CLEVELAND, Ohio — For weeks, Ohio officials from both sides of the aisle have promised President Joe Biden will be on the November ballot.
We’re talking about broken promises and what happens next on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
Now that Matt Huffman and Jason Stephens have reneged on their pledge to do the right thing, what paths are available to ensuring Joe Biden is on the Ohio ballot in November?
What is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s reaction to Mike DeWine’s warning about the huge red flag at the state teachers retirement system?
How did the story end Thursday for Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s college roommate, who was hired into a key public safety position after being involved in an ugly civil rights case when he was a cop in Washington D.C. ?
Joe Biden is not yet on the Ohio ballot, but someone else says he satisfies the legal requirements to be there. Who?
How much did Ohio spend on a custom-built hiking and biking app, why is it now abandoning it, and what will replace it?
Before the House adjourned Wednesday with no plans on the horizon for returning, the Legislature did pass a law to deal with kids and cell phones. What is it?
How might the Biden Administration proposal to reducing the criminal implications for marijuana users lead to a better understanding of how the drug affects people, short and long-term?
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank says every year that demand for its services increases, even as our population remains stagnant. The increase in 2023 over 2022, however, is staggering. How many more people received food last year than the year before?
It’s Friday, so lets talk about our Delinquent series. The theme this week was mandatory bindovers of youths to adult courts. What did we learn, Leila?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
chris (00:00.749)
How about those Cleveland Cavaliers? Our Cavs reporter Chris Fedor says you don’t really have a playoff series till somebody wins an away game. Cleveland did just that in an arena where Boston only lost four games the whole season. We’ll have to see whether this becomes very competitive now. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland .com and the Plain Dealer.
I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Leila Tassi. And we’ll start at the State House where we often start. Now that Matt Huffman and Jason Stevens had reneged on their pledge to do the right thing, what paths are available for ensuring that Joe Biden is on the Ohio ballot in November? Lisa, I cannot believe this is an issue. This is such an automatic thing. And yet these guys gummed it up.
Lisa (00:52.256)
And the legislative options, the window is kind of closing on that because bills in Ohio take effect 90 days after the governor signs. Governor DeWine would have had to have signed it by yesterday for it to become law by the current August 7th deadline. But lawmakers have adjourned until May 22nd. Now there could be an emergency clause that would make it go into effect immediately, but it’s not really clear there’s the required two -thirds support in either the House or the Senate for this.
DeWine did say to reporters that Biden will be on the ballot. If it doesn’t get fixed here, it will be fixed in court. So we talked to Capitol University constitutional law expert, Mark Brown. He says there is precedent to file a federal civil rights case versus secretary of state, Frank LaRose, claiming violation of first amendment rights and 14th amendment rights to equal protection. There was a 1983…
U .S. Supreme Court decision in Anderson versus then Secretary of State of Ohio, Anthony Celebrez. There was an independent candidate in 1980, John Anderson, who filed nominating petitions two months after the May deadline. It was rejected, but the U .S. Supreme Court overturned that and say the restrictions threatened diversity and competition on the ballot. Also, there was a Supreme Court ruling in the U .S.
in March in Trump versus Anderson. Remember, Colorado tried to kick him off the ballot by invoking the constitutional insurrection provision, but then the Supreme Court ruled that that’s just a political tit for tat. They could do it to anybody actually. So the only possibilities it seems like are file a discrimination case in the States, so it would go to the Ohio Supreme Court.
He notes that Ohio Secretary of State has previously allowed, as we’ve reported repeatedly, we have allowed exceptions to this 90 -day rule. And also, the Secretary of State here has previously allowed stand -in candidates for minor parties when their convention is held after the deadline. It would be difficult for Ohio to defend this deadline. Other states have managed it, and Ohio has made past exceptions.
