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Security crackdown following guard’s killing puts spotlight on prison safety
After the fatal attack on a guard at Ross Correctional Institution, a security crackdown has staff and prisoners on edge and the public questioning the safety of everyone who works and lives at the facility.
Several men incarcerated at the medium-security state prison in Chillicothe told The Marshall Project - Cleveland that correctional staff, joined by a tactical unit with no body cameras, have increased the use of force and pepper spray. Cell-by-cell searches are ending in altercations. Incarcerated men say they fear retaliation.
Administrators say there’s no basis for that concern. But the correctional officer’s union, the incarcerated population and inspectors all point to an increasingly violent environment.
Authorities say Rashawn Cannon, 27, fatally attacked correctional officer Andrew Lansing, 62, in a guard shack on Christmas. Cannon is the second incarcerated person accused of killing an Ohio corrections employee in nearly 30 years.
In the days following Lansing’s death, prison officials limited access to the dayroom, showers and yard, temporarily suspending prisoner movements and normal activities like in-person visitations. Phone calls and messaging continued.
The Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC), a bipartisan arm of the Ohio legislature, visited the prison on New Year’s Eve in response to allegations of abuse reported by people behind bars, their families and the media. Inspectors reported no visual signs of physical harm on the bodies of five incarcerated people. But no camera footage of the incidents was reviewed, the CIIC said.
Incarcerated men say they’ve watched even obedient people tackled, handcuffed and beaten. That’s not unusual in a facility with a particularly violent reputation, according to inspections.
Ross led the state’s medium security prisons in 2023 for people refusing to enter their cells out of fear of being assaulted by a cellmate. More than half of prisoners surveyed in recent years say staff have threatened or harassed them, while more than 20% report abuse. Prisoner complaints jumped 32% in 2022, the most recent year on record. At least six incarcerated men have died at Ross since 2021, including two found hanging in their cells and one beaten to death by a cellmate.
Violations for fighting have soared from over 700 in 2018 to over 1,000 in 2023. Fights occur more frequently at Ross than anywhere else, including Ohio’s three maximum security prisons. About 1,845 people are incarcerated at Ross.
And correctional officers at Ross have increasingly used force with about 100 incidents in 2010, 400 in 2015 and nearly 740 in 2023.
– Doug Livingston
Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze could face more misconduct charges
Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze could face more misconduct claims, since the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel has been given an extension until Jan. 17 to file an amended complaint related to the judge steering lucrative divorce cases to a personal friend.
A three-member panel was scheduled to hold a disciplinary hearing in late January, but the hearing was moved to March 31, records show. Highland County Judge Rocky A. Coss, the panel chair, ruled that no more extensions would be allowed.
The panel will inform the Board of Professional Conduct whether a judicial code of conduct violation occurred. If the board agrees with the three-member panel, it will then make a recommendation to the Ohio Supreme Court for an appropriate sanction.
The three misconduct counts, originally filed Sept. 26 with the Ohio Supreme Court, came more than a year after The Marshall Project - Cleveland detailed how Celebrezze accepted several divorce cases and appointed her lifelong friend Mark Dottore and his company as receiver.
The Ohio Disciplinary Counsel alleges in the complaint that Celebrezze “disclosed to at least two of her fellow judges that she was in love with Dottore, and that she had consulted with attorneys about getting a divorce from her husband.”
She is also accused of making a false statement during the investigation and violating multiple rules of judicial and professional conduct relating to public confidence and avoiding the appearance of impropriety.
In her Oct. 30 response to the Disciplinary Counsel, Celebrezze admits that “she disclosed to her fellow judges that … she loves Dottore,” but not “in a romantic manner.” She denied having an inappropriate relationship.
Celebrezze did not respond to a request for comment.
For more details on the complaint against Celebrezze, read our story here.
– Mark Puente
Relief arrives in April for Ohioans with suspended driver’s licenses
Hundreds of thousands of Ohio drivers with license suspensions for failing to pay court fines or missing child support payments could see the fines wiped out when a new state law takes effect April 10.
On Jan. 9, Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law House Bill 29, which provides sweeping reforms for addressing the state’s driver’s license suspension crisis.
The legislation follows a Marshall Project - Cleveland and WEWS News 5 investigation, which found the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles issued nearly 200,000 new license suspensions in 2022 for debt-related reasons such as failing to pay court fines or missing child support payments.
After The Marshall Project - Cleveland and WEWS News 5 published its investigation last year, lawmakers spent months reworking a proposed law to incorporate parts of the news outlets’ findings.
The Ohio Poverty Law Center, which lobbied for the bill, said the measure could retroactively impact hundreds of thousands of drivers, a majority of whom lost driving privileges simply because they lacked the money to pay the associated debt.
Ohio now joins several neighboring states that have eliminated debt-based suspensions in recent years, according to the advocacy group Fines and Fees Justice Center.
– Mark Puente
Around the 216
- Lorain County Sheriff Jack Hall has suspended the corrections officer accused in a federal lawsuit of physically abusing a man being held at the county jail. The Chronicle-Telegram
- A Mantua police officer has filed a lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office alleging investigators “demonstrated malice” when pursuing child endangerment charges against her. WOIO 19 News.
- A former DEA task force officer under investigation for detaining a man over false immigration claims has been hired as a deputy at the Portage County Sheriff’s Office. WOIO 19 News
