We’re answering your questions about Cleveland’s justice system.

The Ohio Central School System serves as the school system for all of Ohio’s state prisons. It offers basic education, high school diplomas, apprenticeships and skilled trades. Incarcerated people can also take college classes through Ashland University, Kent State University, Marion Technical College, Sinclair College, North Central State Community College and Ohio University. Ohio is one of only a few states in the country to have college classes available in every state prison, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 

Technical programs are also available to people inside Ohio prisons ranging from auto technology to barbering to carpentry. Nearly 4,000 incarcerated students participated in the Perkins Career and Technical Education program in Ohio prisons in 2023, according to Becky Crance of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s Office of Career-Technical Education.

However, where you are housed dictates which courses you can take. Each prison has its own programming and course options. If an incarcerated person would like to join a Commercial Driver License program, for example, they have to request a transfer to the Richland Correctional Institution, where that program is provided.

Motions to expunge, or eliminate, criminal records must be filed with the judge who presided over the case, or the judge’s successor. Not all convictions are eligible to be expunged.

Once filed, the judge orders a background check to ensure the applicant is eligible and has no other pending cases, and that includes traffic tickets. The prosecutor’s office may file objections, but that rarely happens, said Cuyahoga County Public Defender Cullen Sweeney. 

Finally, the judge grants or denies the motion, sometimes after calling a hearing.

In 2023, a new state law allowed for the expungement of criminal records that could previously be sealed, or kept from public view. Some convictions, including for violent crimes, crimes involving children or impaired driving can not be sealed or expunged. In most cases, there’s a waiting period — anywhere from six months to a decade — before a court can consider sealing or expunging a conviction. 

Individuals can ask a common pleas or municipal judge to expunge multiple cases at once either pro se (on their own) or through an attorney. Pro bono lawyers charge nothing for low-income clients, who must pay only the $50 state filing fee.

If you need a lawyer and can’t afford one, the Cuyahoga County Public Defender’s Office last year processed 1,053 successful applications to seal or expunge felony convictions.

Legal help with sealing or expunging cases is also available from:

• The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
• The Second Chance Reentry Clinic at Case Western Reserve University 
• Pardon, Clemency, and Reentry Clinic at Cleveland State University.
• Legal Works Ohio

The Second Chance diversion program is for people facing a new felony charge who have prior felony convictions that often cannot be removed from their record. Eligible defendants must have gone a decade or more since being released from incarceration or probation without committing a new crime. Qualifying defendants can face no more than two felony charges for low-level crimes, such as vehicle theft or breaking and entering. Prosecutors can make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. 

Here’s how the program works. 

1. A prosecutor conducts an initial review of a defendant’s criminal history and will notify the judge assigned to their case. 

2. Defendants must plead guilty to their charges.

3. Next, the probation department conducts an investigation into the person’s criminal and social history to make sure the participant is qualified and to recommend an appropriate level of probation.

If a participant successfully completes their probation, they can ask their defense attorney to file a motion to withdraw the initial guilty plea.

Here’s how that process works:

1. The probation department provides the court with a status report on the defendant’s case. 

2. Prosecutors can weigh in, letting the court know if they object or approve the request for an expungement.

3. If all parties agree, the court will dismiss the charge and immediately expunge the conviction.

If participants fall short of their requirements, their guilty plea and conviction stand, and the defendant is subject to a probation violation. A judge will decide the punishment, which can include a period of incarceration.

This intervention program is reserved for people with a limited criminal history, which generally means first-time defendants. They must be open to seeking treatment and have what the court deems a “low” or “moderate risk” substance use issue. This could mean marijuana, alcohol or some cocaine use.

Here’s how the process works: 

1. If drug or alcohol use was a factor in the crime committed, the defendant facing a felony conviction can tell the court. Some felony offenses are automatically disqualifying (i.e., violent or sex offenses, drug manufacturing and trafficking offenses, and operating a vehicle under the influence).

