Because of the coronavirus outbreak, earlier this week Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine released a list of 167 inmates who could be eligible for early release because they meet certain criteria.
FRANZ
One of those inmates, Shelby Franz, is at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and has a local tie.
In 2014, Franz was convicted of burglary and grand theft and sentenced to five years of community control. While Franz repeatedly violated the terms of her community control, it was not until 2017, that Union County Common Pleas Court Judge Don Fraser sentenced Franz to four years in prison to be served at the same time as a prison sentence out of crimes in Marion and Morrow counties.
Last year, Franz was granted judicial release and went back on community control.
In January, Franz was sentenced to two years in prison for burglary, tampering with evidence and drug trafficking in Marion and Morrow counties. She is set to be released in November.
When she entered prison, however, she was pregnant and is due to give birth in June. It is that pregnancy, along with her nonviolent criminal history, that has made Franz on the governor’s list for possible release.
As of Tuesday, 14 inmates, most at Marion and Pickaway correctional facilities, tested positive for COVID-19. The state says at least 27 staff members at four prisons have tested positive. Five of the state’s 28 prisons are now under full quarantine.
Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), wrote a letter to Fraser explaining the situation.
“The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has also established new protocols and procedures designed to prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19 into our state prisons,” Chambers-Smith wrote. “Part of this process has been to identify inmates close to release, inmates who have health care issues that put them at greater risk of infection, elderly inmates and inmates who are pregnant or have recently given birth.”
Chambers-Smith said the department’s staff looked at that list of inmates and removed any violent or sex offenders or those with a rules infraction in the last year.
She asked Fraser his opinion of Franz’s release.
“As the sentencing court, you are closest to the facts of this inmate’s case and you are in the best position to decide whether the inmate should be released,” she wrote.
Fraser responded telling the DRC director that while she has community control violations in Union County, it was Marion and Morrow counties that have her in prison. Judges Jason D. Warner in Marion County and Howard Hall in Morrow County were sent a copy of the letter Fraser received.
“I have no objection to her early release, but that decision would have to come from both Judge Warner and Judge Hall,” Fraser wrote in his response to Chambers-Smith.
In an interview Wednesday, Fraser said he believes Franz would be a good candidate. He said she is a good person who has done well when she is released, but does get involved with bad people “who lead her astray.”
In her letter to the judge, Chambers-Smith wrote that she hopes she hopes judges will find the state’s approach to the releases, “to be a reasonable and measured attempt to address the health and safety of our staff and inmates while still relying on the discretion and judgment of the sentencing court.”
Fraser said the state is “doing a pretty thorough job vetting these inmates.”
He said the proof is that while the state has about 49,000 inmates, only 167 were identified as eligible for the early release.
Fraser said he thinks DRC officials are “going out of their way to make sure they are not stepping on the toes of the local judges.”
Officials said the early release cases would go before the Ohio Parole Board as soon as Friday.