COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio prison officials can continue to extend certain incarcerated individuals’ time behind bars, despite arguments from prisoners to the contrary.
The state Supreme Court ruled 5-2 on Wednesday that a 2019 law that lets the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction argue that the parole board should keep some felony offenders locked up past the minimums of their given sentence range because of bad behavior in prison doesn’t violate the state constitution.
The measure was named for Reagan Tokes, a college student abducted, raped and murdered in Columbus by a man on parole in 2017.
Two imprisoned men maintain that the law runs afoul of the constitutionally outlined separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches.
The high court’s conservative majority disagreed, saying the prisons department must still work within the maximum sentences set by the courts.