Food, Water, Power Cut Off in Bloody Ohio Prison Standoff

Prison authorities cut off water, electricity and food shipments on Monday to a maximum-security facility here in an attempt to end a standoff that began with an Easter Sunday riot and left six inmates dead, 19 injured and eight guards taken hostage.

About 450 prisoners were still barricaded inside the L Block at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, 90 miles south of Columbus. The inmates presented a list of 19 demands for ending the confrontation.

The prison, which holds 1,819 inmates, is under a “lock-down,” in which inmates are being let out of their cells only under escort. The other 22 state prisons in Ohio also have imposed the same lock-down conditions.

Authorities would not divulge the prisoners’ demands, except one: to talk to the media. A Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter’s telephone interview with the L Block inmates was cut short by authorities who wanted more information about hostages before they would allow the talk to continue.

Sharron Kornegay, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the inmates also asked for “changes in prison rules,” but she would not reveal specifics.

By evening, the pace of telephone calls between negotiators and L Block inmates had slowed, Kornegay said. Prison authorities had been demanding a good-faith release of one hostage, but the inmates had not agreed, she said. The eight hostages all are male.

“We’ll listen to their demands, but our priorities are to get our staff out,” Kornegay said.

As she spoke with reporters, four sheets festooned with messages billowed from windows against the sand-colored walls of L Block. “We want to talk to the FBI,” one read.

Kornegay said the six inmates who were killed were beaten severely by fellow prisoners who had taken 24-inch batons from the guards. Negotiators persuaded the L Block inmates to release the first five bodies early Monday; the sixth was dumped outside in midmorning.

The dead were identified as Darrell DePina, 35, serving time for rape and kidnaping; Franklin Farrell, 49, convicted of aggravated arson; William Svette, 69, felonious assault and murder; Bruce Vitale, 38, felonious assault; Albert Staiano, 40, aggravated robbery, rape and kidnaping; and Earl M. Elder, 41, rape and attempted murder.

Among the injured were 10 officers and nine inmates. Three of the officers had been hostages but were released after they were hurt.

The upheaval began with a fight between two inmates about 3 p.m. Sunday. Reginald Wilkinson, director of the corrections department, said in a press briefing in Columbus that there was reason to suspect the brawl was staged, but he would not elaborate.

Guards were called to break up the apparent fight, which involved a few prisoners. “That’s when several hostages were taken. But a number of officers also were able to break away from that situation,” Wilkinson said at a news conference in Columbus.

At a briefing Monday night, prison spokesman Dave Morris said that a “reduced work force” had been scheduled at the facility for the holiday, but “we deny any shortage of staff. We had all of the stations covered.”

The 21-year-old Lucasville prison houses “the worst of the worst,” said Peter Davis, executive director of a joint Ohio Legislature committee overseeing prisons. It is home to Ohio’s electric chair and the 22 men on the state’s Death Row. They live in K Block and are not involved in the current unrest.

In J Block are the worst violators of prison rules, locked down 22 hours a day. In D Block are the inmates with the worst psychological problems.

Residents of L Block were generally away from their cells most of the day, holding prison jobs or in classes.

Lucasville, as it is known, has had many problems in the past. There have been racial tensions between white supremacists and black inmates. It is over its capacity of 1,650 inmates. It also has had a cutback in psychological counseling services.

These are not troubles exclusive to Lucasville. Bert Useem, a University of Louisville expert on prison unrest, said the riot is a troubling portent.

“These things tend to go in spurts, in clumps, in clusters,” he said. “There was a big wave in 1971, another in 1986. They haven’t occurred for a while. The big fear is that this could be the start of another spurt.”

At nearby Scioto County Jail, prisoners who heard radio reports about the upheaval at Lucasville set fire to their mattresses and vandalized security cameras. And in Jackson, Mich., Monday, five inmates in the maximum-security block of the State Prison of Southern Michigan stabbed four guards with at least two homemade knives.

Ohio prisons “have been so severely crowded,” said Davis. “Every summer especially we hold our breath.”

The outbreak of violence at Lucasville, however, is “so puzzling,” said Davis, who was briefed Monday by state corrections officials. “From our viewpoint, it had been increasingly getting better there.”

More than 2,000 men were incarcerated at Lucasville in 1990. Then a new prison opened in Mansfield, and several hundred were transferred there. The changes allowed the new warden, Art Tate, to break up some of the gangs, white and black, at the prison.

Tate also beefed up security at Lucasville, Davis said. Prisoners who had been allowed to walk four or five abreast down hallways were made to march single file on one side of a newly painted yellow line down the middle of the corridor. Metal detectors were upgraded. Shakedowns, both of individuals and of cells, became more frequent.

Tate is “not a front office warden,” Davis added. “He goes out and talks to people.” The warden received “no signs or signals that anything was growing or disturbing such a large segment of the population.”

Likewise, Davis’ committee was not receiving complaints on any particular issue. “We got the steady normal flow of individual letters about individual problems, but nothing that would have flagged anybody.”

Ohio Prison Under Siege

Inmates barricaded since Sunday will not be allowed to tell the media their demands unless they release one of their hostages, prison officials said today. Eight guards were taken hostage after a riot broke out, five prisoners were killed and at least 18 other guards and inmates were injured. 321 inmates refused to take part in the riots and were removed to other cells.

450 inmates are barricaded inside the L-block area where hostages are held.

Basic information:

1,900 total acres

Buildings interconnected by corridors

1,620 single occupancy cells, each 6 ft. x 10 ft. x 9 ft.

“K” and “L” cellblocks house 80 men each. Total: 640