chris (03:07.885)
Everybody keeps saying, don’t worry, he’ll be on the ballot. But, but I’m not, I am worried. I don’t trust any of these guys. They’ve lied to us before. They’ve lied to us repeatedly. Matt Huffman and Jason Stevens said, we got this. We’re going to pass the law. We’ll take care of it. And did not. They keep everybody saying that the deadlines pass. It’s not really because if they pass a super majority, they can start something tomorrow. And even if that, that seventh deadline comes,
If they pass something next week that said, we’ll go to the 23rd or wherever, we would be able to do it. They just don’t, they’re not going to do it. I don’t believe they actually wanted to do it. I think they delayed and delayed and delayed until they could go, oh, well, leave it to the courts. And for Mike DeWine and the leaders to say, well, the courts will do it. How do they know they’re not in the courts? I mean, this has to happen.
and everybody resting us assured, why should we feel that way when it has not happened yet? This has been a known issue for quite some time now. The leaders in Ohio are just not serving Ohio. We talk about it every day in every sort of story. And this is the latest. This is a basic, simple thing, and they couldn’t get it done.
Lisa (04:19.936)
And, you know, as you said, this is such an easy fix and now they’re, you know, on vacation till the 22nd. We also talked to Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Emeritus Jonathan Enton. He said the court might be uncomfortable ordering Biden onto the ballot when the problem was created by the legislature.
chris (04:37.869)
I know. Well, and I’m not, I don’t know that they’re going to come back. Jason Stevens is under constant attack by the Matt Huffman cabal that’s trying to remove him. So Matt Huffman can waltz in and be house speaker in January. And Stevens, when he calls him back into session, who knows what they can do? And there’s all sorts of whispering. So I, there’s no confidence this will be done legislatively. And I don’t really think they care. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
What is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s reaction to Mike DeWine’s warning about a huge red flag at the state teachers retirement system, Laura?
laura (05:15.438)
He opened his own investigation. He is digging into the activities of this pension board, whether he should remove the board, the 11 members, for breaching fiduciary duty. Specifically, he’s looking at concerns that the board had been susceptible to, quote, hostile takeover by private interests. And he referenced the state law that grants him authority to seek a civil action against board members who breach their fiduciary duty. That means they could be removed. And this stems from the dispute between the reformers on the board.
and the traditionalists and the retirees have backed the reformers because they want to see more money going into their pensions so they can get more cost of living raises. And it seems to hinge on Wade Steen, the former fiscal officer in Cuyahoga County, who got kicked off the board by Mike DeWine and then got an appeals court to get him back on.
chris (06:02.797)
Yeah, I’m starting to think that Mike DeWine’s red flag isn’t in and of itself a red flag. Teachers have been hugely dissatisfied with the people running this board and they did do a campaign to put reformers on it. No sooner did they get the majority where Mike DeWine kicks Wade Steen off. He had probable cause to do it because Steen wasn’t shown up for the meetings, but he kicked them off. Steen got back on using the courts so the reformers have the majority.
So now Mike Dwine saying this thing stinks to high heavens, everybody needs to investigate it. But when you read the documentation that they’re talking about, I’m not so sure. I wish we’d hear from STEAM because it looks like they’re trying to do what the teachers want. There are questions about conflicts of interest that are raised in these documents. But remember that the state auditor went in and did a full scale audit of this thing.
and found nothing to be worried about. He did advocate for some more transparency. So I wonder if this is really an effort to keep the bad actors in place and block the reformers who the teachers wanted in there.
laura (07:17.774)
I think the same thing. It’s hard to know because I don’t know everything that’s going on in this board, but the reformers wanted a new company to manage the money. We’re talking about $94 billion that is managed for 500 ‚000 teachers and retirees in Ohio. This is a whole lot of money. What Mike DeWine seems to be saying is you had a young firm managing this that didn’t have a lot of experience.
and that’s questionable. I mean, he did forward these documents to literally anybody he could think of. They went to every statewide office holder. They went to a bunch of state representatives. They went to the ethics board. It does feel like more like a fishing expedition, yeah, than something specific.
chris (07:51.277)
Yeah.
chris (08:00.333)
A witch hunt. It’s a witch hunt. Yeah. And I, and let’s face it, this is a pension, the only state pension system that went years without a cost of living increase. Every other state pension system had them. And so all these teachers are going, Hey, what’s going on here? I, I don’t think Mike DeWine explained himself well in that press release. Dave Yost’s.
laura (08:12.206)
Yeah.
laura (08:23.694)
which he sent out at like four o ‘clock after he’d already had availability with reporters that day.
chris (08:26.669)
With an anonymous document that is veiled in what it’s saying, and on top of that, Dave Yost issues gobbledygook about what he’s investigating. It feels like there’s a heavy thumb being put down. I don’t know whether there’s legitimacy to it, but we do have that state audit that’s not two years old saying it’s clean. So.
