NEWS

Prison changes shift violence to fewer facilities

Jona Ison

Each day at work starts the same for Mollie Jansen: Let’s all get home.

She’s been a correction officer at Mansfield Correctional Institution for less than three years, but she’s already undergone counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder. The anxiety attacks started about six months ago when an inmate grabbed her as she tried to escort him to his cell and he couldn’t be subdued with pepper spray.

“I want us to go home unscathed, not just go home,” she said.

In October an inmate in Mansfield took a female correction officer hostage for nearly 11 hours. Specifics of the situation have yet to be released, but the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association pointed to the incident as a reminder of prison violence.

Although the prison system has seen overall violence decrease, the numbers of staff being seriously injured more than doubled to 46 between 2007 and 2013, the most recent detailed statistics being released by the state.

And that increase is being felt more at Mansfield, where the rate of officers sustaining serious or minor injuries jumped from about 7 per 1,000 inmates in 2012 to 10 in 2013.

“I won’t stay a correction officer. I can’t. It’s too dangerous,” said Jansen, who has hopes to eventually move elsewhere within the criminal justice system.

Violence against guards also increased at 11 of the state’s 27 prisons

What about the last two years?

A January report from the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee reviewed violent rule infractions across the state, finding a nearly 12 percent decline between the peak in 2011 and the end of 2014.

While the report provides an overview of violent assaults, it lumps together incidents of varying degrees and includes inmate assaults on each other as well as staff, noted Sally Meckling, communications director for the prison guards’ union.

The prison’s Bureau of Research analyzes assaults on a micro level – making the differentiation between the type of assaults – but that work has not been completed for 2014 or 2015.

While Lucasville had the highest rate of serious injury assaults on staff between 2011 and 2013, Mansfield has had the highest number of staff injured with 55. Lucasville had 53 during that same time and Toledo 51.

The increase in staff being assaulted led Bobbie-Jo Heinlen, a 22-year correction officer at Marion Correctional Institution, to advise friends against transferring to work in Mansfield.

“That’s a place, even with my years of experience, I wouldn’t want to go,” Heinlen said.

The delay in more recent detailed information from the state has been a point of contention for the union. Allen Oakwood correctional officer Shawn Gruber chairs the union’s violence committee.

In addition to Mansfield, Gruber said they have concerns about the frequency of assaults they’ve seen at Warren Correctional Institution and the Ohio State Penitentiary. And the result is a loss of good staff who are unable to return to work after an assault, he added.

“I don’t want another Lucasville,” Gruber said, referencing the 11-day riot in 1993 that left a correction officer and nine inmates dead.

Not unexpected

The system being heralded for overall decreases in assaults also is being cited for the increases at some prisons.

In 2012, the prisons began implementing Director Gary Mohr’s three-tier plan to turn prisons into one of three types: reintegration, general or control.

Reintegration prisons provide the most freedom and programming and are geared toward the best behaved and nonviolent inmates. Control prisons, like Mansfield and Toledo, are the opposite.

Inmates are classified in part based on their offense, but behavior determines whether they move up or down the tiers providing an incentive for good behavior and an added penalty for bad behavior.

As a result, well-behaved inmates are more insulated from violent inmates in hopes of preventing them from bad influence, yet the most violent – including gang members – are more concentrated than ever.

The increase in assaults at Mansfield and other close-control prisons wasn’t an unexpected challenge with the three-tier system, Managing Director of Operations Ed Voorhies said. Overall, Ohio’s prisons are getting more violent offenders because of sentencing reforms, he added.

“The purpose of our high security prisons is to do that, to house those (high-risk, violent) offenders,” Voorhies said, noting there is just one security level above Mansfield.

In addition to a different housing configuration, more correction officers are assigned at close security prisons, which Voorhies said is critical to management.

Statewide, there are 6,547 correction officers, about eight inmates for each correction officer compared to seven to one in Novemeber 2008 when the prison population was at its peak.

Although Gruber expressed frustration about getting security levels changed more quickly, Voorhies said they’ve tried to be aggressive especially when staff have been the target of a physical assault.

Before Mohr became director, Voorhies said inmates often remained in segregation from the general population at the same prison of the assault for weeks. Now, they are “immediately moved to (Lucasville), if not the same day, the next day,” he said.

Moving forward

The executive director of the prison inspection committee, Joanna Saul, has applauded reform efforts under Mohr, including the three-tier plan, as helping reduce violence. A key part of that has been providing “meaningful” activities for inmates, which has been lacking in Mansfield according to the most recent inspection.

The union pointed to programming and staffing issues as what provided the opportunity for the October hostage incident.

Voorhies feels the hostage situation is separate from the overall staff assault issue, saying it “had nothing to do with conditions of confinement or Mansfield.” The inmate was seeking attention about his court sentence.

The 2015 inspection at Mansfield, completed before the hostage incident, also noted improvements because of an overhaul of leadership in 2013 after an inmate escaped.

Gruber outlined three areas that need addressed to help lower assaults: lower the population, increase staff and listen to frontline staff.

After a recent meeting between the corrections assembly and Mohr, Gruber is hopeful.

“I thought he was sincere, but the things we talked about, we need to see what he does,” Gruber said.

jison@Gannett.com

Twitter: @JonaIson