The State of Ohio is relocating its death row operations to Chillicothe in an effort to save money by cutting transportation costs and freeing up beds for the state's most violent inmates.
The move, which would be the third time Ohio has relocated death row since 1981, would save money for the state, which spends $1,200 to transfer an inmate to the execution house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, half way across the sate in Lucasville.
Ohioans wouldn’t be any less safe when inmates are moved, said Chillicothe Correctional Institution Warden Robin Knab.
“The inmates will still be in high level security,” she said.
Moving inmates from the Mansfield and Youngstown Correctional Institutions would bring 146 inmates to Chillicothe. This move frees up 300 high-security cells in Youngstown and Mansfield for the respective facilities most violent inmates.
"Those cells are needed to accomplish the mission to move the more violent offenders,” Knab said. "What this move does is hopefully make the prisons a safer place for staff and inmates."
jj360410@ohiou.edu
