By C1 Staff
MANSFIELD, Ohio — A female correctional officer was left alone with inmates at the Mansfield Correctional Institution when she was taken hostage Sunday morning around 10:30 a.m.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, a second officer was pulled off library detail for other duties at the prison chapel, leaving the officer alone with an unspecified number of male inmates.
Ohio Civil Service Employees Association chapter President Doug Mosier said after the second officer was pulled away, the library should have been closed and inmates should have been returned to their cells.
The hostage situation came to a peaceful end around 9 p.m. Sunday night and the officer, who has not been identified, is safe. It is unclear how the inmate took her hostage.
An investigation is ongoing and the facility remained on lockdown Monday.
The 25-year-old prison holds mostly medium-security inmates, with a population of about 2,700. The prison has about 440 officers.