Sentencing Rules In Chambers

Ohio prison officials shouldn’t be able to extend certain inmates’ time behind bars because the law that enabled that is unconstitutional, attorneys for two imprisoned men argued Wednesday before the state Supreme Court. At issue is part of a 2019 law that lets Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction argue for the parole board to keep some felony offenders in prison past the minimums of their sentence ranges due to bad behavior or indications they haven’t been rehabilitated. The law, which the state defends as constitutional, was named for Reagan Tokes, a college student abducted, raped and murdered by a man on parole in 2017.