For several years, advocates of criminal-sentencing reforms have offered solutions for Ohio’s increasingly expensive, overcrowded prisons. Now, it appears the state is ready to put those reforms in place. That’s welcome news. …

The legislation includes several common sense provisions that are both fiscally smart and socially responsible. It should reduce the state’s prison costs by about $78 million a year. …

Reform will give courts more options and flexibility. The system will be better able to separate serious, violent offenders from those who can be more easily rehabilitated, avoiding an unintended consequence — low-level offenders being influenced by the hardened, violent criminals they are housed with.

Soaring prison costs during a time of budget deficits made reform inevitable. …

The bonus is that reforms should help make ex-offenders more productive more quickly, which can only be good for the state’s economy. …

What’s heartening is that the move toward reform was truly bipartisan and widespread. Former Gov. Ted Strickland and current Gov. John Kasich supported the concept, as well as virtually every member of the legislature.

The justice system ought to be both tough and smart on crime.

Ohio has gotten the “tough” part down pat. Now it’s working on “smart.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer

FDA right to try drastic tactics against smoking

Smokers have been told since 1964 that their cigarettes are hazardous to their health.

Warnings labels added to tobacco packaging in the mid-1980s reiterated the message and are partially credited with helping reduce the number of smokers in the United States.

But not everyone is paying attention. There are still about 46 million adults who smoke. Experts predict half of them will die of smoking-related health problems. …

Even though the number of smokers has leveled off, the federal Food and Drug Administration is renewing efforts to reduce it, by requiring tobacco companies to add graphic images with stronger warnings to packaging and advertising.

The nine images should give smokers reason to take notice.

One shows a man holding a cigarette while smoke comes out of a hole in his neck. Another shows a mother holding a baby as it innocently eyes a cloud of tobacco smoke. …

While most smokers probably won’t pay much attention, the hope is that some will find them disgusting enough to stop the habit. The FDA estimates the new labels will cut the number of smokers by 213,000 by 2013, and by a smaller percentage after that.

We question if the images will have that much impact.

But while some may argue that the FDA action is intrusive and in poor taste, tobacco use is an important public issue worthy of the agency’s effort to curtail it. …

The (Findlay) Courier