Crowding a concern after 2 killings at Ohio prison

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Two recent deadly attacks at a northern Ohio prison are raising concerns about crowding in the state’s prison system.

Trouble at the Toledo Correctional Institution has been on the upswing over the past two years. That’s when the prison began bringing in maximum-security prisoners and putting two inmates in each cell to deal with overcrowding statewide.

Just two weeks ago, an inmate was strangled in his cell, and another attack in September left a prisoner dead.

Those were the first killings at the Toledo prison since it opened in 2000.

The prison’s warden says the rise in assaults just about matches the Toledo prison’s population increase over the last few years. He says the prison also has added more violent inmates who’ve been moved out of lower security prisons.