By J Swygart
The Lima News
LIMA, Ohio — Exactly 25 years after Bonita Haynes, a case manager at the Lima Correctional Institution, was brutally killed by two inmates at the now-closed facility, prison officials have assured her memory and that of two others who died in the performance of their duties will never be forgotten.
Dedication ceremonies were held Friday morning at the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution, LCI’s successor, to remember Haynes, Dennis Stemen and Shirlene Jenkins as a memorial garden on the prison grounds was unveiled to the public.
Haynes was killed Aug. 6, 1996, at age 29, after her throat was slashed by two inmates at the Lima facility. Her killers were convicted of murder and received life sentences on top of their existing prison terms.
ACI Correction Officer Stemen died July 5, 1994, from injuries he received in a traffic accident during an inmate transfer. He was 31 years of age. Jenkins, also a corrections officer at the Allen Oakwood facility, died of cardiac arrest on Feb. 11, 1997, while engaged in a use-of-force incident at the prison. She was 36.
All three were remembered in remarks made by prison officials on Friday.
Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the dedication of the new memorial garden was “a somber day, but also a day of joy — because we are making a purpose out of people’s deaths.”
Chambers-Smith said enhanced safety procedures were implemented throughout the state prison system following Haynes’s death. A no-working-alone policy was implemented, meaning employees could not be forced to work alone against their will, and man-down alarms also were made available for all employees.
“There are so many things that her death created. That’s her legacy,” the director said. “Only the Lucasville (prison) riots led to more changes in our department than did Bonita Haynes’s death.”
Chambers-Smith credited the creation of the memory garden to tireless efforts of AOCI Warden Ed Sheldon, who retired from the prison several years ago but returned in 2020 to oversee the prison’s operation.
“It was the mission of Warden Sheldon to get this accomplished. He never gave up on this for over a half a decade and now we’re making a purpose out of people’s deaths.”
The garden is located along the main drive leading from North West Street to the prison’s main entrance.
“Its location is no accident,” Sheldon said. “The staff will have to drive past it twice a day and hopefully it will remind them of those who never went home at the end of their shifts ... those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.”
Corrections Officer Sgt. James Shrider said Haynes, Stemen and Jenkins are “standing in the eyes of God knowing they made a difference.”
The two inmates charged with Haynes’s murder in prison spent the rest of their lives in prison. Robert Lonberger died less than two years after killing Haynes and John Daniels died in 2010.
(c)2021 The Lima News (Lima, Ohio)