Former Scioto County Commissioner Bryan Davis is now officially in the Ohio prison system.
Davis was admitted to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on October 5 and is currently housed at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, the first stop for many men beginning state prison sentences in Ohio.
State records list Davis’s expected release date as March 16, 2029.
But the Correctional Reception Center is not necessarily where Davis will spend the next 2½ years.
For now, he’s going through the process every newly admitted prisoner must face before the state decides where he will serve his sentence.
From County Commissioner to State Prisoner
The transfer is the latest chapter in the public corruption case that brought down a man who once helped run Scioto County government.
Davis pleaded guilty to three felony charges in July: Theft in Office, Receiving Stolen Property and Filing an Incomplete, False or Fraudulent Tax Return.
Visiting Judge D. Dean Evans sentenced him in September to 30 months in prison.
The charges grew out of the investigation into contracts involving the Southern Ohio Port Authority, former county Economic Development Director Robert Horton and O’Steel Building Systems.
Court filings said $67,808.67 was paid by O’Steel to The Finder’s Network, an LLC owned by Davis’s wife. Davis ultimately acknowledged that he had reasonable cause to know the payment was connected to Horton’s theft by deception and admitted that he failed to initially disclose and account for the income.
Davis had asked the judge to let him avoid prison and serve five years of community control, commonly called probation. Prosecutors had agreed as part of his plea deal to recommend prison, although they did not specify how much.
The judge chose prison.
Now that sentence has begun.
What Happens at the Correctional Reception Center?
Despite the name, the Correctional Reception Center is a state prison.
But one of its primary jobs is essentially to serve as the front door to Ohio’s prison system.
ODRC says CRC is one of Ohio’s two adult male reception centers and accepts prisoners from 63 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Its primary mission is evaluating newly admitted inmates before they are assigned to a longer-term institution.
That means Davis isn’t simply handed a prison uniform and immediately sent to the cell where he’ll spend the rest of his sentence.
During reception, inmates undergo a series of assessments.
ODRC says those include medical, mental health, educational, social-service and classification evaluations, along with a general orientation to the state correctional system.
Those assessments establish a baseline for what an inmate needs and help determine things such as security classification, programming and continued care.
In simple terms, the state is figuring out:
Who is this prisoner, what level of security does he require, what medical or other needs does he have, what programs might he need and where should he be housed?
Where Will Davis Go Next?
We don’t know yet.
After the reception process is completed, most inmates are assigned to another ODRC institution based on their classification and the state’s placement decisions.
CRC itself also permanently houses a smaller number of inmates, but ODRC says newly admitted reception inmates wait there while the state determines their permanent assignment. Long-term programming then becomes the responsibility of the institution to which they are assigned.
So Davis’s appearance in the CRC system doesn’t mean that Orient will necessarily be his home for the entire 30-month sentence.
His next prison assignment should become clearer after the intake and classification process is complete.
Why Does ODRC Show Two Prison Terms?
The state record can look a little confusing at first glance.
ODRC lists Davis’s sentence for Theft in Office, a third-degree felony, as 2.50 years — 30 months.
It separately lists his fifth-degree felony conviction for Filing an Incomplete, False or Fraudulent Return at 0.92 years, or approximately 11 months.
But those sentences are concurrent.
That means they are being served at the same time, rather than one after another.
So Davis doesn’t serve 30 months and then start another 11 months.
The 11-month sentence is running during the 30-month sentence, leaving the longer 30-month term as the controlling prison sentence.
What About the 18 Days of Jail Credit?
ODRC’s record also shows Davis receiving 18 days of jail-time credit.
That’s time credited toward his sentence rather than additional time he must serve.
ODRC explains that time already served in a county jail must be credited against a state prison sentence.
The state currently lists Davis’s Expected Release Date/Parole Eligibility Date as March 16, 2029.
ODRC defines that field as the projected release date or, when applicable, the date on which an offender would become eligible for parole consideration.
In Davis’s case, the underlying sentence is a definite 30-month prison term.
The March 16, 2029 date is the date currently published by ODRC, but projected dates can be affected by the rules governing a particular sentence and any applicable credits. ODRC notes that certain eligible inmates can receive limited earned credit for successful participation in qualifying prison programs.
Prison Isn’t Davis’s Only Penalty
The 30 months behind bars are only part of the consequences of Davis’s guilty plea.
At sentencing, Davis was also ordered to repay $67,808.67 to Scioto County along with $512.50 connected to the state audit.
He must repay salary he received from the county while he was suspended, pay court costs and surrender the applicable portion of his public retirement benefits.
He is also prohibited from holding public office again.
Once released from prison, Davis faces an additional period of supervision.
The penalties mark a dramatic fall for a former commissioner who spent years making decisions about Scioto County’s budget, economic development projects and other county business.
The Larger Corruption Case Isn’t Over
Davis entering prison doesn’t close the book on the investigation.
Former Scioto County Economic Development Director and Southern Ohio Port Authority Director Robert Horton remains at the center of the related case.
Davis’s own sentencing memorandum placed much of the blame for the scheme on Horton and said Horton had entered an agreement to cooperate with the state in exchange for prosecutors recommending community control rather than prison.
Horton’s case has moved much more slowly through the court system.
That means one of the men at the center of the scandal is now beginning a state prison sentence while the ultimate outcome for another has yet to be determined.
For Davis, however, the court hearings and arguments over whether he should go to prison are over.
On October 5, the former Scioto County Commissioner entered the Correctional Reception Center as an Ohio state prisoner.
Now the state will determine where he goes next.