The bill named after murdered Ohio State student Reagan Tokes aims to shore up problems with monitoring ex-prisoners first uncovered by 10 Investigates
House lawmakers re-introduced a bill Thursday named after murdered Ohio State student Reagan Tokes that aims to shore up shortfalls with how ex-prisoners re-enter society and are monitored by parole officers once they leave prison.
10 Investigates has exposed example after example of the state’s repeated inability to closely monitor violent ex-offenders in recent years.
The results were deadly.
Reagan Tokes became one of the more notable cases that drew national attention.
Lawmakers argued Thursday that if certain provisions were in place in 2017 to better track violent offenders, Reagan Tokes might still be alive.
In February 2017, the Ohio State senior was kidnapped, raped and fatally shot by Brian Golsby – a convicted sex offender who had recently been released from prison months earlier.
Because of his violent criminal record, no halfway house would accept Golsby, so he was released from prison homeless but assigned a GPS ankle monitor.
The problem was nobody adequately monitored his whereabouts.
…
A previous Senate bill that dealt strictly with changing sentencing guidelines for certain violent offenders has already become Ohio law and was signed by then-Gov. John Kasich. The bill changed how some violent offenders could be sentenced to a range of years in prison rather than a set finite term. The goal was to incentivize prisons to behave while behind bars in order to get a sentence reduction.
Golsby racked up 52 sanctions while in prison prior to his release in 2016. He is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Reagan Tokes.
10 Investigates received a statement from Lisa McCrary-Tokes, Reagan’s mother:
“The Tokes family remains committed alongside the co-sponsors of this second bill to see it to the finish line. We are optimistic the legislative bodies in Ohio will do what’s right on behalf of the innocent citizens they have a duty to protect by getting this bill passed.”
Find current sex-related bills and laws in your state
I agree who ever was supposed to be keeping track of this guy the blood is on their hands.
In reality parole probation Megan’s law all that bullshit is worthless if someone wakes up and decided their gonna go out and shoot up a wallmart or rape 7 people none of that supervision can save people from people.
Thats why people forced to register are so angry about being placed on Megan’s Law because they know if they wanted to commit a crime Megan’s law is worthless at stoping them so the only reason for its existence is to shame and punish people for their past crimes 10-20-30 years ago
Good luck ✌😬
“The problem was nobody adequately monitored his whereabouts.” The proposed solution does nothing to fix that problem.
So this Ohio station found 2 (out of what, 20,000?) registrants who later murdered someone. I thought the registry prevented this sort of thing. The story says it was a lack of supervision issue from their POs, but if the registry is such a critical critical and effective public safety tool, then what difference would extensive parole supervision make?
For that matter, did the registry even have anything to do with the investigation that led to their identification as the killers in these cases? I suspect not; in every single case I’ve read about where a registrant was arrested for another rape or murder, his registry status was never known until after arrest.
Beyond that, these fearless reporters divulged nothing about the crimes themselves. Accordingly, I can’t discount the possibility that their status as registrants was the only evidence in the case against them. That’s not claiming they’re innocent – I don’t know. But cops and DAs saying “Rape/murder victim on this corner, convicted rapist lives 2 blocks away. Book him.” Right out of Law and Order: SVU.
Ugh, made the mistake of reading the details of this crime. I feel sick and compelled to never let my daughter out of my site.
What the heck is the point of his GPS tracker other than a supporting record of his whereabouts when he was out raping and murdering people?
Clearly this psycho should never have been let out of prison, but if someone was tasked with monitoring him, they failed in the most catastrophic way possible.