After plans were announced to move the location where death-row inmates are housed in Ohio, renovation and preparation efforts are underway at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
“No inmates have been moved yet,” said Carlo LoParo, communications chief at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. “The facility is currently being upgraded to accommodate death row.”
The state spends $1,200 to transfer an inmate to the execution house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, and the switch to Chillicothe will cut the cost per inmate by about two-thirds.
Though inmates are scheduled to begin the move from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown and the Mansfield Correctional Institution to Chillicothe by the end of 2011, no official date has been released. Until then, proper facility-renovation plans are set to be completed by Jan. 1.
Inmates on death row will have accommodations similar to their previous residences; in Chillicothe, however, they will have an outdoor recreation area as well.
In a normal week, death-row inmates complete 40 hours of interaction time with other death-row inmates but are restricted to an indoor area.
“Here at Chillicothe, the inmates will be allowed to go into our outside area during their interaction time but will be restricted to interacting only with other death-row inmates,” said Mark Hooks, warden’s assistant at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. “They will not have contact with the general population.”
The institution is 10 minutes from downtown Chillicothe and is adjacent to the Union-Scioto School District high school, middle school and elementary school. Despite the move of death row to the area, city officials have no relocation plans of their own in mind.
“I don’t feel less safe with the prison here as it is now and don’t feel any different with the death-row move,” said Chillicothe City Councilman Jeremy Siberell, 5th Ward, adding that he has not heard any complaints from residents regarding the possible infraction of their safety.
Dwight Garrett, who has been with the school district for 27 years and has been superintendent for 12, said he does not think the prison poses any threat to the area.
“The school has a good relationship with the prison,” Garrett said. “I feel safe here, and death row won’t change that.”
sm366909@ohiou.edu
