Transcript
"The 'Parole' Board?! What's THAT Got To Do With The PRICE OF MILK?!" The World's Greatest Teacher used parables for good reason: Often it is the ONLY way to clarify a cloudy subject. Of greater importance - and much more difficult - is un-clouding a deliberately clouded situation. But let us try: You are sent to the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk advertised at $3.50. But when you get to the Register, the CLERK says: "Uh-uh! Milk is now 'five-to-twenty-five' dollars a gallon; you've got five more Registers to pay, before you can leave the store!" (Each Register can 'nick' you another $5.00!). "Ridiculous!" you say? Yep! Just as ridiculous as the WILDLY variable "open" sentencing that used to be in effect in Ohio and which RELIED ON a "sensible" parole board to HONOR the Lawmakers' intentions to FREE a prisoner at his ELIGIBILITY. (Example: "30% off for good behavior" meant: "On a '5-to-25' you'll go home in 3½.")!!! 1996 brought a new system: 'Senate Bill-2', or "Truth-In-Sentencing" which SET shorter, reasonable sentences, so that the 'parole' board COULD NOT manipulate them. Unfortunately for "Old Law" (these past 18 years) steps were NOT taken to apply these shorter, definite sentences to those ALREADY IN the system, even though that HAD been in the plans..... Look at the (post-1996) 'Felony Sentencing Manual' (available at Law Libraries). Compare the "Old Law" with the "New Law" Columns. NOTE THAT the REPLACEMENT FOR the "old" "5-to-25" is 3 years FLAT. ("Flat" sentences can be NO HIGHER THAN 10 years.) The PREVIOUS designation "__-to-25" has been dropped (deleted). This removed the risk (and the TEMPTATION) of ANYONE - for WHATEVER purpose - ADDING YEARS TO a prisoner's anticipated out-date (his ELIGIBILITY quoted to him BY the sentencing Judge), and thereby trapping him "inside" for another (unwarranted) 5, or 10 or 15 or even 20 years of extra time. "...PRICE OF MILK?!" (Once "On-A-Roll" the 'parole' board DOESN'T KNOW WHERE TO STOP!) So "Old Law" ARE NOT protected from the board's penchant to double and to triple and to quadruple (ad infinitum) the Judge's intended term of imprisonment. When the Judge said "I want to see you do three years," he DIDN'T MEAN twenty-five! But the 'parole' board "believes" that it has 'CARTE BLANCHE' to "go the limit"... It is long-past time to CORRECT that old MISTAKE. But no Government Official wants to touch a "hot potato" - that is, "going against" the "powerful and influential" 'parole' board... "Old Law" prisoners are YEARS OVERDUE for release. WE the CITIZENS can and MUST let Officials KNOW that RIGHT ACTION on their part WILL NOT "offend" us but will only earn them our RESPECT.
