BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Bowling Green State University and the Ohio Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday the creation of the Center for Justice Research.
The center will be housed on the BGSU campus and focus on funding research with other Ohio colleges and institutions on issues important to the state. Attorney General Dave Yost said $170,000 will be dedicated in the first year to fund two or three research projects.
One of the examples he gave was bail reform.
"I fully support the presumption of innocence and the state has to prove you are in fact guilty," Yost said. "So a lot of folks are arguing the question of bail. Why are we holding particularly indigent people in custody for extended periods of time when they haven't been convicted of anything?
"Now we can stop having opinions and actually get some research and find some answers," he said.
Yost said the center will focus on important questions that involve public debate. Yost said the findings will help inform his office and "hopefully the administration and legislature" in their decisions.
BGSU President Rodney Rogers said the partnership will serve both sides well.
"It is a great example of the power of the public university and state agency coming together to serve Ohio," he said.