They also cut funding to a halfway house in Dayton and one in Mansfield, and put six correctional facilities on warning they may be next.
Corrections department spokeswoman Julie Walburn said the goal wasn’t to cut anyone’s funding, but to direct money where research shows it’s most effective.
“We are awarding program dollars based on programs that work,” she said. “Reaching all-time highs in our prisoner populations, we have to make smart decisions with Ohio’s tax dollars.”
The study followed people put into halfway houses across the state for two years, starting in 2007. The programs are usually ordered by a court as a condition for early release and provide things such as drug and alcohol treatment to address the underlying causes of the crimes.
They found those who went through the SOS Hall were 7.1 percent more likely to be repeat felony offenders, and 18.6 percent more likely to be convicted for anything than people without expensive residential treatment. Like all halfway houses, the SOS Hall was most effective with high-risk populations.
Ed Latessa, a lead researcher on the UC study, said one way a program would make matters worse is by putting low-risk people with higher-risk people: “What do you think happens? You make them worse.”
On average, people who went through one of the state’s 41 halfway houses were 5 percent less likely to be repeat offenders.
Latessa said many things separate a good program from a bad one: quality programs, low staff turnover, a behavioral approach.
“It’s a good study but it’s also almost four years old and we’ve made a lot of changes since then,” Marae Martin, SOS Hall director, has said, adding that their programs have improved.
Alumni of the program point to their own lives as evidence of success, working to keep the 35-bed center open and save the 20 employees’ jobs.
“How long are you going to give them to improve?” Latessa said. “Where do we want our money as taxpayers? We want the programs that have the strongest effect.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.
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