2. For all other felony convictions, the court will ask an addiction services provider to provide a substance use assessment. Next, the defendant will have a hearing to review the assessment and determine if they** **are a good candidate for treatment.    

3. If approved, the defendant will have to plead guilty before starting the program. At the end of the program, which lasts a minimum of one year, the plea will be dismissed and expunged. 

4. If denied, the court must provide a written explanation. Anyone denied treatment will face criminal proceedings.

Completing the program may include meeting with a probation officer once a month, finishing a maximum of 50 hours of community service and passing a drug test every couple of weeks. Participants may be recommended to therapy, a peer support group or a withdrawal management facility. They may also receive emergency support to meet basic needs like food and housing.

The courts heard about 3,000 low-level and nonviolent felony cases per year that would qualify for diversion between 2016 and 2021. But answering simple questions about diversion is difficult for a number of reasons. The court reports on diversion do not include demographic information about participants or completion rates. And many of the programs dismiss or expunge participants' criminal records, making them impossible to track in court data because the records disappear. 

Here is what we do know about the three remaining diversion programs: 

Pretrial Diversion Of the roughly 1,800 low-level and nonviolent felony cases in 2021, fewer than a quarter of the cases went into Pretrial Diversion, according to Brendan Sheehan, the court’s administrative and presiding judge.

Because the records of successful defendants are expunged, we can’t track how many people successfully complete the program in Cuyahoga County’s court records. The court doesn’t include that information in its annual reports to the public, and a court spokesperson did not respond when asked whether that record is kept internally. 

Intervention in Lieu of Conviction We don’t know how many people successfully completed Intervention in Lieu of Conviction because the records are expunged. And we haven’t had a clear answer on whether the court keeps that data. But we do know that in 2021, the court referred 224 people to the program, according to its annual report. And in 2020, it referred 365 people.

Second Chance Program The court does not report how many people enter the program each year. And the prosecutor’s office told The Marshall Project that it does not keep a record of program participants, but estimates it has had 10 cases a year since 2018.

In 2022, Cuyahoga County courts collected about $30 million worth of bail in felony cases, with cases of Black defendants representing roughly $23 million of the total. 

Bail bonds companies, instead of individuals such as the defendant or a family member, deposited roughly 95% of the total. They mainly post surety bonds, which made up about half of the total bonds posted, followed by cash bonds in which the defendant had to provide 10% of the total value. Less than 2% of bonds posted in 2022 were the full cash amount.

Cuyahoga County judges are setting bail far less frequently in felony cases than they were in 2016. Judges who set bail during felony arraignments cut their use of cash bonds from about 80% of cases to just over half of cases where defendants did not already have a case open with the court. Instead, judges are setting more personal bonds, which don’t require payment for release from jail. 

Judges reduced their use of cash bail most drastically in low-level and nonviolent cases. They went from setting cash bail in 61% of cases in 2016 to 22%. Court officials attribute this decrease to a few changes: routine recommendations for personal bonds coming from the court’s bond commissioner, more education for judges and more resources for supervising defendants in the community, such as electronic monitoring.

In more serious cases, judges still set cash bail more than 70% of the time, and they rarely set personal bonds in murder cases. Defendants who already had an open case or were on probation still saw a reduction in cash bail but not to the same extent.

Pretrial Diversion is one of Cuyahoga County’s four court diversion programs. 

Who qualifies for Pretrial Diversion? Technically anyone who has been charged with a non-violent, non-drug related felony in Cuyahoga County may qualify if they have no previous felony convictions and no more than three misdemeanor or juvenile delinquencies within the past three years. In addition, defendants can’t owe more than $7,500 in restitution for a previous conviction.

Who enters the program is up to the discretion of the county prosecutor. While the court runs its own diversion programs, state statute also gives prosecutors authority to establish pre-trial diversion programs. The five supervisors within the prosecutor’s office authorize diversion cases from different area of the county. 

