Stratton Quoted in Columbus Dispatch Story Titled “Program Keeping Juveniles in the Community, Not Locked Up”

Eve Stratton, of counsel in the Vorys Columbus office who prior to joining Vorys served as justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio for 16 years, was quoted in a Columbus Dispatch story on the success of the RECLAIM (Reasoned and Equitable Community and Local Alternatives to the Incarceration of Minors) Ohio program.  The program is aimed at keeping juveniles out of high-cost state prisons and in lower-cost, more-effective community programs.

The story states:

“‘Every time I speak nationally, I hear about RECLAIM Ohio,’ former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said. ‘They were way ahead of the times in terms of their approach to this. This is so much a smarter way to do it.’

Created when Voinovich and Lt. Gov. Mike DeWine were in office, the program was devised to give Ohio juvenile judges options — and money for those options

— to keep young offenders in local programs instead of sending them to state prisons. By 1992, 10 juvenile facilities were jammed with 2,500 offenders — far above design capacity.

RECLAIM is credited with reducing the number of juveniles in state custody to 460, a drop of 81 percent from the peak, resulting in the closing of seven juvenile-detention facilities statewide.”

To read the entire story, visit the Columbus Dispatch website. (Subscription required).