'Get Out of Jail Early' cards

Whatever happened to "getting tough on crime?"
Four stories in the paper over three recent days make us wonder if someone is running around Ohio passing out "Get Out of Jail Early" cards.
The most egregious of those cases is that of David Lockney, 46, who pleaded guilty July 23, 1987, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to repeatedly raping his daughter when she was 6 and 7 years old.
Lockney was supposed to be serving four life sentences, but after less than 15 years behind bars, the Ohio Parole Board is ready to release him July 8.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has asked for a full hearing to oppose Lockney's release. Perhaps when confronted with the full horror of what Lockney inflicted on his tiny daughter, the board will be convinced that Lockney earned not mercy, but the max.
Youngstown will soon be welcoming home Charles Ingram, 47, formerly of Dale Street, who killed his aunt with scissors 10 years ago. He's been granted a conditional release from a psychiatric hospital and will take up residence in a group home, where he'll be monitored in anticipation of his eventual release.
Witness murdered
And then there's Michael Swiger, 34, of Tiltons ville, Ohio, one of three people convicted in Summit County Common Pleas Court in 1990 in the murder of Roger Pratt.
Pratt was a Thiel College student who was killed to keep him from testifying in an arson case. Murders don't get much more premeditated than that. Swiger was sentenced to 21 to 53 years in prison for his role in the killing but is coming up for a parole hearing in September. Michael Pratt, brother of the victim, is gathering signatures to persuade the parole board to keep Swiger in jail for at least another eight years.
Finally, there's Randall K. Bryant, 26, of Oak Drive, Poland, who was convicted in Trumbull County on five counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving minors and a misdemeanor charge of criminal child enticement for luring an 8-year-old boy into his car with a promise to get him a frog.
For this behavior, he got 30 days in the Trumbull County Jail and five years probation and house arrest. It will be interesting after a year or two to see how assiduously authorities monitor his house arrest, which allows him to leave for school, work and treatment.
We're not arguing for a return to the "good old days" when Ohio couldn't build jail cells fast enough for the courts to fill them. But if Ohio can't keep these guys out of circulation, something's wrong.