DaytonDailyNews.com

The overcrowding problem in Ohio's prisons is so awful that when Gov. Ted Strickland's administration backed off double-bunking at Dayton's two prisons, the concession — significant though it was here — barely rippled in Columbus.

Ohio's corrections department has 12,000 more inmates than it has beds. Putting 450 to 500 more people in Dayton would have helped ease the situation, but it obviously wasn't going to solve or even dent the problem.

So what is Ohio going to do with all the inmates it doesn't have space for, especially when that number is projected to grow by 15,000 more by 2016?

It's good that Terry Collins, the head of Ohio's corrections department, is emphatically telling the governor and lawmakers that building more prisons is not the answer. Prisons are tremendously expensive to put up and to run, and, once they're constructed, they will be filled. The only way prisons get shut down is by a court order — when they're so old and foul that humans can't be put in them.

But if not more cell blocks and razor wire, then what?

A recent study that looked into whether the antiquated 95-year-old Lima Correctional Institution should be re-opened (the study says renovation costs are prohibitive) suggests that Ohio really does have options.

A whopping 60 percent of inmates, the report said, are sentenced to less than a year. Put another way, many people coming into the system are not heinous offenders. And they're going to get out soon.

Ohio's prison intake centers actually have 362 spaces set aside for prisoners who, by the time they're transferred from the county jail and are given credit for the time served awaiting their trial, have less than 90 days to go on their prison term. There's no time to even process them and send them to a "home" prison.

With so many inmates serving short sentences and who aren't threats to public safety, it'd be smart to find less costly places to hold them while they serve their weeks and months.

Montgomery County, for example, has its community-based MonDay Community Correctional Institution, where offenders are under lock and key, but given responsibilities, treatment and privileges that would not be available in the typical prison. There are just 18 of these community-based correctional facilities in Ohio, with one more on the drawing board in Cleveland.

Last year, 5,368 offenders passed through these institutions. The more people who come through this cheaper option, the more the state saves and the larger the number of high-security prison beds there will be for the really bad guys.

But some of these facilities' beds are "unfunded," meaning they're sitting empty. Specifically, there are 43 at MonDay.

Meanwhile, the state also could put more money into halfway houses. Many studies have found that a stay in these structured residential treatment centers reduces recidivism. Prisoners are gradually allowed to move back into society with support and supervision. The alternative is to turn inmates loose with a bus ticket home and $20 and hope they don't get in trouble again if they can't find a place to sleep and work.

The Lima study says that spending $2 million would create 750 beds in community facilities. In contrast, building a new facility to replace the 1,565-bed Lima facility would cost $229 million.

The main obstacle to creating more community-based institutions is siting them. Neighbors invariably object, and, in anticipation of large facilities or group homes of any sort, many places have zoning to keep them out. Maybe incentives have to be part of the picture. Saving money on prisons, both in the short and long term, may cost money upfront.

Ohio may also want to think about re-instituting prison furlough programs that scrupulously pick and choose who can be trusted not to be under lock-and-key every minute.

Ohio is putting a lot of people in prison who just a little over a decade ago would have gotten a lecture, probation or a free pass. Judges' discretion has been taken away with mandatory sentences; some penalties have increased; new crimes have been identified. In many cases, the individuals — including repeat drunken drivers, those convicted of multiple and especially violent domestic violence charges, and sexual offenders who've served their time, but failed to register with authorities — deserve real punishment.

But the questions are at what cost and where.

Prison Director Collins recently told legislators that sending the wrong people to prison can actually do more harm than good. In making those choices, Mr. Collins said, "We need to figure out who's bad and who we're just mad at."

Prisons need to be for the worst of the worst.