It’s no news that the U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. However did you know that, among the states, Ohio has one of the highest number of people behind bars, plus one of the worst prison overcrowding problems?
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio’s prison population is rising, threatening to set “an all time historic record of incarcerated Ohioans.” Curiously, this is happening at a time when the overall crime rate in Ohio has gone down roughly 15 percent.
The Ohio Transformation Fund wants to stop the state’s default to mass jailing, particularly of young people and people of color. Although they are one year into work
, this funding collaborative may become our best replicable model for how to mobilize funders around criminal justice reform–something this country is ripe and ready for.