When elections are fair, the PEOPLE win. - OCSEA

Despite pronouncements
by lawmakers
and the Kasich
administration that sentencing
reform would help alleviate
Ohio’s understaffed and overcrowded
prisons, the union
recently released figures showing
that the staffing levels in
Ohio’s prisons have, in fact,
gotten worse.
At a press conference outside
of the Toledo Correctional
Institution, the union unveiled
a new billboard regarding the
connection between staffing
and prison violence.
Two billboards, one
in Toledo and one in the
Mansfield area ask Ohioans to
call Governor Kasich and ask
him to take action regarding
understaffing.
While the number of inmates
in the state prisons reduced by
just over 2 percent, the number
of Correction Officers over the
same period was reduced at a
much higher rate – a staggering
5 percent – something OCSEA
warned lawmakers last year not
to do.
“We hate to say, ‘I told you
so,’ but we told you so,” said
OCSEA President Christopher
Mabe, a 20-year DR&C
employee. “This union supported
sentencing reform last
year because we wanted relief
for our Correction Officers
and we wanted safer prisons.
But we said it then, and we are
saying today, not at the expense
of cutting security staff,” said
Mabe.
“We've seen over the
past year that when
staff are cut, security
is weakened.”
~ OCSEA Pres.
Christopher Mabe
“Today, Ohio’s prisons are
worse off than they were before
sentencing reform,” said Mabe.
“Cutting staff undermined
one of the goals of sentencing
reform: to deal with our understaffing.”
More than 325 Correction
Officers have been cut statewide
this year.
At the ToCI, staffing levels
on some shifts are much worse
than the statewide average. In
fact, on second shift, the facility
runs 25 percent short most
nights, causing employees to
work mandatory overtime,
according to Randy Deeble, a
Toledo Correction Officer and
union president of that facility.
“Excessive overtime is as
dangerous as short staffing,”
said Deeble, “Even though it’s
against policy, we have some
officers who are mandated to
work 3 to 4 days of
back-to-back overtime,
16 hours a day.”
Injured CO Dennis
Cowell spoke to injuries
he sustained while
working the “chow line”
in the Toledo prison
cafeteria. Cowell lost
several teeth and is
plagued by health issues
due to a head injury caused by
an inmate.
“Sentencing reform is not a
magic bullet. We’ve seen over
the past year that when staff
are cut, security is weakened.
OCSEA is calling on lawmakers
and this administration to proactively
address our staffing levels
now, before it’s too late,” said
Mabe.
(Above) TV stations in Toledo
covered the launch of OCSEA's
billboard on prison staffing and
violence.
(Left) OCSEA leaders hold a
press conference and rally
near the prison to talk about
increased violence at ToCI.
14 Public Employee Quarterly
Fall 2012