By C1 Staff
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Union officials are demanding that Ohio prisons fill 83 corrections officer positions, as promised earlier this year.
Chillicothe Gazette reports that prison officials had announced in March that they would add new COs to three facilities using money approved by state lawmakers.
The prisons selected – Ross Correctional Institution, Mansfield Correctional Institution, and Toledo Correctional Institution – have higher rates of inmate-on-staff violence.
“We have a serious understaffing problem. It’s not just overcrowding. It’s directly related to assaults,” said Sally Meckling, spokeswoman for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association.
To date, only 27 of the 83 promised staff members have been hired. Union officials suspect the delay stems from a prison practice that requires 4 percent of positions remain vacant to keep down costs.
That “historical practice,” as reported by the Chillcothe Gazette, was recently lifted for the Ross Correctional Institution, Mansfield Correctional Institution and the Toledo Correctional Institution.
“We have either filled or are in the process of filling the positions requested in the [mid-biennium review],” said Ohio DORC spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. She was unable to provide the exact number of positions filled.
Only one of 46 job postings for the Ohio DORC was for a CO. Another listing was for a corrections lieutenant, but the most common listings are for nurses.
Monthly reports also indicate 57 fewer corrections officers were employed statewide in May than in March.
Smith says that some of the new spots will be filled by 110 corrections officers starting training in the next four weeks. Other new employees will fill vacancies.