Official, relative get few answers about Tuesday's prison protest

YOUNGSTOWN

Questions are being raised after a number of prisoners staged a protest at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road.

About 140 inmates refused to leave the recreation yard for 14 hours, though prison officials said the situation ended peacefully early Wednesday.

The private facility provided scant answers to media inquiries about the episode, however.

The aunt of one of the inmates and a local politician are among those asking questions.

Corrections Corporation of America, which owns NEOCC, said in a statement: “Overnight, staff at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center secured a peaceful resolution to an incident in which a group of inmates on the smaller recreation yard refused orders to return to their cells. All inmates have now peacefully exited the recreation yard and are secured in their cells.

“At no time did any incidents of violence occur, and the community was not in danger. All staff and inmates are accounted for. The facility is secured and remains in lockdown as a precautionary measure while an investigation is conducted. Facility management notified its partner, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and kept officials apprised through the duration of the incident.”

CCA has declined to provide any additional comment.

State Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, a member of the Ohio General Assembly’s Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, was able to enter the prison Wednesday. Hagan said officials inside told him anywhere from 40 to 240 prisoners were involved and the protest lasted from 2 p.m. Tuesday until 4 a.m. Wednesday.

“I attempted to interview the spokesman for the prisoners, but the warden nixed that,” he said. “He said I wasn’t going to be allowed to interfere with their investigation.”

Hagan said he wished he had been able to get more information. “I’m not satisfied. We need more transparency,” he said.

Read more about the situation and the protest in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.