Commentary & In the News

On February 24, The Buckeye Institute joined the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center for a panel discussion on the future of criminal justice reform and drug sentencing reform in Ohio. In addition to Andrew J. Geisler, a legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, panelists included Sara Andrews, executive director of the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission; Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist at the ACLU of Ohio; Micah Derry, state director for the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity; and Kyle Strickland, deputy director of race and democracy at the Roosevelt Institute and senior legal analyst at Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

In a piece for the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, The Buckeye Institute explores the future of criminal justice reform in Ohio. In the article, Andrew Geisler, legal fellow with The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, writes, “State policymakers took a significant step forward in passing House Bill 1. However, additional criminal justice and sentencing reforms remain necessary. Policymakers and advocates should continue to ask: How can Ohio treat non-violent offenders more fairly? What policy tools will reduce the state’s prison population to prevent overcrowding? And how can Ohio work from a rigorous data-driven baseline rather than anecdotal evidence?”

In a piece for Cleveland‑Marshall College of Law’s Your Witness forum, The Buckeye Institute’s Robert Alt urges that the reform of Ohio’s drug laws in Senate Bill 3 will give hope to those suffering from addiction and punish those who are truly responsible. Alt writes, “These welcome reforms address an ongoing crisis that Ohio has neglected for too long… We have already lost too many Ohioans. We can do better.”