COLUMBUS — The warden of a Lima prison has been reassigned and a deputy demoted in the wake of September’s brief escape of three inmates, including the teen convicted of shooting and killing three classmates at Chardon High School two years ago.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction today released its investigative report into the escape at the minimum-security Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution. The report notes that it installed extra security features, repaired others, and cracked down on inmate access to what was supposed to be a secured maintenance area where the inmates had fashioned an escape ladder over a period of months.
“At the director’s request, the warden has accepted a position at the Operation Support Center as a Regional Recovery Services Supervisor, and the Deputy Warden of Operations has been demoted to an Inspector at AOCI,” the report reads.
On Sept. 11, Thomas “T.J.” Lane III, the Chardon shooter, and two other inmates, Lindsey Bruce and Clifford Opperud, used the makeshift 13.5-foot ladder to climb over a security fence onto the roof of an administrative building and then jumped about 15 feet to the ground. They then fled across a soybean field.
The ladder was fashioned in a crawlspace-like maintenance area off an Oakwood recreational yard after the inmates broke a padlock. The locks have since been upgraded.
With the exception of the release of footage captured by the security camera of the escape and its aftermath, the report supplied little information not already reported.
All were captured within hours not far from the prison, something the report credits to the quick response of law enforcement and prison officials. The three inmates have since been transferred to the high-security Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
“After being apprehended, one of the escapees attributed the rapid law enforcement response and quick establishment of a secure perimeter as the reason he was unable to move any further,” the report reads.
The report states that an outside organization of correctional officers was brought into to review the escape as well as the prison’s overall mission. Additional razor wire was installed on the top of the administrative building, damaged perimeter lights and security camera were fixed.
Plans were already under way to transfer high-security inmates to other prisons.
The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association union representing correctional officers noted that staff brought security concerns to officials’ attention prior to the escape.
“In this case we feel the agency has begun to listen to our concerns and made the right call by taking responsibility at the top first,” President Christopher Mabe said. “We want to make sure that correction officers won’t be scapegoated as this investigation winds down. But so far, it appears the department rightly understands the buck stops at the top…
“ “Is there more DR&C can do? Absolutely,” he said. “We still need more staff in the Lima prison and throughout the system.”
First Published November 14, 2014, 5:53 p.m.
