TURTLECREEK TWP. — Staff cutbacks, overcrowding and a recent rash of violent incidents at Ohio's prisons have created conditions so dangerous that union officials said they fear another Lucasville uprising.

        Representatives of the Ohio Civil Service Employee Association, which represents 10,000 state prison workers, held a press conference Thursday urging legislators to rethink millions in budget cuts that sparked a statewide hiring freeze, and last month eliminated 56 correction officer jobs and shut down 660 beds, forcing inmates to be double-celled.

        The staff reductions have put levels well below 1993's, when the deaths of one guard and nine inmates during an 11-day siege at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville prompted legislatures to add more than 900 corrections officers as part of prison reform, union leaders said.

        Now, with 7,479 corrections officers to supervise 44,559 inmates, staff is being forced to work mandated double shifts, which compromise safety, they said.

        “We do not want another Lucasville happening now. That's what we're trying to head off,” said Bob Jones,

        an OCSEA representative to prisons in Warren County and the Dayton area.

        State corrections officials said the prisons are safe, despite the recent cutbacks.

        “We feel like our wardens and administrative staff are still able to manage the institutions and keep them safe and secure for the inmates as well as the staff,” said department spokeswoman Andrea Dean. “We feel like we are managing things at a good level.”

        Union officials cited escalating violence at Lebanon Correctional Institution (LCI), Dayton Correctional Institution and Warren Correctional Institution (WCI), which lost 24 jobs and 128 beds, is a warning sign that the system is headed for trouble. Among those incidents:

        A July 11 fight at LCI on Ohio 63 that left several inmates injured.

        An altercation among three inmates Aug. 9 at WCI that left a dining hall “so covered in blood,” according to WCI union chapter president Deb Walters, that meals had to be moved to another room.

        Three days of inmate fighting beginning Aug. 1 that triggered a full lock-down at the Dayton Correctional Institution.

        “This isn't day camp,” said OCSEA's Tim Shafer. “It has to be taken seriously. The legislature has to realize we can't do our jobs if we are not given the tools.”

        State troopers in West Chester, who investigate crimes at WCI and LCI, said they haven't noticed an increase in cases involving assaults.

        For instance, according to state statistics, assaults between inmates and against corrections officers at WCI and LCI this year are on par with 2001 figures. But Peter Wray, spokesman for OCSEA, said those statistics are deceiving because incidents are sometimes reported only if they result in serious injury or can be prosecuted.

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