winds and waves.  

     The U.S. Coast Guard also discouraged the planned trip.  

     “We want to make sure that anybody who’s even thinking of taking to the sea thinks twice about that, it’s a perilous, dangerous journey,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Brenden McPherson said, according to CBS Miami, adding that resources will be on hand for the group if needed. “The purpose is to monitor the situation, be there in case something happens. More importantly to discourage people from making a dangerous voyage from the US south.”  

     Some boaters reportedly did set off in the night and early morning hours, according to the Daily Mail which added: “However there were reports of at least one boat being intercepted by Homeland Security only a few miles into the planned trip.”  

     The armada was set to sail on Monday but the plans were postponed until Thursday as Veloz noted in an Instagram post.

     White House officials met with Cuban Americans to listen to their policy recommendations and concerns. In a late-night statement, the Biden administration said the “White House is monitoring the situation in Cuba closely,” and that it remains a “top priority for the Administration.”  

     President Biden has also ordered the State Department to make sure money that Cuban Americans send home makes it directly to families without interference from the Cuban regime. He is also ordering a review on whether security staff should be increased at the U.S Embassy in Havana and asking Congress to help find solutions on increasing internet access on the island.

Link: https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/07/20/dc-officials-remove-cuba-libre-tribute-but-plan-to-shut-down-streets-to-make-blm-mural-permanent-1106258/

July 20, 2021

                                          Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. - Aristotle

     Streets without cars, stores without people, and jobs without employees--- but the strangest sight is people without people. The illness went from it shouldn’t affect us, to it wouldn’t be that bad, before giving us a life that couldn’t be. These ghastly days suspended half the world in an in-between place --- no one could go back, but no one could go forward. As it spread from continent to country to community, the world was rocked by what could only be described in one word: pandemic. As the United States battled with this grim reality, one city became what it bragged it never was… the city that never sleeps, took a nap. 

     No longer hoping between the boroughs, people are instead practicing social distancing, sheltering in place, self-isolating, and quarantining. Whatever the label, it’s all the same -- the highlight of your day is taking the trash outside. The exotic foreign film we watched for a couple months, quickly escalating into the silent movie that we are living. We saw it first in Washington then we watched California become ravaged. We were on the brink, but our trepidation would only be temporary. 

     We watched our city go from a rat race to a city where only the rats are out. Our warm spot heated up into an inferno. Our famous park became a field hospital. Our convention center transformed into a massive healthcare complex. Times Square came to a grinding halt. Stores and restaurants closed. And the biggest indicator that something was wrong in the Big Apple -- our bars closed. Driving through town is like a theme park ride. You see the fresh remnants of what the city was. You can sense the eerie omen of our desolate landmarks and the chilling premonition that things will get worse… much worse.  You wait and wait for the other shoe to drop. And then it does, body after body.

     The sirens pacing closer and closer, before eventually fading away into the spring air. That piercing sound is a reminder of the fear that remains when the sirens evaporate… leaving us with nothing but sinister silence. That silence is a loaded feeling of fear and loathing. A loathing because of our lack of preparation, our mortality, and inability to be self-reliant. And while the city that once was a melting pot acquiesces to social distancing, everyone holds their physical and mental breath. Will it be May? Will it be June? Will it be the fall before the nightmare ends? While we wait to exhale, we know that there is more than silence in the air - it’s despair.

     It’s there, beyond the air. Looking out the window you see it. Everyone’s emotions echoing from block to block and brownstone to brownstone. Peering out the window and into someone else's, you’ll see a vignette of scenarios. The window at the top left, she lost her job and stays indoors worried about how she will pay the rent. The guy one window over still has his “essential” job, but feels the terror rise when he masks up to go to work. The window below, he works remotely, but is nervous about how long this will last. The window to the left is an elderly couple, filled with gloom about catching it and dying alone. The window at the bottom, resides someone with a health condition, wondering if the next trip to the grocery store will be her last.  All from different walks of life -- but all fearing for their life and livelihood.

     The gentle hours pass, but our minds are left in rough places. Swept indoors by an invisible contagion, the obnoxious roommates and tiny apartments that people avoid are now the only faces and four walls they see. Some of them are living in denial, refusing to accept reality, letting their idle minds become a workshop for jejune ideas. It’s just the flu. It’s an overreaction. The numbers are inflated. Others live in acceptance, perhaps too much acceptance of what is taking place, and let their idle minds become a workshop for conspiracies. Was it caused by 5G towers? Perhaps, created in a lab? Was it a democratic hoax? Was it created to create mandatory vaccinations? Or was it the doomsday scenario your crazy neighbor always warned you about? These thoughts,  much like the virus, have no cure. 

