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Kasich Administration Keeps Quiet on Possible Merger of Juvenile and Adult Prisons

photo of Cleveland jail
SHUTTERSTOCK
/
HENRYK SADURA

Gov. John Kasich’s office is not confirming or denying reports that the state’s youth and adult prison systems might merge. 

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the next state budget might include a merger of the Ohio Department of Youth Services and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Ken Wilkins, a member of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, says he’s skeptical about that idea "because we are dealing with a teenager up to the age of 21 who will see the streets again and whose record will be sealed.”

In addition to dealing with adults and juveniles differently, Wilkins says the youth prison system is still under a federal court order to improve the way it handles young prisoners. And he says a merger could affect that.

In a written statement, EmmaleeKalmbach, a spokeswoman for Kasich’s office, says the state has worked to improve public services by reducing bureaucratic waste and ensuring that state agencies more effectively serve their customers.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.