People on parole get busted for violations but then are immediately set free to break the law again. Over the past few years, we’ve spotted the troubling trend of parolees being busted again and again for violating the terms of their release and other crimes only to be let out of jail right away to get busted again. Some offenders violated parole almost a dozen times before doing something serious enough to get sent back to prison.
Why does it happen? And why are parolees who are known to be homeless and abusing drugs sent back to the streets? SCDN contacted two local judges to find out. Here’s what they had to say.
Basically, the judges say they have no control over revoking parole, that’s up to the Adult Parole Authority. According to Scioto County Common Pleas Court Judge Howard Harcha, local courts keep a much closer eye on probationers than the Adult Parole Authority does on parolees. “I know judges throughout the state feel that parole is pretty lax about returning people to prison if they violate.”
However, there are things local judges can control but they still must follow state law.
Portsmouth Municipal Court Judge Steven Mowery says it can get complicated. He broke down the history of one offender who’s been arrested 10 times since he was released on parole. “We had him on a small sentence for a misdemeanor, and he ended up doing all of his time on that sentence. Then he picked up a new charge, he pled and we later released him to treatment under house arrest. He then left treatment without completion. We issued a warrant, and he was charged with a felony offense while on the street. Common Pleas Court had a felony hold on him, so we released our detainer. Be mindful that I cannot send anyone to prison. The maximum sentence I can give a person, even stacking multiple charges, is 18 months in the county jail. If a person then is convicted or pleads to a felony and is sent to prison while on probation for me or jailed by me, our time/term of probation usually expires while they are in prison.”
Scioto County Common Pleas Court Judge Howard Harcha says that while his court has control over people on probation, they have no authority over parolees.
As to releasing homeless addicts back on the street, Judge Harcha says he’s not allowed to hold someone in jail on a non-jailable offense even if he knows that person has no place to go. We asked him about the sentencing of a man who was arrested for parole violation seven times in two years before he attacked a woman and was arrested for kidnapping and assault. Harcha said Arthur Swanigan was allowed to plead to kidnapping and receive a two-year sentence with a judicial release to the Star Community Justice Center.
“You might say why don’t you just leave him in there for the 24 months? But once I put them on judicial release, they are on community control and I have some control of them. If I let him serve the entire sentence they either serve the whole sentence or they’re under parole and I don’t have anything to do with that. That means the parole board and the State of Ohio is in charge of supervision.”
The judge says the Ohio Department of Rehabilitations looks for reasons to let inmates out of overcrowded prisons. “There are so many reasons for them to let people out of prison. There’s no such thing as truth in sentencing.”
The judge says that one reason not to give up on repeat offenders is that sometimes people do change.
As the landscape of parole and probation continues to evolve, SCDN seeks to stay current with these developments. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the judges for taking the time to help us all better understand the judicial process.
