COLUMBUS, Ohio — A correctional lieutenant with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) has raised the alarm over rising inmate violence, understaffing, and declining morale among correctional officers, calling on state leaders to take action before the system reaches a crisis point.
The concerns follow two violent incidents at Ross Correctional Institution, including the December 25, 2024, killing of Officer Andrew Lansing and the February 22, 2025, attack on a behavioral clinician.
Staffing shortages and prison safety under scrutiny
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has reported an 8% vacancy rate for correctional officers statewide, with Ross Correctional Institution experiencing an 11% vacancy rate, according to ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith. The department tracks staffing levels weekly and maintains that efforts to improve hiring and retention are ongoing.
However, the staffing shortage has placed increased pressure on existing officers, who are working longer shifts in high-risk environments. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA), which represents correctional officers, has previously criticized staffing shortages and rising violence, warning that overworked and exhausted officers face greater risks on the job.
Mental health toll on officers
The correctional lieutenant also highlighted the psychological strain on prison staff, pointing to national data showing that an average of 184 correctional officers die by suicide each year.
The frequent exposure to violence, traumatic events, and staff shortages has led to increased reports of PTSD among officers, which some argue contributes to high turnover rates within Ohio prisons.
Calls for change
The officer’s letter urges state leaders to address prison staffing shortages, reconsider disciplinary policies, and prioritize safety for both staff and inmates. While ODRC has made efforts to improve hiring and retention, officers are calling for more substantial reforms to prevent further violence and systemic decline.
As investigations into recent staff attacks at Ross Correctional Institution continue, prison staff and their advocates are pushing for stronger safety measures and policy changes to address growing concerns.
Full Letter Below:
“I am a Correctional Lieutenant who serves the people of the state of Ohio with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Please, allow me to begin by saying that this letter may be lengthy, but I will attempt to be as direct, honest, and objective as I can be, without avoiding perspectives that should be shared not only with the officers, command staff, administrative staff, and civilian staff who work for this department, but also with the Ohio public.
Whenever asked, “Do you believe in rehabilitation and does it work?” my answer is always, “Yes” however, that answer is conditional regarding a few primary conditions: does the offender also believe in rehabilitation? Does the offender feel that he/she needs to be rehabilitated? Does the offender desire to be rehabilitated? The answer to these conditional questions determine whether or not the methods of rehabilitation will work for that offender.
Over the years of service that I have had within the service of Rehabilitation and Correction, I can assure you that rehabilitation is real and does work – conditionally. I can also tell you based upon the number of times I have seen offenders released, and readmitted to the department with new offenses, some offenders are not interested in rehabilitation which can be attributed to a myriad of reasons. Though I truly believe in rehabilitation, I also believe according to reality that many will never rehabilitate. While the prison can offer rehabilitative and mental health services, as it should, it should also be regarded as a fortress which protects Ohioans from the very malefactors which have been placed there by judicial order for being a hazard and a danger to society.
Recently, there has been an outbreak of offender-on-staff violence that has garnered the attention of public news networks.
On December 25, 2024, Officer Andrew (Andy Lansing) was brutally murdered by an Incarcerated Person (Inmate) at Ross Correctional Institution in Ross County, Ohio.
On Thursday, February 22, 2025, not two months after the murder of Officer Andrew Lansing, a Behavioral Clinician (unnamed) who is a medical staff member working as a mental health provider was attacked by an Incarcerated Person, also at Ross Correctional Institution in Ross County, Ohio.
Due to “assumed factors” such as less than comparable pay, diminishing retirement benefits, the already innate dangers which accompany “the job,” along with the malignant spread of staff disappointment and discontentment along with the rapidly changing approach to “corrections,” it has become increasingly difficult to hire qualified and capable individuals to assume the once esteemed position of a correctional officer.
The importance and the respect level of correctional staff as a whole, but especially those who wear the badge, seems to be ever diminished by the increasing emphasis being placed on various forms of offender programming and the lack of positive attention and care of the public servants who facilitate the orders that flow down the chain of command. Though various programs have proven to be not only effective but internally meaningful to some of the incarcerated individuals, programming, increased privileges, in combination with the lighter approach to offender infractions which include more verbal counseling, softer sanctions, and shorter segregation sentences have led to the entitled, emboldened attitudes and actions of the incarcerated persons against correctional staff. The fear of consequence when committing rule infractions and the repercussions of acting out against staff has dramatically dissipated among the incarcerated population of the Ohio prisons.
