GANGS Prank sparks prison violence

The fighting took place at Pickaway Correctional Institution on Dec. 27.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A swastika drawn on a sleeping inmate's forehead as a prank escalated into a fight between members of a white supremacist gang and other prisoners that left eight inmates and two guards injured, a report says.
The state ordered 14 inmates transferred to tougher prisons as a result of three days of conflict in December between the Aryan Brotherhood and a loosely organized gang consisting of the prankster and his allies, according to a prison system investigation of the fight.
The violence culminated in the Dec. 27 fight at Pickaway Correctional Institution in which five members of the Aryan Brotherhood battled the prankster and five others with locks hooked to belts and a sharpened broomstick.
The Pickaway fight was unusual for happening at a minimum- and medium-security prison, officials with the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said. The report also warned that the possibility exists for more confrontation.
Gang membership in Ohio prisons has more than doubled since 1999, from 2,748 inmates in 1998, or about 6 percent of the prison population, to 6,334 last year, or about 14 percent of inmates, according to state data.
The prisons system attributes the increase to better tracking of inmates and not true growth.
"Our numbers are better because we do a better job," said Phil Vermillion, assistant security threat group coordinator.
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In October, the state transferred five members each of the Crips and Bloods gangs after a fight at North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, a mostly medium-security facility.
In July, the state moved 19 inmates after a fight between the Crips and Folks gangs at Ross Correctional Institution, which is one step below maximum security.
The union representing prison guards says the state did well controlling prison gangs in the past but budget cutbacks have tied the department's hands in recent years, leading to more problems.
"We've got fewer eyes watching more inmates," said Tim Shafer, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association's corrections assembly.
In July 2001, for example, the system had 7,891 guards, compared with 7,017 this month.
Jim Erwin, the Pickaway prison warden, said budget cuts have not changed the way he monitors and responds to gang activity.
The fight at Pickaway Correctional Institution in suburban Orient began when Brian Rozell, serving time out of Clark County for forgery and assault, used a pencil or marker to draw a swastika on the forehead of fellow dormitory mate Christopher Radcliff as Radcliff slept, according to Erwin.
Radcliff has been identified as a captain with the Aryan Brotherhood, the report said.
Radcliff was not amused when he awoke and discovered the drawing and fought with Rozell.
"Nobody lays their hands on a ranking member of a security threat group," Vermillion said.
What happened
Rozell was not injured in the fight; Radcliff received a serious cut on his lip and was treated at the Ohio State University Hospital, the report said.
Radcliff was sent to segregation, a small cell away from other inmates, as punishment for his role in the fight. But Radcliff wouldn't identify Rozell, so Rozell was not immediately disciplined.
The next day, members of the Aryan Brotherhood fought with Rozell and a group of friends dubbed the "Portsmouth County Boys" before guards broke it up, the report said.
While in segregation, Radcliff was able to give an order to a fellow white supremacist inmate to "do what you have to do to handle that," according to the two-page report by prison investigator Jeff Howard.
Guards initially had trouble breaking up the Dec. 27 fight because the large number of participants attracted an even bigger crowd of inmate spectators, the report said.
Inmates from both gangs at Pickaway "have indicated that the confrontation is not over," the report said.
Prison officials are improving their tracking of gangs though accurate data remains elusive, said Wesley Johnson, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas.
Gangs have "lost a good bit of their power because prison systems have become more astute in managing them, breaking up organizational cells and using supermax and other forms of isolation to break down the gang structures in prison," Johnson said.