Join the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Ohio
No one’s going to invest in the safety and health of Ohio communities if we don’t demand it.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative and our partners are collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures from Ohioans in support of an initiative that will keep our family, friends, and neighbors suffering from drug addiction out of the prison system, saving us money to invest in resources and treatment to help our communities thrive.
We need your help. Will you volunteer to collect signatures in your community? Fill out the form on this page, and we'll follow up with information about how you can get involved in the Safe and Healthy Ohio campaign.
What's Really at Stake Here?
People are dying EVERY DAY in Ohio from drug overdoses at triple the national average, and they’re the people we love and care about. (1, 2, 3)
But survivors are more likely to end up in jail than in treatment facilities as the War on Drugs has increased the prison population by 500% over the past 40 years (4).
This epidemic is hitting poor Black communities the hardest, with a 900% increase in fentanyl-related deaths for Black users in Cuyahoga County alone the past couple of years. (5)
Women – our mothers, sisters, and aunties, the nurturers of our homes and neighborhoods – are also one of the fastest growing populations in prison as the opioid crisis peaks, and it’s destroying whole families and communities. (6)
The cost to our communities is immeasurable, but as Ohio prisons reach over 130% capacity – tax-paying Ohioans are spending nearly $70 per day for every inmate. (7)
With Your Help, We Can Change the Rules and Transform Our Communities
The Ohio Neighborhood Safety, Drug Treatment, and Rehabilitation Amendment we’re trying to get on the ballot for November with the signatures you collect is one way we can give our communities a chance to heal and thrive.
The Amendment proposes reducing the incarceration of our people struggling with addiction by:
- Reclassifying drug possession felonies as misdemeanors;
- Cutting off the probation-to-prison pipeline that sends folks struggling with addiction back in jail for violating drug-related probation rules;
- Giving personal rehabilitation incentives to folks in prison by expanding the ability of current inmates to earn modest sentence reductions.
The money saved from putting fewer people in jail will be reinvested in community treatment and support programs instead.
Together, we can make sure that our criminal justice system prioritizes rehabilitation, and that our state funds the things our communities need most – healthy food, after-school programs, good jobs, healthcare, and treatment. Those are the ingredients of safe and healthy communities!
Sign up to become a volunteer, and help us get this critical initiative in front of voters this November. Together, we can win real reform and real investment in our communities. We hope to see you soon!
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