Filed
6:00 a.m. EDT
04.10.2025
It came as a response by lawmakers to a horrific crime. Now, thousands of people imprisoned since 2019 risk more time behind bars for breaking rules.
The Reagan Tokes law links alleged behavior in prison to time served. People who break prison rules, especially for violent or sexual behavior, are kept beyond their minimum term. Elected judges play no role in the administrative process that investigates rule violations, determines guilt and adds time.
The Reagan Tokes Act is an Ohio law that took effect in 2019 in response to the murder of a 21-year-old female college student by a man recently released from prison.
The law requires judges to give both minimum and maximum prison sentences for serious felony convictions. A person is supposed to be released at the end of the minimum sentence, but they can be held for the maximum term for breaking certain rules in prison.
Ohio prison officials can also recommend that people sentenced under the Reagan Tokes law be released before the minimum sentence if they follow rules and take steps to better themselves.
Why did Ohio lawmakers pass the Reagan Tokes Act?
While serving time for attempted rape, Brian Golsby broke dozens of prison rules, including fighting and theft. Just four months after he was released in 2017, while still wearing an ankle monitor under state supervision, he abducted, raped, shot and left the body of Reagan Tokes, an Ohio State University student, in a snowy field outside Columbus.
As national media picked up the story of a young woman killed by a man who was supposed to be monitored by the state, then-state lawmakers Jim Hughes and Kristin Boggs took notice.
“It really shocked the community,” said Hughes, who recalled meeting with the local prosecutor on the case and the Tokes family shortly after the attack.
In response, Hughes and Boggs introduced bipartisan legislation in the statehouse to give the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction the power to extend prison time for people who break rules. The Reagan Tokes law was an effort, proponents said, to keep violent people off the streets.
What crimes are covered by Ohio’s Reagan Tokes law?
The sentencing law covers people convicted of first- and second-degree felonies that don’t carry life sentences, including rape, aggravated robbery and assault. It also applies to nonviolent crimes like drug possession and trafficking or robberies that don’t involve weapons or physical harm.
To identify these cases, courts and the state prison system label convictions under the Reagan Tokes law as SB201 sentences, a reference to the Ohio Senate bill that carried the criminal sentencing reform.
How many people have sentences under Ohio’s Reagan Tokes law?
Through the end of 2024, more than 14,500 people have been sentenced under the Reagan Tokes law, according to data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Similar to the overall prison population, nearly 90% of people sentenced under the Reagan Tokes law are assigned to men’s prisons. Black men comprise about 45% of the state prison population, but nearly 60% of people imprisoned beyond their minimum terms.
How do Reagan Tokes law sentences work?
The Reagan Tokes law requires county judges to impose minimum and maximum prison terms. The maximum is equal to half the minimum.
For example, a four-year sentence for felonious assault would actually be four to six years in prison.
Under the Reagan Tokes law, judges give minimum and maximum prison terms for first- and second-degree felonies that do not include a life sentence. The incarcerated person is released at the end of the minimum term unless prison administrators find the person guilty of breaking prison rules, which can lead to serving some or all of the maximum term.
People are to be released by the end of their minimum terms. But if they break certain rules, prison administrators can extend the sentence to include some or all of the maximum term.
How do Ohio prisons implement the Reagan Tokes law?
After accusing an incarcerated person of breaking a rule, a correctional officer files a conduct report. The officer’s supervisor reviews the report. Minor infractions are punished with restrictions on commissary, phone calls and other privileges.
The Rules Infraction Board handles more serious violations, like assaults, fighting, sexual acts and possession of drugs, weapons or other contraband. If found guilty by the panel — composed of parole board members or their designees — the incarcerated person may remain in segregated housing, be transferred to a higher security prison and, ultimately, be given additional time.
People found guilty by the Rules Infraction Board come back to the parole board for an additional time hearing, often held less than a month before their expected release date. The meeting is similar to a parole board hearing, except the decision to keep a person in prison has already been made. It’s just a matter of how long.
At the hearing, officials determine how much additional time should be applied, from 30 days per infraction to a year or more based on the severity of the broken rules.
What checks and balances are there for people disciplined in prison?
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction officials say accountability is baked into the disciplinary process.
Hearing officer decisions can be appealed to wardens. Rules Infraction Board decisions can be appealed to ODRC attorneys. Critics argue that the process lacks external oversight, especially from sentencing judges, who are excluded from providing any input. Many incarcerated people say appeals are almost always denied.
What happens in closed-door, additional-time hearings is not subject to Ohio’s open meetings and public records laws. Incarcerated people who face additional time are not given many constitutional rights such as attorneys, the ability to question their accuser or access to evidence.
Is Ohio’s Reagan Tokes law constitutional?
The Reagan Tokes law was challenged in the courts from the start. County judges from Cleveland to Cincinnati refused to follow it until a career prosecutor appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court wrote a majority opinion requiring them to do so.
The Ohio Supreme Court in 2000 had overturned a similar attempt by the legislature, called the “bad time” statute. That law allowed prison officials to use rules violations and concerns about public safety to extend prison terms beyond those set by judges. The Reagan Tokes law, however, prohibits the prison system from exceeding the maximum term of a prison sentence.
The year the law took effect, judges began protesting from the bench by refusing to attach maximum prison terms to sentences. Many opposed giving the prison system the judicial power to extend minimum sentences. Some judges argued that the law violated constitutional rights to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment, due process under the 14th Amendment and the doctrine of separation of power.
Meanwhile, more than 150 incarcerated people appealed their Reagan Tokes sentences on these same constitutional grounds. Three Ohio appellate courts found parts of the law unconstitutional, while others, including the 8th District Court of Appeals covering Cuyahoga County, found the law constitutional.
The Ohio Supreme Court settled the conflicting decisions by accepting two of the appellate cases, a drug trafficking conviction in Cuyahoga County and an aggravated robbery in Logan County.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters opposed some of the more than 150 appeals that were waiting for a decision from the high court. In 2023, Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Deters wrote the 5-2 opinion affirming the law as constitutional. The ruling ended the debate and forced defiant county judges to resentence defendants in compliance with the Reagan Tokes law.
