By Laura A. Bischoff
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON — Ohio prison guards are using force against prisoners less often but there are concerns video footage documenting the confrontations isn’t preserved and force is used more frequently against black inmates, a new report says.
“As the nation has been focused on use of force in our communities, recall that use of force is just as critical in prison, particularly as it happens behind closed correctional doors,” Corrections Institutions Inspection Committee Director Joanna Saul wrote when releasing the latest report.
The CIIC reported that the use of force in Ohio’s 27 prisons declined 16.4 percent between 2010 and 2014. However, the incidents disproportionately involved black inmates. Nearly 64 percent of the 4,153 incidences of force against inmates last year involved black inmates, who comprise 44.6 percent of the overall prison population.
In most cases, corrections officers’ responses were appropriate to the situations, resulted in minor to no injuries, and were generally investigated when warranted, the report said. But a “serious concern” is the lack of preservation of video footage documenting the confrontations and most of the prisons had documentation errors, the CIIC said.
Use of force ranges from physically escorting a prisoner who may not be responding to commands to using deadly force when an inmate uses weapons against an officer.
Montgomery and Warren counties are home to three state prisons that combined employ 1,110 people and house 4,633 inmates.
The CIIC is a legislative oversight committee that was originally formed in 1977 by the late Dayton lawmaker C.J. McLin Jr., D-Dayton.