Woodson v. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) seized the CARES Act emergency relief funds of incarcerated people in Ohio and garnished those funds to pay government debt—despite Ohio’s Attorney General having declared that the relief money was exempt from debt collection under Ohio state law. Incarcerated Ohioans sued, seeking a declaratory judgment on the grounds that their checks had been seized in violation of Ohio’s Equal Protection Clause. ODRC moved to dismiss, asserting that the funds in question had already been paid out to clerks of court to satisfy Plaintiffs’ court-ordered obligations. The trial court accepted as true ODRC’s assertion and relied on it as the basis for dismissal, concluding that “since Defendants have already paid out the garnished funds,” the clerks of courts “who would have the authority to issue refunds” were necessary parties. It did not permit Plaintiffs to join the necessary parties.

We filed an amicus brief on behalf of Ohio Organizing Collaborative and Policy Matters Ohio urging Ohio’s Tenth Appellate District to overturn the dismissal. Our brief reminded the court of the high stakes of the case by providing a careful elaboration of the financial burdens and urgent needs of incarcerated Ohioans and their families, and drew attention to the negative policy implications of the decision below. Incarcerated people in Ohio start out poor, get poorer because of their incarceration, and contract COVID-19 at much higher rates than others in Ohio. They and their families desperately need the COVID-19 relief funds provided to them by Congress.

The brief reflects an early example of our new focus on state appellate courts as a forum to vindicate the rights of incarcerated people.