MASSILLON, Ohio — Safety concerns are top of mind for corrections officers and staff at a Stark County youth detention center. A week and a half after a 12-hour standoff at Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility, a group rallied for better working conditions outside the building.
“Our biggest concern is to make sure that our employees can come to work and our guards can come to work and be safe every day,” said Rusty Burkepile, a former youth corrections officer and current union representative for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (ECSEA).
Burkepile drove from Columbus to be at Indian River on October 22 during a lengthy barricade incident.
Investigators said that afternoon, a teen took keys from a staff member in one of the housing units. He then proceeded to unlock other rooms. A total of 12 teens ages 15-19 escaped, barricaded themselves inside a school building on campus and fashioned weapons out of school supplies and tools from a shop classroom.
RELATED: Woman says her 16-year-old son started standoff at Indian River Juvenile Correctional
In the week leading up to the incident, several other guards were assaulted by incarcerated teens. Union leaders said the barricade incident was an extreme example of the unsafe conditions created by staffing shortages and mandatory overtime.
“Staff levels have been problematic, at best, for quite a while. Those have kind of come to a head, post-pandemic,” said David Scott, an administrative organizer for SEIU, which represents the nurses, correctional programming staff, behavioral health staff and juvenile parole officers at DYS facilities.
Burkepile added, “If you do 16-hour shifts every day that you come to work or you’re doing a lot of overtime, then you’re not thinking clearly. So incidents like this can happen. You can make mistakes. You can leave doors open.”
Wednesday, members and leaders from both unions held signs demanding immediate hiring, an end to forced overtime and safer working conditions in all DYS facilities.
DYS told News 5 its staffing challenges are similar to other corrections facilities across the country. As of October 21, there were 129 vacancies across its three detention sites. Indian River is 31 staff short, Circleville needs to fill 44 positions and Cuyahoga Hills has 54 openings. Roughly 58% of the vacancies are in youth specialist (corrections officer) positions.
In order to fill gaps, the DYS director explained the department leverages other employees, including juvenile parole officers, nurses and, in some cases, office staff. She said all staff go through similar training to work in housing units. Union leaders contend, support workers don’t have the same skills and experience as corrections officers.
“Did they go through the academy? Yes. But they weren’t trained the same as a YS,” Scott said.
He called on the state to leverage pandemic relief money to bolster wages for DYS workers.
DYS said it recently gave all corrections officers a 3% raise. Staff working in Indian River’s housing unit will also receive supplemental pay through the end of 2022.
Since the barricade incident, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections has been assisting with staffing.
Additionally, the department said it’s ramping up recruiting and retention efforts. In a statement, a spokesperson said DYS is reviewing its policies and procedures, as well as working on strategies to reduce its youth population. The spokesperson pointed out that the youth involved in criminal activity in recent events do not reflect the overwhelming majority of the teens in DYS custody. Agency-wide, over 80% of incarcerated DYS youth do not commit acts of violence against our staff or peers.
The statement said, in part:
“The safety and security of our staff, youth, and facilities are paramount to all we do at DYS as we work to habilitate youth and return them to society as productive, law-abiding citizens. We deeply appreciate and care about our staff for all they do in this effort, and we’re working diligently to address the challenges they’re experiencing today.”
Union leaders said it’s encouraging to hear DYS is reviewing policies and procedures, but they’re hoping for immediate action and long-term solutions to ongoing issues.
“The state hasn’t been doing enough to really go after and discipline the problematic youth and recruit and retain enough staff,” said Scott.
Both unions said they’re having ongoing conversations with the state about working conditions.
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