COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Warnings of more officer-targeted violence are emerging months after Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Officer Andy Lansing died Christmas Day.
Prosecutors say Officer Lansing died after he was severely beaten by an inmate. Now, more state corrections officers are contacting ABC6 On Your Side Investigators to say the prisons are not safe and they don’t trust those at the top.
“My biggest worry was what do I do if. What do I do if I’m attacked?” one former corrections officer who did not want to be identified told ABC 6 News. “And honestly, I don’t know.”
ABC6 agreed not to identify the corrections officer but verified his name and job title through Ohio public records. Records show he started as a corrections officer in November and left his assigned prison in January.
“You don’t realize until you’re actually in there just how bad it is,” he said. “You would hear from different CO’s, ‘Someone is going to get killed.’ You would hear that.”
He said his prison was understaffed and he worked more overtime than he desired. He said he saw other corrections officers routinely work double shifts.
“I would see CO’s asleep at the desk all the time,” he said. “Asleep … my partner just completely asleep.”
‘Someone is going to get killed.’ You would hear that.
In December, ODRC admitted Corrections Officer Andrew Lansing was working a 16-hour shift at Ross Correctional on Christmas Day. This is when prosecutors say inmate Rashawn Cannon targeted Lansing at his post in the prison yard and beat him to death in an unprovoked attack.
Attorney Michael Benson represents Lansing’s family and said he watched the video depicting portions of the attack that was captured on Lansing’s body-worn camera.
“What you could hear was just haunting,” Benson told ABC6 Investigates. “You can hear the scuffle. It was traumatizing. I told my client Mrs. Lansing to never watch it. Ever.”
Benson claims Cannon was walking the prison grounds alone and unescorted, and it was another inmate who alerted prison staff to the attack.
I would see CO’s asleep at the desk all the time.
“Nobody in there should be roaming the grounds unescorted,” Benson said. “I think the inmate thought there would be someone running to come beat him up or hold him, take him away to support Andy, but no one came because no one was monitoring. No one was watching.”
Prison documents obtained by ABC6 News show Lansing had written up Cannon earlier in the year because of drugs and disrespect. Following the attack, Benson said members of law enforcement told him no evidence was taken from Cannon to determine if he had been intoxicated.
“An officer of the law is attacked, murdered, and you don’t wake a judge up to get an order to draw the blood to see if he was impaired?” Benson asked.
What you could hear was just haunting. You can hear the scuffle. It was traumatizing.
Benson said he’s sent ODRC a nine-page public records request regarding prison conditions and the seizure of drugs. However, he said no records have been provided.
The former corrections officer who spoke with ABC6 Investigates said the amount of inmate drug use within the prison system was one of his biggest safety concerns.
“The biggest thing that surprised me is literally every day I walked in there, I found people on drugs,” he said. “And I’m talking pretty strong drugs.”
In testimony provided this year inside the Ohio Statehouse, ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith said five employees with food vendor Aramark have been banned from the prisons for bringing in drugs. However, she testified more drugs breach security through prison mail and other employees. The director plans to continue the food vendor’s contract.
“Quite frankly, the cost savings was great,” Chambers-Smith told the House of Representatives Finance Committee in February. “The additional costs will also be great to switch back.”
Chambers-Smith also listed a series of security upgrades like a mail processing center to offer one point to check prison mail, tasers for some corrections officers, limiting visitors for inmates and expanding camera systems.
Some corrections officers say needed changes are coming too late.
