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| Warden: Inmates Volunteer to Stay at 'Supermax' |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/17/2003 |
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The warden of Ohio's supermaximum security prison acknowledged March 3 that more than half of the inmates would be qualified to transfer to a lower security prison. However, warden Todd Ishee said all of those inmates had volunteered to stay at the Ohio State Penitentiary despite its more severe restrictions. Ishee testified at a hearing in response to accusations from inmates that the state is ignoring a judge's year-old ruling to create a clear process for determining when inmates should be transferred in and out of the Ohio State Penitentiary. The state says it is following the orders but that prison officials need more leeway in handling the most dangerous prisoners. U.S. District Judge James Gwin ruled last March that the state had violated the rights of inmates at the prison near Youngstown. Gwin said Ohio failed to provide a clear process for determining which inmates should be transferred to the prison and what they needed to do to be returned to a less restrictive maximum security prison. He ordered the state to issue new rules for prisoner transfers. The state has appealed. Lawyers for the prisoners seek a new order from Gwin to enforce his original rulings. The hearing was to resume today. Ishee wouldn't say why inmates would choose to stay at his prison. An attorney for the prisoners, Staughton Lynd, said some have elderly relatives in the area or are afraid to return to the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. If they had other choices, the prisoners probably would not want to remain at the 'supermax' prison, he said. Mark Landes, an attorney representing the state, said that inmates may be choosing to stay in the 23-hour-a-day isolation to guarantee their own safety. The state has argued that supermaximum confinement is appropriate for inmates who have a record of violent behavior against other prisoners. The 'supermax' has no outdoor recreation area, but during the litigation, the state agreed to build one. Ishee said the prison last week began letting some of the lower-security prisoners eat their meals outside of their cells and spend several hours a day in common areas. Lynd argued that by creating the new system, prison officials essentially skirted the judge's orders for reviewing the security classification of prisoners. Lynd said that once a prisoner is considered one of the maximum-security designations, the state presumes that Gwin's order no longer applies, even though the inmate remains at the 'supermax' prison. 'They just moved them down the hall to an identical cell,' said Jules Lobel, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. |
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