I don’t know, this was fishy. Mike DeWine doesn’t make bold statements about red flags almost ever, even though there’s a million red flags in this state. So you really do have to question the motivations that are going on here. And man, the teachers have got to get control of this. They are the people who have control. They do vote for the officers of this thing. They just have to make sure they’re heard.
laura (08:56.27)
Right, right.
laura (09:12.43)
I love that this comes at the tail end of Teacher Appreciation Week. You know, the week that we give them all the bagels and the gift cards and the kids send thank you notes and flowers. And it’s like, what they really care about is making sure that they can live after they retire, right? Like, this is very important.
chris (09:15.981)
Haha.
Lisa (09:16.416)
Yes.
chris (09:27.597)
There is a red flag here. I just don’t know if it’s Mike the Wine’s red flag or if it’s a red flag about Mike the Wine.
Lisa (09:34.88)
Are you talking? Well, I feel like, you know, because he was concerned that that Irish consultant that the pension fund hired, Aon, severed its contract before it was over. So he thinks that’s a big red flag. And I’d like to know more about why they did sever the contract.
chris (09:49.229)
I write so many questions here, but it is odd that he sent this to everybody on earth to investigate. It’s just like, let’s let’s hit them with machine gun fire. What is there? Is it criminal? Is it auditing? Is it? You know, he sent it to the secretary of state. Is there election weirdness? We’ll have to see what what he’s so suspicious about.
laura (10:10.734)
He just didn’t want anybody to feel left out.
chris (10:15.021)
Well, the teachers are all worried now because they felt like they were getting somewhere and now they feel like the state is pushing back.
laura (10:20.174)
Don’t be worried. That’s your retirement plan!
chris (10:23.309)
Yeah, I know. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How did the story end Thursday for Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibbs’ college roommate who was hired into a key public safety position after being involved in a very ugly civil rights case when he was a cop in Washington, DC? Layla, not surprising. The only surprise is it took four days.
Leila (10:43.403)
Yeah, this saga ended yesterday with Philip McHugh resigning from his position. Mayor Bibb sent out a statement mid -afternoon yesterday to tell the public all about this. He said that he understands that hiring McHugh in the first place caused pain in the community and he reiterated his commitment to public safety and said it’s his highest concern to get this right. In his statement, Bibb said,
The complexities of public safety require innovative solutions, data -driven strategies, and a collaborative approach that leverages the expertise and insights of a diverse range of professionals. Since meeting Phil, I have known him to be this type of leader. However, Phil recognizes that his past has led to a distraction, as well as concern from our community and my staff. It became clear to Phil that he will not be able to be effective in this environment. So he…
This issue really, it bubbled to a head this week after Courtney Astolfi’s story showed that Philip McHugh had lied at some point with his multiple versions of the story of that civil rights case that’s behind this whole thing. Either he lied under oath during his deposition when he said he believed he was in the right to pursue that elderly couple in Washington, DC where he was accused of violating their civil rights or.
He lied to the Cleveland .com editorial board when he said he never wanted to pursue the case and prosecutors were forcing him to. McHugh’s answer to Courtney at the time was, both stories are true, which can be, yeah. And for his part, McHugh wrote in his resignation letter that he feels unfairly maligned and that he didn’t get a fair chance to do his job. He said he was the target of a politically motivated smear campaign by city council members and the media. But yeah.
chris (12:13.069)
Yeah, which is impossible. Yeah, there’s no…
chris (12:28.045)
Yeah, what is that? What is our political motivation? We’re the truth tellers. We go get the facts. He challenged us to go get the facts. He said, go read the file. We did. It showed the lie. There’s no political motivation there. And what’s the political motivation in city council? They’re worried about having a white cop who did civil rights stuff with a very elderly black couple being the number three guy in the city. That’s their job is to demand answers.
