Ohio 'on the cusp' of needing to build a new prison

Ohio is "on the cusp" of needing to build a new prison to ensure safety, prison director Gary Mohr said.

During a Tuesday speaking engagement at his church in Chillicothe, Mohr shared his frustrations with slow progress on reforms that he said would help tamp down the prison population. As of this week, the prison population is 50,602, which is 400 more than at this time last year and 721 inmates shy of the all-time record set in November 2008.

"I won't do it," Mohr said of requesting an estimated $1 billion to build another prison. "Somebody else will, but we're getting close enough with this increase (in prison population) that somebody's going to have to because of safety issues."

Although overall violence has been down, the number of staff seriously injured by inmates more than doubled between 2011 and 2013, the most recent state statistics released.

The growing prison population continues to be driven by female inmates, which was at 4,247 this week, up about 4.6 percent from the same time last year. The female population first crested 4,000 in June 2013 and the increase has been fueled by women battling addiction and serving short sentences, Mohr said.

Just how much Ohio's 27 prisons are busting at the seams is unclear. Ohio stopped tracking capacity in 2013 after the American Correctional Association dropped its standards regarding rated capacities, said prison spokesman Brian Niceswanger.

"No national standard exists for making this calculation so in the absence of a national standard, (the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) does not track it," he said.

Based on the state's last capacity rating, determined in 2012, the current population is 131 percent over capacity.

Managing Director of Operations Ed Voorhies said he's focused on helping Mohr, who has repeatedly promised to resign if the prison population grows to the point of forcing him to ask for a new prison.

'The director will not build or open another prison," Voorhies said. "Such a significant part of our population is the low-level non-violent offender who is better treated in the community."

Voorhies cited the Thinking for Change cognitive behavior class that can be offered for a third of the cost outside of prison and also has a higher success rate.

When pressed about identifying what the population tipping point for building a new prison is, Voorhies didn't answer and was adamant that he "won't give in."

"I want to give money that currently is going to the end of life and the end of the (criminal) process earlier in people's lives. That's what I'm standing for," Mohr said Tuesday. "Yet this guy right here (pointing at himself) is on the cusp of having to ask for another billion dollars to build another prison."

The last budget doubled money for addiction services in prison and $58 million was directed toward community programming. Last month the Associated Press reported Ohio legislators are allowing the early release of low-level, nonviolent felony drug offenders into community programs or under electronically monitored house arrest if they have less than a year left to serve.

It's too early to know how those efforts will impact population growth, but the current population is below projections made by the state in December 2014. At that time, the prison's Bureau of Research expected the July population to hit 50,794 if no new changes were made to address population and 50,583 if community alternatives were added.

Gannett Ohio reporter Chris Balusik contributed to this report.

jison@Gannett.com

Twitter: @JonaIson