TOP OHIO PRISON OFFICIAL HAS HIGH PRAISE FOR HIS AGENCY

The head of the prison system in Ohio painted a remarkably sunny
picture of corrections in the state Monday when he spoke to the Athens
Rotary.

Reginald A. Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction, told the group that his agency is the
single largest in the state in terms of employment, accounting for one
in four state employees.

"That's not something we're proud of, but it just happens to be the
fact," Wilkinson said. Ideally, he said, the ODRC's ultimate goal
should be to make itself obsolete.

"I do think we should do as much as we can to put ourselves out of
business," he said.

For the moment, however, the agency is far from defunct, running 33
prisons statewide, and overseeing two private prisons. It ranks fifth
in size among the country's state prison systems.

The agency's two basic goals, Wilkinson said, are maintaining security
within prisons, and rehabilitating inmates so they can rejoin society.
Regarding the first, he said, "we try to do a lot to make sure that we
are as quiet as possible. In political terms, no news is good news,"
he said.

On the issue of rehabilitation, Wilkinson, who has an advanced degree
in education, was enthusiastic. He said that programs in the prisons
that let prisoners perform services such as training pilot dogs for
the blind, aim to give inmates the experience of doing something
useful for society.

"When they're doing something for somebody else, we're allowing them
to participate in a rehabilitative process that research now shows
actually works," he said.

One little-known fact about the ODRC, Wilkinson said, is that as its
director he is also superintendent of the geographically largest
school district in the state of Ohio, in which role he hands out
diplomas and awards GED certificates.

"Education in my estimation is the primary thing that we can do to
prevent people from going to prison in the first place," he argued,
adding that he would like to see the state's education system "get
fixed to the point where we could all be proud."

The second biggest factor in keeping people out of prison is
addressing drug use, Wilkinson said, noting that the Ohio prison
system has fairly low prisoner drug use by national standards.

Wilkinson said that at ODRC, "our philosophy is that we treat
everybody (in prison) with dignity and respect." When inmates are
mistreated, he said, they "are going to be very, very angry when they
leave," and likely to re-offend and go back to prison.

In answers to audience questions, Wilkinson said ODRC officials
"absolutely oppose" a proposed Ohio constitutional amendment that
would mandate treatment rather than incarceration for eligible drug
users. He estimated that 75 to 80 percent of prisoners have drug and
alcohol abuse problems: "We're talking major drug addiction and major
abuse of drugs." He said there is a "direct correlation" between this
drug use and criminal behavior, just as there is significance in the
fact that most inmates don't have high school diplomas.

Given the link between drugs and the kinds of behaviors that lead to
incarceration, he said, it would not be wise to simply decriminalize
drug use. "That doesn't solve the problem," he said.

Discussing the controversial DARE anti-drug program in the schools,
however, Wilkinson said he believes the program's planners need to
"reinvent themselves" if they want to be effective. "When I hear about
DARE these days, it's seems like it's typically something negative."

On the subject of private prisons, Wilkinson said his agency has "an
ironclad contract" with the two in Ohio, which ensures that they are
as well-run as those operated by the state. He added that a notorious
private prison in Youngstown had no connection with his agency, but
was a corporate project that was built and then advertised for
prisoners from overcrowded existing prisons.

Regarding "boot camps" for minor and youthful offenders, such as one
that has been built in the Glouster area, Wilkinson said the state has
moved toward a "kinder, gentler boot camp" concept, with less emphasis
on rigid military-style discipline. "In terms of theory, (the boot
camp idea) is pretty passe anymore," he said, and there's no strong
evidence that this type of corrections arrangement either deters or
encourages crime among young people.

He added that it doesn't appear as if funding will be available to
open and operate the Glouster boot camp for at least a couple of
years. The project has been put on hold because of state budget
shortfalls.