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We're tuned into the OH House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on #SB3, which would reform sentencing for low-level drug offenses to keep people experiencing addiction from being warehoused in overcrowded prisons & marked for life with felony records.http://www.ohiohouse.gov/committee/criminal-justice
#SB3 would mean quicker access to treatment, a path to employment, and greater stability without the 100s of collateral consequences of a felony conviction.
Core components of SB3 were developed by a commission of legislators, law enforcement leaders, & policy experts.
Core components of SB3 were developed by a commission of legislators, law enforcement leaders, & policy experts.
First up: One of the bill's co-sponsors Senator @JohnEklundOH explains the structure of #SB3, and how it would allow for courts to decide how to proceed on drug charges in ways that might divert those arrested from incarceration and subsequent felony records. TY Sen. Eklund!
Senator @JohnEklundOH: "The primary motivation of this bill is to get people who need help the help that they need...without needing to lug around the scarlet letter of a felony proceeding when they finally get themselves straightened out—God willing, that they do." #SB3
Rep. Diane Grendell asks if #SB3 would go against the will of the people who rejected #HB1.
Senator @JohnEklundOH: "No, these bills are not the same." Lays out how this restructures sentencing.
Senator @JohnEklundOH: "No, these bills are not the same." Lays out how this restructures sentencing.
"People will not be treated lightly; this is not necessarily decriminalization. We are putting in a presumption for trafficking where if you possess a large amount of drugs, you are considered to be trafficking." #SB3
Chairman: "Judges say they need the threat of incarceration to make drug addicts take drug treatment seriously." #SB3
We're just going to drop this here: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2019/11/08/opinion-we-cant-punish-addiction-out-someone/4165031002/
We're just going to drop this here: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2019/11/08/opinion-we-cant-punish-addiction-out-someone/4165031002/
Senator @JohnEklundOH speaks to conversations with people who struggle with addiction, and how threat of a felony does not deter them from the disease.
What really lead to a change was a personal consequence -- loss of custody, deaths, overdoses, other personal catastrophes.
What really lead to a change was a personal consequence -- loss of custody, deaths, overdoses, other personal catastrophes.
"Drug addiction is unlike anything. The notion that a threat of a felony is enough to get people to get help for themselves, presumes, I think, that these people think rationally." — @JohnEklundOH
Last question posed by Rep Grendell: Don't we already have an allowance for judges to send violators to treatment?
Senator Eklund speaks to how this bill expands that capacity.
Senator Eklund speaks to how this bill expands that capacity.
Rep Seltz asks about how this would affect overcrowding.
The object of the bill is not to put more people in jails and prisons, but to get them to a place where they can get better help for themselves.
The object of the bill is not to put more people in jails and prisons, but to get them to a place where they can get better help for themselves.
Rep Seitz: "The real issue in this committee, I think, is whether you drew the line of quantities effectively in this bill."
Senator Eklund speaks to how it is complex to discern what is a "personal use" amount; these amounts were set informed by the limited data that exists.
Senator Eklund speaks to how it is complex to discern what is a "personal use" amount; these amounts were set informed by the limited data that exists.
Rep Seitz "You keep saying that for first time users at the low level possession offense ... why wouldn't we mandate treatment on the first offense?"
Eklund: I am wary of removing that discretion. There were enough things that some judges found problematic.
Eklund: I am wary of removing that discretion. There were enough things that some judges found problematic.
"If the committee were to come back and say that we should mandate that [mandated treatment at the first offense] we remain open to it." —Senator @Sean_J_OBrien
Vice Chair @PhilPlummerOH40 asks for clarification on what amounts indicate. Asks Senator Eklund if he meant to say that people can sell drugs to "feed their habit."
Eklund: There is a developing understanding that quantities possessed can indicate intentions of possession.
Eklund: There is a developing understanding that quantities possessed can indicate intentions of possession.