Leila (12:37.739)
Exactly.
chris (12:57.709)
His resignation letter was odd to me. I thought it would be, I’m sorry I brought this favor to my former college roommate, the mayor, and I wish it would have worked out. See ya. But instead, he goes out in a bitter pill.
Leila (13:13.963)
Yes, he did. And the council members who have been calling for his job this past week or weeks were kind of like, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Phil.
chris (13:24.333)
I just was surprised it took until Thursday for this to happen. After that story ran, after we showed the city the dishonesty, I mean, that was embarrassing to Bibb and to Bradford Davey. They took this guy around to say, hey, look, wait till you hear his story, you’re going to change your mind on him. And he was so earnest. I mean, there was at least one member of our editorial board that was completely taken with it. And…
the facts prove it was false. So you’re embarrassing the mayor, you’re embarrassing the chief of staff. They put their full faith and credit behind him and he lied. So it’s not a surprising end. I just thought it would have happened Monday.
Leila (14:03.979)
Can I note that Kevin Conwell, Councilman Kevin Conwell, who was one of the people who was personally invited to hear McHugh’s side of the story in this private session in recent weeks, he told us that he left that meeting feeling really unsettled and very ambivalent about McHugh, but that he comforted himself with his faith that we would get the truth. And that was such a heartening and wonderful thing to hear from.
from a councilman. He said, I didn’t know what to believe when I left that meeting, but I thought of you guys. And I said to myself, if this guy’s not telling me the truth, they’re going to find out.
chris (14:42.093)
I that’s a that’s a great statement. We that’s what we do. That’s what people who subscribe and support us that’s what they’re paying for. We are this community’s watchdog and it’s great to hear that an elected official relies on that this fourth estate watchdog to get the truth and Courtney Astolfi did we we fulfilled our role. The one thing he said though is he thought it would take six months and it took about a week. Yeah.
Leila (15:06.187)
Yeah, he said, I just didn’t know you guys would move as fast as you did.
chris (15:12.493)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Joe Biden is not yet on the Ohio ballot, Lisa, as we discussed, but someone else says he satisfies the legal requirements to be there. Who is he and what very strange news about him emerged this week regarding his health.
Lisa (15:28.736)
Well, I guess I can talk about that because I’ve read the headlines. But yeah, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the independent presidential candidate, their campaign says they’ve collected 8 ‚000 signatures from Ohio voters. The Ohio law requires 5 ,000 to be certified for the ballot. The Kennedy campaign also hired a company to validate all the signatures they collected so they wouldn’t get any surprises when the certification and validation process goes through the Secretary of State.
They will turn in those signatures near the current August 7th deadline for the November ballot. They are already on the ballot in Utah, Michigan, California, and Delaware. And RFK says they have enough for eight more states. So it looks like he might be on a lot of ballots. In limited polling, it shows that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling at about 5 % in Ohio.
The RFK campaign could be a spoiler though for either Trump or Biden. Nobody’s quite sure who he could spoil. As we know, RFK originally ran as a Democrat with our own former mayor, Dennis Kucinich as his vice presidential running mate. But now his running mate is Nicole Shanahan, a California attorney and philanthropist. And yeah, so go ahead.
chris (16:41.549)
Yeah, and he’s, and he’s just let’s face it, he’s a complete wacko anti vaccine. I mean, the stuff that that guy espouses is anti science, which made it all the more weird what he announced about what was happening with his brain 10 years ago.
