Lucasville Legacy

welcome to the state of Ohio I'm Karen castler 30 years ago this week one of the longest prison riots in US history finally ended after 11 days 400 inmates from three gangs at the southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville held that prison for nearly two weeks and when The Siege was over one guard and nine inmates were dead State House correspondent Joe Engles takes a look back at the riot and its lasting impact no I thought I was going to die I mean it's just that simple there was quite a few times throughout the RI that there was situations and developments that were occurring that I thought I would not make it out it took a long time really to Dawn on us I'm all of us I'd say that this is a full scale R trouble began on Easter Sunday as simmering tensions erupted over a new Warden with new rules tuberculosis tests containing alcohol which up set Muslim inmates and severe overcrowding you know we had probably double the capacity of a Maximum Security Prison uh the way it was constructed it was more like a medium security uh physical plant than a maximum security one uh there was too much movement for persons who were that high risk Jimi was a reporter for TV station WHIO in Dayton because of all that came before the riot Lucasville was like a powder CAG with so much pressure and it just took one spark to set it off Mike Hensley hid in a stairwell but was taken hostage by prisoners as was guard Daryl Clark there's not a date that don't go by that I don't think about this I mean there's there's no way a person could they want to kill somebody but they just couldn't make up their mind which one the rioter also took other prisoners hostage over Over The 11-day Siege nine inmates and one guard were killed I can report to you is everyone here I can report to you that a sixth inmate body has been recovered we have not notifi the next of Ken I'm freaking out you know you got a brother down there and what is going on you know and now those were some hard days Jackie Bower's brother George skates was one of the inmates inside he'd been sent to Lucasville for a murder in 1982 skates was one of the so-called Lucasville 5 the ring leaders skates served as the spokesman for inmates on a broadcast that aired during the riot on a local radio station cuz we are not going to bow down we are not going to give up we are going to remain no matter what they put on us if we die we die me meanwhile State leaders were handling the riot from Columbus current Governor Mike dwine was then Governor George voinovich as lieutenant governor and served as the point person during the ordeal you know it's a it's a unique situation because when you look at from a communication point of view um the prisoners you know were listening to the radio the prisoners were getting TV and so anything that was was put out um you know they they got and then you know very quickly this turns into a negotiation uh with hostages and the goal um the prime goal really the the goal uh was to save lives and to you know be able to protect the lives uh of of everybody in there as the riot dragged on National Guard members were brought in to join the state troopers and other law enforcement yeah was spent uh you know 16 hours a day although as as the riot uh uh uh became older in terms of number of days the prisoners uh actually established a schedule um and so like at 6 o' they wouldn't negotiate anymore they were done for the day um and so that was kind of interesting to watch them uh get into a pattern uh the FBI had very sophisticated um listening equipment that they had drilled up into uh the floor of the room room where they were doing the negotiations from so we could hear uh what was being said um when they weren't negotiating and even after corrections officer Bobby valandingham was strangled by inmates and his body was thrown into the recreation yard storming the prison was not something State leaders were willing to do there was a tremendous amount of pressure uh as you'll remember to to storm the prison and particularly after officer of landingham died um you know you can imagine people in in not just in the community but you know throughout the state uh were demanding that you know we we go in and you know the governor uh to his credit resisted that and stayed focused on how do we protect the lives how do we save the most lives um I I think if you look at other examples where there's a storming of a prison those are very high-risk situations as far as the deaths of the of the hostages journalists from around the country descended on the prison joining the ones who had been camped there since the beginning and under pressure from their Outlets were frenetic looking for updates to report because not much information came uh from official sources we tried we we tried and tried we tried to get whatever we could see from different angles John Remy former reporter for wtvn radio in Columbus found an unusual angle I climbed a tree one afternoon for the 3:00 news and people are laughing at me oh Remy what are you doing up there uh and I got up there and started I was able to see in to the grounds of the penitentiary and I was starting get a little bit of better view of things and all of a sudden I wasn't so crazy and there were people trying the same thing people in the neighborhood uh near and far started to come and tell us what they had heard through the grape vine of what was going on inside the prison through the Corrections Officers who were going to work um a lot of that was not accurate there were rumors a lot of rumors the media blackout helped fuel inflated numbers of dead prisoners terrible stories of torture and other false reports the lawyer negotiating for the inmates said they believed the state had planted the stories in hindsight dwine suggested the prisons Department should have given the media more yet careful information so I I think probably you know having the director out there uh maybe even having the warden uh out out there uh talking to the Press every day they still would have been extremely careful in what they said but that probably would have dealt with some of the rumors after 11 long days negotiations paid off the inmates surrendered on a long 7-hour live broadcast on a Cincinnati area TV station a few days later reporters began to survey the damage inside I was the TV pool reporter I and a photographer we're allowed in imagine anything and everything that wasn't bolted down was tossed out of all of the cells and piled up in the common areas everything was destroyed radios and TVs those were broken everybody's personal belongings their books and photos family scrap albums were tossed around everywhere I remember walking down a hallway and seeing written in it might have been paint and might have been blood in big letters convict unity and a chill went through me the disturbance in some respects was a wakeup call not just for the Department of Corrections but for the state of Ohio State leaders say the Lessons Learned here three decades ago at Lucasville are still having an impact on Ohio's prison system probably be the biggest uh thing that um took place following the riot was a reconstruction of of the of the cell blocks um for example the um correction officer station was among the inmates previously uh we built um new enclosed uh stations you know for them uh with Escape hatches you know following uh the they could go up through the ceiling to escape if a disturbance did take place uh we had new rules regarding movement and classification of persons Cynthia Davis is now the warden at Lucasville she says there's no more double bunking in cells and she says there's a focus on programs now recognizing that of the 21,000 incarcerated people who leave Ohio prisons each year about two dozen of them are leaving Lucasville every month we have recovery service programs we have Sinclair College has um been implemented here we do the GED programs we do decision points just cognitive behavioral programming you know to help um the individuals deal with some of their uh thinking inmates have painted murals in the reading Nook area where small children visit with family members and unlike 1993 when inmates got to place one phone call to family members at Christmas time they now get to make those calls more often 300,000 calls were logged from the facility in March alone and inmates have painted a hallway in tribute to Veterans who have served in a variety of ways through a variety of conflicts this year a short ceremony was held in Lucasville to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the riot a wreath was laid to honor slain prison guard Robert Van landingham his friend Daryl Logan was one of the guards at the prison and was on the SWAT team during the riot he's getting ready to retire soon he says the prison is safer now and he thinks inmates are being treated better uh they're human beings I mean they're just like us they just you know made a mistake and they're behind bars and we're not and inmates convicted of being involved with a riot are serving extra time or have been sent to death including skates who was found guilty of three Riot related murders his sister maintains he's innocent and continues to fight for his freedom it hurts me to think that I'll never be able to go anywhere with my brother again you know like we were when we were young or anything and then he has to die for someone else you know that did it the disturbance in some respects was a wakeup call not just for the Department of Cor but for the state of Ohio and guards are hoping that wakeup call will be put into action that way we don't relive the tragic the death and destruction ever again in my opinion um it it don't it just don't affect staff it affects their families it affects Community it affects everybody Joe Engles State House news Bureau

Channel: Ohio Public Media Statehouse News Bureau

Views: 10,087

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Id: pw8vj9nDOGc

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024