YOUNGSTOWN Pickets to call attention to firearms-training cut at prisons

The prison said the point is moot here.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Informational pickets will position themselves outside the Ohio State Penitentiary for three days this week to protest a statewide cut in firearms training, a union spokesman says.
The cut in training affects about half the corrections officers in state prisons, said Doug Sollitto, a corrections officer at the supermax prison on Coitsville-Hubbard Road and member of the union executive board. The union is American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees/Ohio Civil Service Employees Association Local 5041.
Sollitto said an unfair labor practice was filed with the State Employment Relations Board in Columbus.
In the past, all corrections officers were required to receive firearms training, Sollitto said. Now, only a select few will be trained, he said.
"It raises safety concerns if there's an escape," Sollitto said.
Sollitto said the picketing will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. T-shirts with the slogan "no guns, no safety" will be worn by the pickets, who will include corrections officers from the Trumbull Correctional Institution, he said.
TCI, in Leavittsburg, completed its training for all custodial staff and some noncustodial staff, Robin Ware, warden's assistant, said Monday.
Exception
To save costs, a statewide limitation on firearms training was put into effect but, about three weeks ago, the Ohio State Penitentiary received permission to provide all its uniformed officers with firearms training, said Keith Fletcher, public information officer at the prison. He said about half of the 290 officers have been trained so far.
Fletcher said very few guards carry firearms and none are carried inside the prison. Firearms are carried by those who patrol the perimeter and those who transport prisoners, he said.
He said that he couldn't speak to what other prisons are doing but that the point has been made moot here. There is adequate staff to man any armed post at any time, he said.
Fletcher said the prison received notice from the union that informational picketing would take place this week.
As of Friday, the prison had 484 inmates, with a daily cost of $157 per inmate, according to the prison Web site.
meade@vindy.com