Of the roughly 1,800 low-level and non-violent felony cases in 2021 fewer than a quarter of the cases went into Pretrial Diversion, according to Brendan Sheehan, the court’s administrative and presiding judge.

Entering this program comes with some conditions. For starters, defendants must sign a statement admitting guilt and waving their right to a trial. After there's an agreement, the case is essentially paused for six months to a year while the person works to meet the program requirements which include: paying restitution, court costs, and fines and fees. People may be required to meet with a diversion officer, participate in community service, and receive treatment for substance use or mental health problems. It’s similar to being on probation. 

Falling short on any of these requirements could mean a return to court. Because defendants sign a plea agreement, admitting guilt, they do not have an opportunity to present evidence at a trial or renegotiate their plea. Instead, they are sentenced by a judge, and could face time either on probation or behind bars. 

Because the records of successful defendants are expunged, we can’t track how many people successfully complete the program in Cuyahoga County’s court records. The court doesn’t include that information in its annual reports to the public, and a court spokesperson did not respond when asked whether that record is kept internally.

Diversion is an umbrella term referring to programs that offer alternatives to incarceration — like “exit ramps” on a highway. 

The four programs in felony courts are: 

• Pretrial Diversion
• Early Intervention Program (Phased out as of December 2021)
• Second Chance Program
• Intervention in Lieu of Conviction

Each of the four diversion programs offered within the court system is unique. Prosecutors get to pick who qualifies for some of the programs. Defendants get to decide if they want to participate. Some programs require defendants plead guilty before starting a year-long program. If successful, their case will be sealed and expunged. Defendants in other programs are sentenced before entering diversion. These cases are reopened and dismissed if the program is successfully completed.

The Cuyahoga County felony courts have offered some form of diversion for decades. In theory, they exist to give people another chance, sparing some defendants a felony conviction and the collateral damages of incarceration such as family separation or job loss. Keeping people from behind bars has practical benefits for the county too — as jail conditions worsen and the county pours more money into covering staff hiring and overtime, overcrowding grows.

The courts heard about 3,000 low-level and non-violent felony cases per year that would qualify for diversion between 2016 and 2021. But answering simple questions about diversion is difficult for a number of reasons. 

The court’s annual report shows how many of the 3,000 defendants enter each diversion program. But it does not include demographic information or completion rates. And when cases are dismissed or expunged, they are impossible to track in court data — the records disappear. So, even after several calls to the public defender’s office, prosecutor’s office and probation department — we still don’t know whether a record of successful diversion completions and expungements exists. And we still don’t know how many people qualify for diversion, but don’t enter into a program, and why.

Felony cases filed against children under 18 were less than 1% of all Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court criminal cases from 2016 through 2021. More than 10 times the number of cases were filed against Black minors than against White ones in the past seven years. 

The more than 420 cases filed in the adult court against minors aged 14 through 17 are mostly bindovers, a process where a case is transferred from the juvenile court to the adult court. The process occurs either because it is mandatory under Ohio law or because a juvenile judge orders a discretionary transfer of the case. 

Eligibility for bindover is based on the age a child was at the time a crime was reported, but the transfer process can take time. That means the child may be older when the case is filed in the adult court, which is what is counted here. For instance, one child was charged with robbery in 2020 when they were 14. By the time the case was transferred to adult court 9 months later, they had turned 15.

Once a child under 18 is convicted in an adult court case, any new felony cases are filed against them as if they were adults.

Police agencies that patrol hospitals, universities, buses and trains, housing authority property and casinos filed more than 4,500 felony cases in Cuyahoga County from 2016 through 2021. That’s around 6.5% of all of the cases filed during that time. About half of those cases stemmed from Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) arrests or investigations.

These smaller, sometimes private, agencies have sworn officers with the power to make arrests and seek prosecution for felony and misdemeanor crimes as long as they are certified by the state and have permission from the local jurisdiction where they operate. More than a dozen police agencies — other than the Cleveland police and county sheriff’s office — patrol within Cleveland’s borders.

