Columbus, OH – The Buckeye Institute’s Daniel J. Dew has been named to the Ohio Supreme Court’s Task Force to Examine the Ohio Bail System, which held its first meeting Wednesday. Over the next few months, the task force will bring together judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, defense lawyers, and criminal justice experts to suggest changes to improve Ohio’s bail system.

“Under Ohio’s current pretrial system, whether a person is released or put in jail as they await trial depends too much on the person’s bank account and not on whether the person poses a risk to public safety,” said Daniel J. Dew, legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center and an expert in criminal justice reform policy. “That simply is not fair. In this country, we are innocent until proven guilty, and Ohioans should not be jailed simply for being poor. I am honored to have been asked by Chief Justice O’Connor to serve on this task force and look forward to working with the other members to fix Ohio’s broken bail system.”

A nationally recognized expert on criminal justice reform, Dew has testified on the need to fix Ohio’s bail system, pointing out that, “The traditional cash bail system allows accused murderers, child rapists, armed robbers, and dangerous gang members to be arrested and released into our communities to await trial. Meanwhile, otherwise law-abiding, harmless citizens sit in jail for days, weeks, or even months for drunken jaywalking, violating dress-codes, or failing to pay traffic tickets.”

Dew is also the author of “Money Bail”: Making Ohio a More Dangerous Place to Live, in which he looks at the need for Ohio to replace its failing cash bail system with proven risk-assessment tools that provide a fairer, more efficient way to keep Ohio’s communities safe and secure. His research on the cost of bail found that bail reform could save Ohio communities $67 million.

The 24-member task force will deliver its recommendations to improve Ohio’s bail system to the Chief Justice and Ohio Supreme Court Justices in April 2019.

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