Falsehoods alleged in Peter Bronson’s Sunday jail column

Yesterday at the Cincinnati Beacon, Michael Earl Patton, a candidate for Cincinnati City Council, quickly challenged much of the data about the Hamilton County jail issue Peter Bronson included in his Sunday editorial in the Enquirer. Among other things, he takes on David Pepper’s “70 percent recidivism rate” quote Bronson used:

"Finally, Mr, Bronson quotes Commissioner Pepper as saying there is a “horrible 70 percent recidivism rate” which has offenders back in jail every 22 days. What’s this? Every 22 days ? There is no way this can be true. That would mean that the average offender is jailed 16 times per year. And then one has to ask for what is a person arrested so many times? Jaywalking? Spitting on the sidewalk? Loitering? Throwing a cigarette butt on the ground?..."