Lisa (16:57.664)
Right, apparently a doctor found a worm in his brain, it was dead, but they think that that might be, you know, behind some of his quirks, maybe? I don’t know, but, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility to have a worm in your brain, but weird.
chris (17:08.269)
Well.
chris (17:13.645)
Yeah, it comes from it. It comes if you eat the wrong kind of contamination and it’s prevalent in some third world countries where he was traveling. But the interesting thing was that the reason it harms you is after the brain, after the worm dies, the body kind of tolerates the worm without much damage. But once it dies, your immune system goes big to deal with the enzymes or something that are released from it. And that’s what causes the swelling and
the problems he was having at the time. He of course says he’s hail and hearty now and has no long -term effects, but what a strange one. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How much did Ohio spend on a custom built hiking and biking app and why is it now abandoning it? And Laura, what’s going to replace it?
laura (18:02.126)
Don’t you love waste of money stories? So we’re talking about a million dollars here, and we’re going to be building another app and spending more money on that and hoping that that one works. So this is ODNR, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. They’re going to launch a new app developed by San Francisco -based Trailhead Labs that works to, with the state, adapt their own company apps. So they’ll provide hikers, bikers, and other outdoorsy Ohioans with trail locations, safety tips, state park information.
We’re going to pay them $121 ‚500 over the next two years and then another $85 ,000 annually. So that’s what we’re paying forward. What we already spent is $932 ‚000 on the detour app that the state spent to develop from the ground up and then maintain. But apparently only 45 ,000 people have ever downloaded it since it launched in 2021. And it’s gotten terrible reviews because it’s slow, difficult to use, buggy, and poorly featured.
chris (19:00.397)
I’m going to be the contrarian here and say I actually appreciate this. The idea that they’re not going to keep throwing good money after bad. They tried. It was a noble idea, but they realized that there are others that are much better at this that have existing products. So why keep spending money to reinvent the wheel on something that’s a failure? It would have been a good lesson for the county council on the Med Mart.
laura (19:23.534)
Well, I wish they recognized that beforehand. I mean they spent $320 ‚000 of federal money on it and then all this other money and it’s lasted for three years. What I want to know is are you going to put the fracking locations of the state parks on your app?
chris (19:37.773)
Good question. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Before the House adjourned Wednesday, Lela, the legislature did pass a law to deal with one of your favorite issues, kids and cell phones. What is the law? And we know Mike DeWine will sign it.
Leila (19:38.347)
haha
Leila (19:54.475)
Yeah, Dewine has been pushing for school districts to limit cell phone use of middle and high school students because they’re obviously distractions from learning. They’re bad for mental health. They ruin normal socialization. Where’s my soapbox, Chris? But on Wednesday, state lawmakers did pass legislation that demands that school districts create policies emphasizing students’ phone, I’m sorry, emphasizing that students’ phone use has to be limited as possible during school hours.
chris (20:06.733)
Yeah.
Leila (20:21.227)
It’s House Bill 250 and it passed both the House and Senate unanimously. So there is one issue we can all agree on apparently at our state house. Of course, it’s a little bit ambiguous, the language of this bill, because it gives districts a lot of latitude about how restricted cell phone use can be under each district’s policy. It’s really up to each district to come up with their own strategy for this. It only says that each district must pass a policy.
Lisa (20:25.44)
So there is one issue we can all agree on.
Leila (20:48.779)
emphasizing that kids have to limit their use during school hours. There are exceptions for student learning or to monitor or address a health concern. These policies have to be in place by July of 2025. A lot of districts are already doing it. Nearly 77 % of US schools banned the use of cell phones for non -academic purposes in 2020. That was up from 65 % in 2015. It’s been four years since those numbers came out. So I’m assuming those are probably even higher now. And the policies kind of run the gamut.
from school to school, from forcing kids to kind of leave the phones in your lockers during the day to giving these kids phone pouches that lock during the day and can be unlocked when they leave the building.
Lisa (21:20.864)
kids to kind of leave the phones in your locker during the day, to giving these kids phone or pouches that lock during the day.
chris (21:30.317)
I like the kind of legislation where they do leave it to the local control. They’re saying you have to do something. We’re not going to tell you what it is, but you can no longer simply ignore this because it is a problem. We’ve documented, as you said, but every district is different. Every community is different. So get your heads together and figure out the best path forward. I wish they would do that with so many things like gun laws and…
Marijuana sales and cigarette sales to kids and things like that, but at least they’re doing it here.
