Ohio prison inmates to build new state park cabins

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s prisons system and natural resources department have signed an agreement allowing inmates to build new versions of the state’s most popular park cabin.

Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, says the program at Chillicothe Correctional Institution is part of efforts to provide inmates with real-world job skills.

The bare-bones cabins are little more than wooden tents, with no running water but they have an air-conditioning unit, refrigerator and a microwave.

James Zehringer, director of Ohio’s Natural Resources department, says the project involves building 62 cabins, including 40 replacements and 22 new ones.

The state is dubbing them Sherman cabins after Camp Sherman, an Ohio Army National Guard training site near the Chillicothe prison.

Gov. John Kasich announced the program today.