DEATH ROW First inmate group moved

The transfer will be finished in a few weeks.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has moved 31 death row inmates from Mansfield Correctional Institution to the state's supermaximum security prison on the city's East Side.
Three death row inmates who lost their legal fight to stop a forced transfer to a new prison cut themselves in the past five days in an apparent attempt to avoid the move, Andrea Dean, a department spokeswoman, said.
Two of the inmates who cut themselves Monday were taken to a hospital for stitches, she said. The other inmate injured himself Friday but didn't need to go to a hospital.
There were no problems during Tuesday's transfer, she said.
The transfer of the remaining 163 male death row inmates to the Ohio State Penitentiary at Youngstown will be finished in a few weeks, she said.
Lawsuit rejected
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge James Gwin rejected a lawsuit trying to block the Ohio move, being done to save the state money.
The judge turned down the contention of civil liberties advocates that the move would deny inmates' constitutional due process rights because a prior court ruling blocked inmates from being sent to the supermax prison unless they prove to be a security risk.
The ODRC facility in Youngstown contains two institutions: the supermax facility, which, until Tuesday, housed about 235 and has a capacity of 504; and a camp that houses 230 minimum security prisoners.
The prison on Coitsville-Hubbard Road opened in 1998 to house the state's hard-core inmates after a deadly riot in 1993 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The state announced in March that death row inmates would be moved from Mansfield to Youngstown this summer.
Of the 194 prisoners on death row, 59 were convicted in Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Summit and Trumbull counties, meaning shorter drives for their families after the move to Youngstown.
But the drive will be longer for the families of other inmates.