Ohio spends 7.3 percent of its budget on corrections, compared with the national average of 6.7 percent. If current policies are maintained, the state projects that the prison system will need another 5,330 beds by 2018, which would require $424 million in construction costs and $501 million in annual operating costs. Even now, Ohio’s prison population exceeds the system’s rated capacity of 38,665 by 30 percent. The average cost of Ohio prisons per inmate as of October 2009 was $69.19 per day, which amounts to $25,254 per year per inmate and that is in an overcrowded prison because adding more cells would bring that cost up. Examples of short sentences for REAL crime with REAL victims: In Miamisburg, Ohio, A thirty something man with long criminal record gets busted selling heroin, meth and ecstasy while driving without a license and in a truck without insurance. He was in the middle of a domestic fist fight with a prostitute girlfriend. They make money from black mailing her clients with photos of them having sex as well as making money from the aforementioned drugs. He gets out in less than a month and so does she. They were right back to business in Dayton,Ohio In Franklin, Ohio, A forty something housewife gets busted selling and cooking meth out of her home. She was selling high potency pain killers and heroin too. Her kids were always around as well as extended families children. She gets out in under three days. She goes back to business. It wasn’t her fault because she was an addict. In Cleveland a dance teacher has sex with a minor and gets 1 year in prison. In Columbus A former pharmacist linked by the government to two drug overdose deaths but never charged in those cases was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for illegally dispensing pain pills. Now let’s look at my case.I broke the law. It is ultimately MY fault. It was a crime. It was against the law as it stands currently. I broke my spine [at work] in December of 2008. The neuro surgeon says I need surgery or I will end up in a wheel chair. My blood tests show that my body is producing a level of 40 in testosterone where it should be a level of 850. I am having a harder time walking and my muscles for support just aren’t getting stronger. Meanwhile my employer is fighting my surgery. I don’t have insurance and I cannot afford the doctor’s testosterone treatments, so I bought it on the black market. It was still more costly than I could afford but I felt better. The testosterone scarred everywhere I injected it because it was dirty and not sterile. So I looked online about how I could make it for myself. I ordered the ingredients and I made it. I took it and I start to feel like myself again, I still got the numbness from waist down, but at least the support muscles could keep me going. A long time friend of ten years hounded me about his need for hormone replacement until I sold him some. He kept selling more than he was taking and got caught. He then rolled on me and set me up to sell to an undercover agent. I got busted. I should have never sold it to anybody so it is my fault. No matter what reason that was a really bad choice I made. I should have never done it. I knew it was against the law, but I wasn’t hurting anybody and I had a medical need for it. But selling to Johnny was a bad move on my part. Even though we were close friends I should have never done it. Sometimes I drive over the speed limit and I know when I do it I am breaking the law and committing a crime yet I still do it. And that is wrong too. I was a student majoring in Homeland Security and Criminal Justice with Dean’s List grades. This is a victimless crime involving hormones, not drugs that make you high or addicted and make you rob people to get a fix and eventually kills you. Now were not talking about Meth, Crack, or Heroin. We are talking about a hormone, testosterone. It is something that every human body makes on its own; like blood, insulin and saliva. Testosterone naturally occurs in both females and males. In most countries, steroids are not controlled because it is a hormone and not a drug. And just because it is legal in more places than it is not legal is no reason for me to sell it and break the law. I have been sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison, with no eligibility for early release. I never in my worse dreams could imagine that I would go to prison for anything and especially for selling testosterone. I was stupid to think it would be okay because it just a friend. I didn't think of it being any worse than littering or jaywalking. Now my punishment will bring about repercussions: I was a volunteer in community, can’t do that while in prison so community loses that free help. I donated groceries to people in need in my town; hungry families won’t be getting my help anymore. I coach (not paid but volunteered) youth football and youth wrestling, there isn’t enough people volunteering for these jobs. It cost money to do these coaching gigs and requires a lot of time and effort. These youth programs will suffer while I’m away. I donate clothes and presents for less fortunate families during holidays in my community, that will stop. I have worked and paid taxes my whole life and spent my money locally, that tax income won’t be there for the State and community won’t get my spending dollars anymore either. My sons grow up without a father. My wife who is a full time student does not make enough money, working full time to cover house bills. We may lose the house without my income. Banks lose and we lose our home of 13 years that we owe 70k on. My family gets to go on welfare because they won’t have my income to buffer their needs so the State gets to take that burden on as well. I am an ordained minister. I have had the same job for more than 12 years. I am happily married to the mother of my children. I am no threat to society at all. In our bankrupt state putting me in prison costing more than $26,000.00 a year and putting my family on welfare costing the state even more money that the prison costs, eliminating my tax revenue that I produced when working adds up to a very sizable minus for OHIO. Not to mention that the space I take in prison crowds out a violent offender for shock parole and early release for which I am not eligible for. How is this justice I ask myself. It certainly doesn’t make moral sense to me, while letting people out that actually put hard drugs on the street doing harm to Ohioans, and locking me away where I can no longer do good for people and the state of Ohio. And It is all my fault because I made the stupid choice to sell it to a buddy. Now it is my fault that violent people will be on the street because I was stupid and broke the law. I have always tried to live my life right by god and country. I respected the law and was intending to serve the law in a career until this. I will never have the honor to serve in Homeland security or Criminal Justice because my dumb actions. If you had the chance to save just one family would you? What does your heart tell you? Can’t I get a pardon? God Bless, Michael Lee 7001 lower Miamisburg rd. Miamisburg, Ohio 45342