Death row inmates will not be relocated to the new Chillicothe location until mid-January because of planning complications.
Moving the location will save the state the $1,200 per inmate it costs to transfer them to the execution house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, which is halfway across the state.
This transfer marks the third time since 1981 Ohio has relocated its death row.
Although 37 of Ohio’s 147 death row inmates already moved to Chillicothe, the rest are expected to be moved by mid-January, said Joellen Smith, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Corrections.
Inmates on death row will have accommodations similar to those at their previous residence, but Chillicothe offers the perk of an outdoor recreation area. At the Lucasville location, 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 ten minutes from downtown Chillicothe and is next to the Union Scioto School District high school, middle school and elementary school. The town and school don’t plan to change the way they operate.
Dwight Garrett, superintendent of the Union Scioto School District, said he does not feel that 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