Under the current culture, which is historically established through the actions and decision making styles of leadership, the incarcerated population has seemingly become more important than the public servants who have been charged with the protection of the citizens of ohio through the safe keeping of those individuals who have been deemed as a threat to the public by the state and federal judicial system. The staff of the state’s correctional facilities work to the extent of physical and emotional exhaustion This exhaustion, in many cases, has led to PTSD and CPTSD of staff who deal with unmentionable atrocities, horrific scenes, and graphic violence which all occur on a frequent basis. This unfortunately lends itself to the use of “self-medication, social withdraw, domestic complications and indifferences, and in some cases, suicide. According to statistics recently reported by an organization named First Help (an organization that tracks first responder suicides) an average of 184 correctional officers commit suicide each year. According to ABC News, 1,200 Law enforcement officers committed suicide between 2016 and 2022. Yet, one completed suicide of an incarcerated individual gains the attention of state leadership which causes, in many cases, months of investigation which typically leads to staff discipline, including termination of employment, and civil lawsuits.
Due to the facts listed above, this has led to staggeringly low job referral by employees (which in years passed have been plentiful) and the hiring of employees who grievously fail to perform according to the unwritten standards required by “The Job.” The state now has a major influx of new hires who do not view a career in corrections as calling or a major career opportunity, but simply a job where expectations are seemingly low to non-existent, yet earns a steady paycheck every two weeks. This situation is not a complaint, but a fact which has led to a cry for help from those of us who understand they risk we place ourselves in every day, which has been exacerbated by the employment of those who do not take this job seriously, are ignorant of the danger which surrounds them, and the non-existent commitment to stand beside their brothers and sisters in moments which are life threatening. This is unacceptable. Due to these factors, I am unable to count the number of good and great officers who have quit, or been forced to quit because of their previously trained, yet now unconventional means of maintaining order inside of the correctional institution.
How many staff members must we lose, how many lives must be destroyed in the shadows of “new corrections” before it is realized that the state and the states new process of “rehabilitation” is now unnecessarily endangering it’s staff – which in turn endangers the public – the very citizens of Ohio whom we have been entrusted to protect?
The mismanagement and poor leadership inside of the prisons is also a major negative influence on the morale of the staff. When it appears that the incarcerated population is no longer held to an acceptable standard which promotes order, safety, and security, yet the staff are being targeted by disciplinary action for “petty” issues, this causes a snowball effect of apathy and disgruntled staff. Personal, argumentative differences among staff (who should not even have been hired to perform the duties of the job in the first place) are requiring the time and energy of the command staff, distracting them from supervising the order of the institution.In the background, the incarcerated population is wreaking havoc, and organizing themselves against a force which instead of being a united front, is obviously ununited and falling apart. This is a major security issue!
There are members of leadership that were once invaluable assets to the state correctional system, who are now in “check-out mode” just buying their time until retirement. They understand that it is their responsibility to “sell the mail” down the ranks, but even they are weary of the changes taking place which are being ordered by “the powers that be” and this negativity rolls down hill, all the way to the officers who are on the front lines of an impending disaster. Again, I ask, how many losses are we to take before it becomes not only a wake up call to the upper echelon of our department, but a monstrosity large enough that it will take years to recover from?
It has been said that “big ships turn slow.” but many of these changes which are being effected upon the department so quickly (and among the majority opinion, foolishly and unnecessarily) it will certainly “tip the ship.” If the “leadership” of the upper echelon continues to turn a deaf ear to the warnings of those of us who are “boots on the ground” inside of the institutions, the ODRC will become the next Titanic disaster which could have been avoided.
I beckon earnestly, and respectfully, will someone with the ability to make a difference among the leadership of the ODRC and the State of Ohio- please hear our cry for help.
Respectfully,
A dedicated servant of the citizens of Ohio”