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3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Pilot program testing tasers in Ohio's prisons; may expand statewide
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio's correction officers could soon be armed with tasers. 'This is very rushed,' policy director at Ohio Justice and Policy Center Michaela Burriss said. 'De-escalation is about communication; de-escalation is about creating safe spaces.' Stranger's sleuthing reunites Grandview Heights graduate with class ring lost 50 years ago According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), the conversation of arming corrections officers with tasers started in 2020. Research into the matter was put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then started again in 2024. In May of this year, two prisons started a pilot program to test the use of tasers; now ODRC wants to see the program expanded statewide. 'Over 78% of those currently housed in the department have committed a crime of violence in their lifetime,' an ODRC spokesperson wrote in a statement. 'This means that the inmates the staff supervise are more dangerous than they have been in the past, and we want our staff to have the tools to do their jobs safely.' 'There absolutely shouldn't be a statewide expansion when we have no idea how the pilot is going to turn out,' Burriss said. How would the proposal work? This manual lays out what all must go into equipping correction officers with tasers. Officers must go through vendor approved training, and if a taser is in use, body cameras must also be in use. Unauthorized use includes someone who is already restrained and inmates younger than 14. Burriss worries that the move is premature. Police provide updates on Mifflin Township shootout suspect 'Weapons are not in prisons for a reason,' Burriss said, adding that the long-term effects of taser use have not been sufficiently studied. 'I don't have a lot of confidence that somebody isn't going to get extremely hurt or somebody isn't going to die, and that somebody may not even be the person who is incarcerated,' she said. 'Tasers are only going to beget the cycle of violence that leads to people being incarcerated in the first place.' '[O]DRC's policy allows only those officers with direct interaction with the incarcerated population to carry a taser device,' the ODRC statement reads. 'This allows the managing officer (Warden), who knows that facility best, to identify those types of posts with a second approval process by the respective regional director to review and approve whether those posts identified shall be issued taser devices.' State leaders said if ODRC says tasers in prisons are necessary, they are inclined to fund that endeavor in the state budget. 'It seems to me to be appropriate, but I'm also not an expert in terms of prisoner management and things like that,' Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. 'But I don't, off the top of my head, have any opposition to that.' Donatos to open fully-automated pizza restaurant at John Glenn International this month 'I think that's a decision that should be made by the professionals in the field,' Gov. Mike DeWine said. 'I generally follow what their lead is, so that's about as far as I'm going to go on that.' Right now, the state budget cuts funding to ODRC over the next two years – 3% in 2026 and 4% in 2027. Burriss believes taxpayer dollars allotted to corrections should be spent in what she considers a more effective way. 'Our taxpayer money is better spent on things that we know do decrease violence in prisons and that will address those systemic problems like overcrowding and understaffing,' she said. 'Tasers are not going to rehabilitate somebody. They're not going to make somebody less likely to commit an act of violence and I think that's something we all want.' The state budget must pass by the end of June. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Andrew Lansing posthumously awarded as Ohio Corrections Officer of the Year
A Chillicothe corrections officer who was brutally beaten to death by an inmate on Christmas Day has been posthumously awarded Corrections Officer of the Year, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced in a news release. Andrew Lansing, 62, was named as ODRC's Ronald C. Marshall Corrections Officer of the Year, an honor bestowed on correction officers who "personify the agency's core values," the department said in a May 9 news release. Each of ODRC's 28 institutions names a corrections officer of the year. Then, the 28 officers are in the running to be named the ODRC'S Ronald C. Marshall Officer of the Year, according to the ODRC. Lansing was beaten to death on Christmas Day by an inmate while he was working in a guard shack at the Ross Correctional Institution, The Dispatch previously reported. In the days leading up to his death, he had already been named correction officer of the month. Rashawn Cannon, 27, has been accused in Lansing's death and faces three counts of aggravated murder. 'Officer Lansing trained many staff members,' Ross Correctional Institution Warden Bill Cool said in a prepared statement. 'He took great pride in teaching new staff how to be firm, fair, and consistent. Andrew was a true leader. His heart was larger than his body, and he was always willing to help anybody. We continue to grieve his loss at RCI.' Lansing was also posthumously honored by RCI after they changed the name of their Roll Call room to the Andrew Lansing Roll Call Room, the Chillicothe Gazette previously reported. Lansing began working at RCI in 1994 after serving as an infantryman and sergeant in the United States Army. He also served in Iraq and helped with prison operations there, the ODRC said. 'Officer Lansing represented everything good about us – he was loyal, professional, served as a role model and mentor, a husband and a father, a friend, a veteran and a trusted colleague,' ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith said in a prepared statement. 'The way that he greeted everyone, staff, volunteers, contractors, incarcerated people, was exactly how we hope all of our officers treat the people they interact with. He was always pleasant; he knew everyone's stories and had an interest in their lives. His murder was a senseless and unimaginable tragedy, one that shook the very foundation of our agency. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to his family, friends, and loved ones every day. He was very deserving of this honor, and he will never be forgotten.' Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@ at ShahidMeighan on X, and at on Bluesky. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Andrew Lansing posthumously named as corrections officer of the year
