COLUMBUS — The Ohio House voted 90-6 on Wednesday to expand access to alternatives to criminal convictions for drug offenders and open the door to sealing more criminal records, allowing offenders to rebuild their lives.
House Bill 1, given that number because of the priority the chamber placed on the measure, now goes to the Senate.
“We talk so oftentimes about giving people a second chance. This bill will do just that,” said Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo), a former mayor, assistant prosecutor, and public defender who sponsored the bill.
“These reforms will expand opportunities for those who’ve made mistakes, to right a wrong, to help them seek treatment and gainful employment,” she said. “It is well past time for all of us, as state lawmakers, to address these problems. ... Now is the time for us to be bold.”
The Senate is considering a competing measure, still in committee, that would instead reclassify low-level, nonviolent drug offenses from felonies to “unclassified” misdemeanors to all but take time in state prison off the table.
Neither bill is expected to reach Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk before the General Assembly recesses for the summer next week.
Both measures respond to November’s unsuccessful ballot issue that would have rewritten the Ohio Constitution to reclassify low-level drug possession felonies as misdemeanors and redirect financial savings from incarcerating fewer people into addiction treatment and victims’ services instead.
Judges and prosecutors opposed the ballot issue, arguing that it weakened the tools of the judiciary to get offenders to enter treatment and stay there as alternatives to prison time. The ballot issue failed handily, but lawmakers promised to come up with their own reforms.
House Bill 1 would require a judge to hold a hearing into each request for intervention in lieu of conviction from a defendant who argues that drug or alcohol use was a factor leading to the crime. The presumption would be that the defendant is eligible unless the judge specifies a reason why he or she should be denied. Someone accused of violent and sex crimes would not be eligible.
It expands the scope of sealing records of criminal convictions by eliminating the current cap on the number of fourth- and fifth-degree felonies or misdemeanors that can be sealed, regardless of whether they were drug offenses.
Currently, offenders with more than five felonies of any degree cannot have their records sealed.
“It’s not going to take the discretion away from our judges. ... The ball’s in their court,” said Rep. Phil Plummer (R., Dayton), a bill sponsor and former Montgomery County sheriff. “ ... My experience is, when somebody’s addicted, they’re chasing their next high. They can commit three or four felonies while they’re chasing that next high.
“ ... We can’t keep pushing the same buttons and expecting different results,” he said.
Two lawmakers from northwest Ohio — Reps. Derrick Merrin (R., Monclova Township) and Craig Riedel (R., Defiance) — were among the six “no” votes.
“It’s an important issue, but people have to be held accountable,” Mr. Merrin said. “If someone is convicted of a felony, part of the punishment is dealing with a record. You can’t wash that away. People have a right to know if you’re a convicted felon.”
First Published June 19, 2019, 6:42 p.m.
