By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Employees at four Ohio prisons face possibly disciplinary action for improperly downloading and copying music for free from a pay service used by inmates, following an investigation by Inspector General Randall J. Meyer.
A report of Meyer’s investigation released on Tuesday said 16 employees were confirmed to have downloaded hundreds of songs and some movies over a period of time. One employee had 552 files, including a copy of the movie Repo Men, on his office computer server.
None of the 16 employees were recommended for criminal prosecution, but all face possible disciplinary action.
JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the recommendations in the investigative report to restrict access to downloads “are already in various stages of implementation.
“DRC will thoroughly review the report to determine next steps, including administrative actions involving those employees who were part of the investigation,” she said. “In addition, a review is underway of all information and technology policies.”
The investigation began earlier this year when a prison employee reported that 57 employees at four prisons had improperly downloaded music files from JPay Inc., a Miramar, Fla., company that provides, for a fee, money transfers, email, and video visitation services to Ohio inmates. The company began offering music downloads in 2007. Music, movie and game files are stored on computer servers at Ohio prisons.
The investigation found 16 of the 57 employees downloaded files for their personal use, but did not transfer them to other devices. The other employees had music files, but none were from JPay.
Edwin Diaz, a corrections officer at the Lorain prison, downloaded 552 songs and at least one movie to his computer server.
In an interview with the inspector general’s staff, Diaz said, “I really did not know it was illegal to do that. So, I mean it’s ... if I would have known I would have never done anything like that. I would have never transferred the music or anything.”
In addition to the downloads issue, Meyer also chastised prison officials at the Lorain Correctional Institution for failing to report allegedly pirated movies, which were shown to some inmates, including The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Ride Along, before they were commercially available to the public.