As the Ohio General Assembly continues to look at drug sentencing reform in Ohio, a new poll from the U.S. Justice Action Network found that a whopping 87 percent of Ohioans favor reducing prison time for low-level, non-violent offenders and reinvesting savings into community-based supervision programs.

And 84 percent of Ohioans agreed that judges should divert people caught with small amounts of drugs to treatment programs rather than sending them to prison.

These findings show that Ohioans clearly know that unnecessarily incarcerating low-level offenders is harmful and makes our communities less safe. This comes as no surprise. Studies have found that prison time makes people more likely to reoffend. By placing people suffering from addiction in treatment, Ohio can address the root cause of the problem rather than sweeping it into a prison cell.

Ohio is a leader in criminal justice reform and policymakers are looking to continue the trend by reclassifying low-level drug possession offenses as misdemeanors. By doing so, people suffering from addiction will be able to stay connected with their community and support systems, while getting the treatment they so desperately need.

Daniel J. Dew is a legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center. A nationally recognized expert, Dew is the author of numerous reports on criminal justice reform policy.