Leila (22:03.499)
Yeah, I mean, the thing that’s crazy to me is that the bill passed unanimously and in parenting circles, it’s pretty widely agreed upon that cell phones have all these socially and developmentally toxic side effects for kids and yet we keep giving them to the kids. Even when, you know, there are a growing number of alternatives that give kids a way to communicate with friends without the apps that are so harmful and problematic. But whatever, I guess we’ll just pass policies that help.
help solve those problems, at least during school hours.
chris (22:35.885)
It’s also an information overload that probably blocks the pathway for what the teachers are trying to get across. You are listening to Today in Ohio. How might the Biden administration proposal to reduce the criminal implications for marijuana users lead to a better understanding of how the drug affects people short and long term? Lisa?
Leila (22:41.131)
Right.
Lisa (22:57.6)
Yeah, these plans to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance would recognize its medicinal benefits, and that could expand research currently limited by marijuana’s Schedule I status and also tight controls because it’s really hard for researchers. They only have a couple places they can buy marijuana for research labs. Proponents say this will give scientists wider access to the drug, a larger user population for study and clinical trials to get a better idea of the benefits and risks of marijuana.
UCLA Center for Cannabis and Conebinoids Director Ziva Cooper says it will be somewhat helpful, but research will still remain challenging. Says there are so many different compounds and chemicals in marijuana and how it’s taken, either edibles or smoke or vaping or whatever. And she said, will all cannabis components be schedule three or just specific products? But she did say it will shorten the long approval process on research and loosen the security requirements.
because if you have a schedule one drug for research, it has to be in a large lock safe with 24 hour security in the building. And even if unscheduled, if it becomes unscheduled completely, they would still need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which is costly and labor intensive. So the door is open just a little bit.
chris (24:17.773)
It’s sad because of all the rules that we’ve had for so long. We don’t know enough about the effects of marijuana. The government, because of its policies, made it almost impossible to study. So I suspect that we’re going to have, if this comes through, a period of real discoveries about what marijuana means to you long term. We know everything about alcohol, but we know so little about marijuana. So hopefully this will get us to that level of knowledge.
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank says every year that demand for its services increases even as our population remains stagnant. But the increase in 2023 over 2022 is staggering, Laura. How many more people received food and services last year than the year before?
laura (25:02.83)
It is.
laura (25:07.662)
We’re talking about 15 % more. So they serve 401 ‚000 different people in 2023, and that’s up from 349 ‚000 in 2022. That include 93 ,000 people 65 and older and 112 ,000 kids. And about a quarter of those used the services for the very first time, which says a lot about the continued inflation of food and other prices. A lot of COVID help.
basically ran out by that point in time. And, you know, we talk all the time about inflation and how much that was affecting it. So people needed help buying food. They gave out 51 million pounds of fresh produce, canned fruits and vegetables, dairy grains and proteins. That’s three million more pounds than in 2022. And they still don’t have the same number of volunteers that they had before the pandemic. They got up to 12 ‚500, but they had almost 20 ,000 before the pandemic hit.
chris (26:06.445)
It is staggering, as I said, that the need for this just increases by large numbers and we’re the same population. And you just, it’s poverty that rampant in Northeast Ohio where this is happening. I’d love to see a study of why this is happening. Who are the people that are getting the services now who were not before?
laura (26:15.438)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Lisa (26:28.16)
It’s not necessarily people mired in poverty. It’s people who are poverty adjacent or just a couple of paychecks away from eviction or whatever. So yeah, it’s affecting people sometimes with double incomes. They’re having to get food.
chris (26:41.069)
Yeah, it’s just, I guess 15 % in a single year. It’s a big number.
laura (26:43.342)
Yeah.
laura (26:48.142)
I’m glad that when people are looking at, you know, do I pay my rent or do I buy groceries, that this is an outlet for them to be able to get food and feed their families without losing other parts of their lives.
chris (27:01.197)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. It’s Friday, so let’s talk about a delinquent series. This theme this week was mandatory bind overs of youth to adult courts. Laila, I think we printed about 8 ‚000 words. Boil it down to 120 seconds.