     With this virus, if it isn’t happening to you, it is still happening to you. Someone else testing positive is a negative for us all. Either you're in the hospital or you're suffering from the virus’ societal consequences. At the very least ,you're trapped inside with nowhere to go. But as we decide the return of our city, we are talking less about the economy and instead expressing our innate value on life.  

     Do we open early at the risk of the elderly or open late at the risk of our economy? As some willingly offer up people for profits, we must not forget how our liberty and security is interconnected, and that our individual safety comes from understanding our mutually assured destruction.  Martin Niemöller illustrated this with his world renowned poem during the Holocaust, First They Came For.  Just like the Nazi’s came for the weakest, so does the virus. First it will come for our grandparents, then our parents, then the sick --- but who will be there to help us when it comes for the millennials? The job you want to go back to and the things you want to buy won’t matter if everyone is dead.  

     This is the city that never sleeps … but it’s also the city that was never really awake. We may sit on our stoop or stand on our rooftop decks and reminisce about life just weeks ago, yet our social woes came long before. We built social interaction on digital intimacy and emojis - creating a life that coddled us into a false sense of large friend groups and empty followers. Our daily life was filled with the tropes and vices of a first world nation, keeping us unnaturally comfortable and untouched from the harsh realities of self responsibility and companionship. 

We walk around in haste with our eyes constantly glaring at our phones, air pods in our ears, and our words angrily spilling into Tweets -- while at all costs avoiding real interactions with other people. All the machinations of a city that can’t suffice in a crisis. But for a city whose people are physically in everyone else’s space all the time, it ironically imbued a sense of emotional and mental distancing long before it was forced into social distancing. 

     Robert Putnam warned of this in his groundbreaking book, Bowling Alone - a reflection of America’s dwindling social capital and its disastrous effect on democracy. But instead of recollecting our humanity, we retreated to the corners of isolation and hid behind the veil of new technology. Our refusal to abandon our vanity of endless selfies leaves the residue of a culture that is less connected with every swipe. It created a culture with a decaying ability to flesh out what is going on, how bad things  really are, our sense of intuition, and our empathy in everyday conversations. And while the whole country fell in line with this new normal, a vintage New Yorker will tell you that the “greatest city on earth” had already become an exaggerated version of this socially distanced order.   

     Before long, New Yorkers finally got the isolation they have been longing for and the quarantining they have been demanding. All it took was a pandemic and city-wide lockdown. A lack of human to human contact had become the status quo. But what we found is that being forced to communicate through a screen isn’t as cool as choosing to communicate through a screen. 

The icy demeanor, the callous character, and shrewd calculating ways we all cheat to get ahead is the fuel behind the speed of a New York minute. All fraying away our ability to rely on anyone or any government. If that sounds cynical just Google toilet paper fights.  Nevertheless, the attrition of our social skills through tech based communication never really eliminated loneliness; it just made us forget about it a little longer. But a crisis is one of the few things created in a vacuum ---  pulling all aspects of our life into it. Employment, education, economy, and government suffers, taking our safety and security with it. All plaguing what vapid and image obsessed city dwellers pretend to not care about --- family.

     While we stick our hands out for assistance and demand government intervention to solve our woes, we might want to take a pause. In New York we trip over a permanent population of the hungry, unemployed, and needy everyday: the homeless. The pandemic quickly whipped the city into providing three free meals a day to anyone who wanted one. A city in panic must make a city of hypocrites, for where was New York with daily meals for the homeless? Where was assistance for housing? Where was attentive healthcare?  It seems this city’s government only feels your pain if they can feel your vote. 

     When the veil of quarantine is lifted, cars will fill the streets, stores will open, and people will go back to work. The pandemic will end and we will let this time slip from our memories like we have all the tragedies that have preceded it. When the memes stop, daily press conferences cease, and we all have toilet paper again, the virus’ presence in our collective consciousness will start to fade. But, let’s not confuse refusal to remember with resiliency. We were always susceptible to this dread. Denial of our vulnerability in the future will not protect us. While we will mentally book-end this experience, our instinct to panic will haunt us. And it's that impulse to panic that should  really scare us, because the city that never sleeps will wake up ...  but for how long.