OHIO PRISONS Data about ex-inmates off Web site

A newspaper group favors keeping the information on the Internet.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The names, photos and records of all former prison inmates in Ohio have been removed from the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Web site.
All that remains are the names of inmates still behind bars.
Corrections Director Reginald Wilkinson said Wednesday the change was prompted after years of complaints by former inmates and their families, who said the Web site made it difficult for them to turn their lives around.
"We have found ... because certain former inmates have their picture on the Web site, it's been a disadvantage for them and an embarrassment that has kept them in some cases from getting jobs, and we think that is unfair," he said.
"We think that at some point we have to retire the debt that these folks have paid."
Wilkinson said the information removed from the site is still available upon request.
Mixed reactions
The policy change has drawn a mix of reactions from advocates for crime victims and former inmates as well as those interested in access to public records.
Frank Deaner, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, a group that supports public-record availability, favors keeping the records open and on the Internet.
He said removing the information is another example of the need for laws to define what should be available online and what should not. An amendment to be offered in a bill in an Ohio Senate committee would create a task force to study the issue.
Tim Smith, a Kent State University journalism professor, a lawyer and a defender of public access to government records, sided with Wilkinson on the issue.
"I think the government has the right to say at some point, 'We're going to take it off the Internet; we don't think the Internet is serving a public purpose.'
"In this case, it competes with another equally compelling reason, which is the rehabilitation of people who have been in prison. The whole idea behind this concept is: You correct their behavior, and they go out and sin no more," Smith added.