After three years of decreases, the inmate population in Ohio’s prison system is projected to reach a record 51,601 by June 30 – more than 4,100 higher what state officials predicted in 2012.
And by 2019, the population is expected to climb even higher to 53,484 inmates, or 139 percent above what the prison system was designed to accommodate.
The surge in inmates – attributable in part to a rise in crime – raises the troubling prospect that the prison system might be forced to release inmates well before they have completed their sentences just to free up cells for incoming criminals.
In the past 25 years, Ohio’s prison population has more than doubled, jumping from 24,750 in 1988 to 50,604 as of last month, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
The state’s 28 prisons, meanwhile, were built to house a total of 38,579 inmates, DRC records show.
After a temporary population dip the past couple years, numbers are again on the rise. The DRC projects the population to reach the record 51,601 by this July.
Interviews with prison guards and DRC reports paint a picture of two or three prisoners sharing cells built for one and halls crowded with lines of inmates.
Prison experts and state officials warn that prison crowding leads to more inmate violence against staff and their fellow prisoners.
For example, the number of Ohio prison staffers hospitalized because of assaults by inmates more than doubled from 19 in 2007 to 44 in 2012, according to the Dayton Daily News, though overall reports of assault and harassment have remained steady.
Some guards and activists worry that if prison populations continue to rise, Ohio will see a repeat of the 1993 Lucasville prison riot, the longest-lasting deadly prison riot in U.S. history.
State officials and prison experts offer a number of reasons for why Ohio’s prison population is ballooning, including an increase in crime.
Low-level felonies, while include crimes such as grand theft auto and breaking and entering, increased by 3.5 percent in the first 11 months of 2013 compared to the same period the previous year, according to DRC spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. A recent surge in heroin convictions also has contributed, she added.
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