CURE HISTORY - the Ohio Chapter

Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) is a national organization founded to reduce crime through criminal justice reform. National CURE was founded in 1985 by Charlie and Pauline Sullivan and is located in Washington, D.C., with state chapters and affiliates in almost fifty states today. 

CURE believes that prisons should be used only for those who absolutely must be incarcerated and that those who are incarcerated should have all of the resources they need to turn their lives around.

The Ohio Chapter of CURE, the second state chapter, was first organized in the spring of 1986, and reorganized under new leadership in October 1995. The membership of CURE-Ohio is comprised of family and friends of prisoners, ministries, halfway houses, and educators, as well as other citizens from Ohio's communities who are concerned with fairness and justice.

CURE-Ohio's Focus

* To encourage a pro-family policy in prison assignments, transfers and pre-release programs.
* To encourage better visiting conditions so that incarcerated persons can maintain stable family relationships while in prison, thus increasing their chances of success once released.
* To promote improved conditions of confinement and educational opportunities that help prisoners find worth in themselves, and become more aware of their relationship and responsibility to society.
* To advocate for improved medical and mental health treatment programs and expanded drug and alcohol treatment and sex offender treatment in prisons and communities.
* To advocate for parole procedures giving serious consideration for parole when a prisoner becomes eligible for parole, with a presumption for parole.
* To advocate for less severe sentences.
* To advocate change through the legislative process by creating a national and local constituency made up of families and friends of prisoners who work to educate lawmakers of the need for correctional policy reform.
* To support a moratorium on Ohio's prison building program and promote expanded use of community-based alternatives.
* To advocate for equitable process in all stages of criminal justice administration and sentencing so as to eliminate racial and ethnic disproportion in incarceration.
* To support strict regulation of private prisons.
* To encourage victim-offender reconciliation.
* To support a moratorium on the death penalty.
* To ensure that all released prisoners are aware of their right to vote.
* To promote professional prison managment that is fair, firm, and consistent.