News Release
News impacting public employee union members

Union leaders' letter to Gov. Taft states concern over dangers, state of Ohio prison system

August 31, 2006

Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117

Dear Governor Taft:

We write with great concern over the unfolding situation in Ohio’s prisons.

Although crime rates have been at relatively low levels and stable, the aggregate prison population has suddenly expanded in recent years. After reaching a decade low of fewer than 44,000 in the period between 2003 and 2005, the population has surged to 46,807. This is the highest the population has been since 2000, and includes a 7.5 percent increase over just the past 17 months.

Inmate intake patterns in the first half of this year were 15 percent ahead of what the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction experienced in 2005. As a result the entire prison system is housing 31 percent more inmates than it was designed to safely handle.

Data from individual prisons shows that the situation may be worse than even these grim aggregate numbers reveal. The inmate population at the Lorain Correctional Institution grew by nearly 28 percent in one year and is operating at over 263 percent of capacity.

Likewise, the Correctional Reception Center is operating at 207 percent of capacity and the Ohio Reformatory for Women is at 163 percent of capacity.

Equally alarming is the prison staffing level. Although the number of inmates has increased by 1,574 from a year ago, the number of Corrections Officers has actually declined by 112. The decline is even more startling if we look back to another time when population levels were similar. DRC statistics show that in July 2000 (46,537 inmates) the department operated with over 1,000 more correction officers (14 percent) than today.

One key result is the inmate-to-CO ratio has risen from 5.6 to 1 to 6.6 to 1. This benchmark is fast approaching the dangerous pre-Lucasville level.

Despite this dangerous situation, we have learned that you have not sought additional funding to alleviate the situation and also oppose using some of the State of Ohio’s revenue surplus to provide more assistance to the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.

The solution cannot continue to be to “do-more-with-less.” This high-risk approach already has been forced upon the department for several years and, to be sure, the “less” has been significant: two major prison closures and reductions of $151 million in General Revenue Fund appropriations since 2001.

Governor, Ohio’s prison system and prison staff need your immediate attention and support. As events in 1993 showed, no one can afford to ignore these sorts of problems or dismiss these concerns in order to fulfill some political agenda. Of course, citizens don’t relish paying taxes. However, they also don’t want their prison system to be operated in a manner that puts them or the prison staff in danger – especially if the State has to pay enormous sums after a major disturbance takes place as the State did after the Lucasville riots and hostage-taking events.

The current situation in the prison system is explosive. We remain concerned that unless some timely relief is undertaken a tragedy will occur. Accordingly, we write to you with our concerns with the hope and belief that you will cause corrective action to be taken. As always, we stand ready to cooperate and assist you and Director Collins in finding a solution to this pressing problem.

We urge you to act quickly and seek the resources needed to bring the overcrowding and staffing to safe levels. Thank you for taking the time to consider our thoughts. Please accept our best regards.

Sincerely,

Ronald C. Alexander Andy Douglas
President Executive Director

CC: Jon Husted, Speaker, Ohio House of Representatives
Bill Harris, President, Ohio Senate
Terry Collins, Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
OCSEA Board of Directors
Tim Shafer, Corrections Assembly President
OCSEA Corrections Chapter Presidents

RCA:AD:pw

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