Testimony on the Budget of the
Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Corrections
April 3, 2007

Prepared Remarks of
TIM SHAFER,
OCSEA Corrections
Assembly President

Good evening Chairman Patton and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you regarding the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections budget.  I have provided each of you with a copy of my testimony.  My name is Tim Shafer; I am a Corrections Officer at the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient, Ohio. 

I am also the President of the Ohio Civil Service Employee Association’s Corrections Assembly.  As President of the Assembly I represent some 9000 Corrections employees in the state of Ohio.

I would like to start this evening with just a fast reminder of history in Ohio Corrections.  Fourteen years ago next week on April 11, 1993 the Lucasville riot started.  For eleven days the Institution and the community were held hostage.  Corrections Officer’ Bobby Vallandingham was killed, as were several offenders. 

What did we learn from the riot?  We learned what we already knew.  Overcrowding and understaffing are a very dangerous mix.  After the riot, the Ohio General Assembly acted fast and appropriated funding for thousands of new beds and 904 new Correction Officers.

Now, again, we find ourselves back in a very dangerous situation.  Today the prison population is rising faster than ever.  At the same time the number of Correction Officers and front line staff continue to decrease.  One of the charts attached to my testimony show how the overall inmate to CO ratio has risen to 6.4 to one.  Let me caution you about this statistic.  This ratio is accurate and useful for certain purposes, but it often leaves outsiders with the wrong impression.  As Chairman Patton can attest to, what a Corrections Officer sees every day inside the fences is a much, much greater ratio.  In most of Ohio’s prisons you can walk in and see a 250 to 1 or 300 to 1 ratio at any time of the day.  This raises concerns for staff, community and offender.  We again have too few eyes watching too many offenders.

Overcrowding creates not only security issues, but also health and safety issues.  The cost of medical care and mental health care services is off the chart and the annual dollar amount can only be guessed.  Offenders come to DR&C who, in many cases have never seen a doctor before in their life.  In addition, a recent wave of inmates linked to crystal meth are entering prison with severe dental and mental health needs.  Plus, the recent Fussel lawsuit will continue to impact the DR&C budget for years to come, again at an unknown cost. 

My Union has tried to play a positive role despite the growing problem.  OCSEA and DR&C continue to work together, to look for better ways and more efficient ways to do the business of Corrections.  Together we have saved taxpayer dollars by record warehouse consolidation, food services, offender transportation and many others saving millions of taxpayers’ dollars. 

Just a few months ago, we worked together to reallocate 106 Correction Officer positions from institution to institution so DR&C could reopen the closed housing units at several prisons to help with the influx of offenders coming into the system.  Again, this saved millions of taxpayers’ dollars. 

But we are stretching the department’s capabilities too thin and I fear we are at the breaking point.

Chairman Patton and members of the committee, I’d like to close by noting that everyday Correction employees across the state do a job that most Ohioans would not.  The risk gets greater with each passing day.  
That’s why we understand there is no easy solution for you and the situation is complex.  There is a staffing component.   There is a facilities component.  There is a sentencing component.  And there are components that impact policy issues like health care and inmate lawsuits. 

However, we believe state leaders in the past have dealt with these issues too piecemeal or without enough regard to the consequences of their decisions.  In the past budget crisis, for example, Corrections took 60% of all staffing cuts in state services and was forced to close 2 prisons.  These decisions only made matters worse for DR&C.

Instead, I would like to suggest that this body and the Governor’s office create a Blue Ribbon Commission to look at the future for Corrections in Ohio.  We realize that their may be some reluctance to create one more Blue Ribbon panel whose recommendations might turn gray by gathering dust on a shelf.  Ohio can not afford for this to happen.  

The commission I have in mind would be an effective working committee that must be committed to action and helping DR&C accomplish the goals Corrections has in the most safe and efficient ways possible.

We would suggest that the commission represents a cross section of experts and stake holders including representatives from the General Assembly, the department, the judiciary, academia and the workforce.

Time is of the essence.  Our prison population is expected to grow by 20% in 5 years and 37% in 10 years.

I started off my testimony by recalling the 1993 prison riot.  I urge you to act swiftly to prevent history from repeating itself.

I thank you Chairman Patton and committee members; I will answer any questions you may have at this time.

See Related

Corrections assembly president offers testimony before finance subcommittee