Leila (27:14.283)
This was such a strong week of content. As you said, Chris, you know, we’ve been peeling back the onion on the juvenile justice system for readers. And this week we focus on the subject of mandatory bind over. That is when a youth is charged with a crime that’s considered so awful, they automatically bypass the juvenile justice system and head straight to the adult docket. Prosecutors argue that having a classification like that is necessary to protect public safety. But when kids go straight to the adult system,
It’s without the benefit of a hearing before a juvenile judge who otherwise would take into consideration the totality of that child’s circumstances, their full background, what interventions have been tried and what interventions are still left to try to bring them to a better path. And when a kid is subject to mandatory bind over, there’s none of that thoughtful consideration. They’re just adjudicated as an adult and they’re often sent to adult prison. And in adult prison,
there are none of the services and interventions that the juvenile system has designed especially for rehabilitating kids. So with all that said, we opened this week with an example that shows why it’s important for juvenile judges to remain a part of this process. We told the story of a kid named Efrain. Efrain was a part of a non -fatal shooting, but he was not the one who pulled the trigger, and it was his very first charge.
And prosecutors decided to charge him with attempted murder. It’s the same charge they gave the kid who actually did fire the gun. That’s a mandatory bind over case. He went straight to the adult system and today he’s serving three years in an adult facility. The prosecutors could have handled that case in a bunch of different ways. They could have kept, that would have kept Ephraim in the juvenile system where he would have had all of those targeted supports. But you know, I mean, they could have charged it as a lesser crime.
He might have qualified for diversion or other court programs that are designed to rehabilitate first time offenders. Ephraim had been arrested on a felonious assault charge. They could have pursued that charge. Ephraim could have been adjudicated delinquent and faced a range of sanctions for kids from probation to life in juvenile prison, which would be until he turned 21. Or the prosecutor could have asked the judge to exercise discretion. As I described earlier, that’s called discretionary bind over where it’s left up to the judge.
Leila (29:29.419)
Or the prosecutor could have indicted Efrain as a serious youthful offender. And in that case, he would have gotten a blended sentence. He would have served a juvenile portion first. And if he misbehaved, there would be this adult sentence kind of hanging over his head. But they didn’t do any of those things. They charged it as a mandatory bind over. And Efrain today sits in an adult prison. If he serves the full sentence, he’ll be released a month before his 21st birthday.
On good behavior, state law says he could be released later this year at age 19. But all of this begs the question, what was the point of that? He not only missed out on the chance of those interventions in the juvenile system, but now he’ll be released with an adult record that will haunt him everywhere he goes as he tries to find housing and employment. And we also know that kids in the adult system are statistically more likely to come out and commit more crimes. It’s a case that was not handled in a way that was in the best interest of the kid or public safety.
chris (30:03.917)
Well…
Leila (30:24.395)
And it’s not a one -off case. We have more stories like that in this week’s lineup.
chris (30:26.669)
And we’re not nothing about this series of saying that there aren’t kids who need to go to the adult prison What what we’re pointing out with the mandatory bind over is you take away any thought? Instead of looking at what’s best for the kid and for the community because he is going to get out and if he’s in adult prison He’s not going to get out having been treated for whatever drove him into this
Leila (30:33.611)
right.
Leila (30:39.147)
Right.
chris (30:51.757)
life a crime, then we all pay. And it might have been the case if everybody looked at this, everybody who had an interest, they might have recommended something different. But the minute you go mandatory, all judgment goes out. They don’t study the kid. They don’t look at the future. And it’s a bad idea. One of the takeaways from this series is these things have got to go mandatory. Bind over is a bad idea.
Leila (31:13.995)
Right. I mean, the juvenile justice system was designed with rehabilitation at the top of its list of priorities. That is what kids deserve at that age. And mandatory bind over is not in service of that. It takes, like you said, it’s a thoughtless way of dealing with cases.
chris (31:35.149)
All right, more to come next week. It’s discretionary bind over which has its own problems. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Leila. Everybody have a good Mother’s Day weekend. Come on back Monday. We’ll be talking about the news.
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