We have 69,056 felony cases in the data filed between 2016 and 2021 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

Cases are filed when the county prosecutor believes a person committed a crime that is a felony in Ohio. The filing follows an arrest or a criminal investigation by law enforcement. In most cases, a grand jury of residents determines whether a case is indicted, which means it will be assigned to a judge. If the grand jury does not issue an indictment, the case is closed and referred to as a “no bill.”

We count filings using the case number that is assigned when prosecutors tell the court they are pursuing criminal charges. Each case number is associated with one or more felony charges against a single defendant.

Cases can be dismissed, diverted to a community program or they can result in a guilty plea or a verdict of guilt or innocence for each charge.

Our data does not always include cases that were sealed or expunged by the court.

The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court lists three categories related to race: Black, White and Asian. It also includes Hispanic, which is an ethnicity. When indictments are filed against “John Does” or “Unknown Males” for felony crimes that are based on DNA or other evidence — like sexual assaults — the race category is sometimes left blank. We designated those, and other cases where no race was listed, as “Unknown.” 

Court officials said information related to a defendant’s race comes from the law enforcement agency that makes the arrest or files the charges.

What is included?

A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court case can include one or more felony charges, against one or more defendants. Our tally of new felony case filings per year counts each case once per defendant. The number of cases filed in 2020 dropped due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cases from prior to 2016 that are ongoing, reactivated or transferred are not counted.

43,447 people had cases filed against them from 2016 to 2021 in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

This includes each person who had one or more felony cases filed against them. Each defendant is counted once, even if they were involved in multiple cases.

Cleveland Police arrests and investigations made up the largest share — 46 % — of cases in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court from 2016 through 2021. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s office, which operates the county jail and has jurisdiction countywide, had the next highest number of cases.

Several state agencies make arrests that result in criminal cases. Ohio State Highway Patrol cases primarily stem from traffic stops, including gun and drug charges. State of Ohio cases include “escape” charges for people who are accused of violating conditions of parole supervision, like missing a check-in meeting or having a positive drug screen. 

The size of a city or a police agency doesn’t necessarily match up with the number of criminal cases filed with the court. For instance, the East Cleveland Police Department, which patrols a town of about 14,000 residents and has about 40 sworn officers, contributed more cases than larger departments from cities with more residents — like Lakewood, which has 50,000 residents and 90 officers.

A full list of arresting agencies is available on our data release page.

Nearly 80% of the defendants with cases filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court from 2016 through 2021 had their sex recorded as male. 

The court tracks the sex of a defendant using three categories: male, female and not specified. The information on the court’s docket is collected by the law enforcement agency that arrested or charged the person. Court officials say they track demographic data using these categories to match the information in state and federal law enforcement identification databases.  

Sex and gender identity are not consistent in this data. In some cases, a person’s sex may be listed in a law enforcement database as male, but they may identify as a trans woman. In other cases, where a person has legally changed the gender listed on their state identification, that information will be reflected in the court’s data. 

Court officials said that regardless of the information on the docket, when a person appears in court, efforts are made to respect their gender identity.

About 6,704 criminal filings in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court involved multiple defendants from 2016 through 2021, about 11% of all filings. About 53,385 filings involved a single defendant.

Felony cases filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas from 2016 through 2021 were most often against people who were between the ages of 25 and 34 years old at time the court case started. This includes people who had multiple cases filed against them in those years.

Broken down by race, there were almost 5 times the number of cases filed against Black residents between the ages of 14 and 24 than against White residents of the same age range. Cases where race was listed as other or unknown are excluded from the charts above.

Defendants who enter a plea of guilty to a criminal charge in a case have the right to make a request to withdraw that plea. A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge can grant or deny the request. Defendants have made motions, in writing or verbally in the courtroom, and the court has ruled on them about 400 times, or in less than 1% of cases, from 2016 through 2021. Judges denied the requests a little more than 60% of the time and granted the withdrawal of the guilty plea a little less than 40% of the time.

