The Marshall Project is collecting data on COVID-19 infections in state and federal prisons. See how the virus has affected correctional facilities where you live.
This is a list of recommendations of ways for public officials to slow the spread and scale of the coronavirus crisis in Ohio’s jails and prisons.
While social distancing is nearly impossible inside a jail or prison, there are ways to mitigate the spread of the virus inside these state institutions. We have identified measures to (1) safely and drastically cut the size of the prison and jail populations; (2) halt the rapid flow of new people entering the criminal legal system; and (3) relieve citizens, judges, and court personnel of unnecessary obligations to show up in-person to court.
On June 4, 2020, after more than a week of protests across the United States and almost three months into a global pandemic, The Ohio Justice & Policy Center and the Cincinnati Black United Front released a list of eight recommendations. These are concrete ways for law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and local governments to respond to the two imminent threats to the livelihood of Black citizens: police brutality and the current pandemic.
Research shows people held pretrial experience harsher case outcomes than compared to those able to secure their own release. This unequal treatment—freedom for those with money, jail for those without—is neither fair nor effective.
Register for OJPC’s virtual legal clinics.
Link to the Ohio Revised Code.
Ohio’s reliance on cash bail has created a two-tiered system of justice where wealthier people accused of a crime go free while poorer people accused of the same crime stay behind bars. This animated short breaks down Ohio’s cash bail system.
A guide created for survivors of human trafficking interested in expunging a criminal record.
This is a guide made for legal professionals — attorneys, judges — who are assisting a client with Safe Harbor expungement in Ohio.
The consequences of a criminal conviction extend far beyond the sentence imposed in court. Once-convicted Ohioans face legal restrictions—called collateral sanctions—that can block access to housing, civic rights, and jobs. As explored in this paper, Ohio’s expansive collateral sanctions limit access to more than one in four jobs statewide, cost individuals an estimated $3.4 billion in foregone wages in 2017, and artificially constrain access to talent for businesses