Cuyahoga County has the most Common Pleas judges in Ohio, with 34 in the court’s general division. The judges preside over felony criminal cases and civil cases. Thirteen additional judges hear Juvenile Division, Domestic Relations and Probate court cases. 

The Court of Common Pleas is the only trial court established by the Ohio Constitution. Based on the constitution, Common Pleas Courts may have more than one judge, depending on the caseload in the county. Only the Ohio Legislature can increase or decrease the number of judges assigned to a county’s Court of Common Pleas. 

Judges who preside over felony cases are elected to six-year terms. If there is a vacancy between election years, the governor appoints a judge to fill the term. 

Cuyahoga County has often asked state lawmakers to increase the number of judgeships in order to manage caseloads.

Beginning in 1896, when the court had just 6 judges, additions were requested every few years, each time citing a backlog of cases The most recent addition was in 1987, when two judges were added, bringing the total to the current number of 34.

Cuyahoga County isn’t Ohio’s largest county based on landmass or population, but it does tend to have a higher total number of felony-level criminal cases filed than other large counties in Ohio. 

Franklin County is larger and has 18 judges in its general division. The next largest are Hamilton County and Lucas County, which have 16 and 10 felony judges in their general divisions, respectively. 

These courts handle civil cases in addition to criminal filings.

Source: Supreme Court of Ohio State Case Management

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction lists 116 people on death row as of Aug. 9. Cuyahoga County judges sentenced 22 people, or about 19% of those currently on death row, including four scheduled for execution in the next three years.

Cuyahoga County, the second most populous county in Ohio, leads the state in imposing death sentences.

According to the Ohio Attorney General’s 2023 Capital Crimes Annual Report, Cuyahoga County has over the years imposed 70 of the state’s 341 death sentences, or about 21%, since Ohio’s death penalty law was reinstated in 1981. Hamilton County has the next highest total with 62 death sentences, followed by 23 in Lucas County and 21 each in Franklin and Summit counties.

Citing an inability to obtain lethal drugs, Ohio has not carried out an execution since 2018. The last person sentenced in Cuyahoga County who was executed was Gary Otte, 45, who died in 2017. He was convicted of killing two people during robberies in 1992 in Parma.

Under the state’s current death penalty law, Ohio has executed 56 people, including 10 from Cuyahoga. Another 40 people have died while on death row, including six from Cuyahoga.

Death sentences are sometimes vacated through the appeals process. Defendants can later be found ineligible for execution due to mental or intellectual disability. Convictions can also be overturned. Defendants can cut deals with prosecutors to avoid new trials. And prosecutors sometimes decline to retry capital cases. Cuyahoga again led the state in this broad category, accounting for 33 of 102 death penalties lifted and replaced with lesser sentences or thrown out altogether, according to a Marshall Project - Cleveland review of case summaries.

GPS monitoring is often used as a condition of bail while a person’s case is pending. People on probation or parole also may be subject to GPS monitoring as a condition of their release to ensure they are following the rules of their supervision.

In 2020, ACLU Ohio called for GPS monitoring reform in Cuyahoga County, citing exorbitant costs to defendants, many of whom had not been convicted of a crime. The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court was requiring defendants to pay $56 a week for ankle monitoring services.

But that changed In 2021, according to Darren Toms, the court’s spokesperson. He said the court reduced GPS fees from $8 a day to $3.20 a day with a $576 cap. 

However, people aren't denied GPS monitoring because they can't afford the fees, Toms said.

Under the new guidelines, fees aren’t charged until the case is decided. If the defendant is found not guilty or the case is dismissed, the fees are automatically dropped. If the person is convicted and sent to prison, there are no fees. 

Fees can apply if the person is placed on probation. Their attorney can ask the trial judge for the fee to be waived. Usually, the fee is waived, if the defendant can’t afford to pay, Toms said.

If a fee is required after a conviction, the person can do community service at a rate of $15 per hour to cover the cost.