MASSILLON, Ohio — Changes are in the works for Ohio’s three juvenile correctional facilities. Indian River Juvenile Correctional in Massillon, where violence happened in 2022, is one. In September, the state released recommendations for safety and staff improvements system-wide.
News 5 Investigators spoke with former Indian River corrections officer David Upshaw and his wife, Patricia, about his recovery from an assault at the facility in October 2022.
Video footage shows Upshaw's attack.
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More than two years later, Upshaw doesn’t venture far without his cane or his wife.
“It’s not good. I still have a lot of balance problems, memory from the head trauma,” Upshaw said.
His left eye is also permanently damaged.
“I can’t see out of it,” he said.
Upshaw says this has been his life since Oct. 18, 2022, the day of his assault at Indian River.
“I just fell, and I could feel hitting and tugging and hitting, but I couldn’t move,” Upshaw said.
Indian River surveillance video shows a teen attacking Upshaw from behind. He falls to the floor punch after punch after being pummeled with a tablet and his own radio.
“It took everything I could do by the grace of God to get up and stagger to the front because I had no radio. Come to find out, he was beating me with it,” Upshaw said.
The memories of that night take an emotional toll on his wife, Patricia. He comforted her during an interview with News 5 Investigators.
“You okay? Very tough for her,” David Upshaw said.
Just days after Upshaw was beaten, a different teen snagged keys from a staff member and unlocked other youth in a nearly 12-hour standoff.
Cell phone video shows them ransacking a room inside a school building on the grounds.
RELATED: Woman says her 16-year-old son started standoff at Indian River Juvenile Correctional
The teen’s mother picked out her son in the blurred images.
"He was like, 'I took some keys, and I unlocked and let some people out, and we're ransacking stuff; we're destroying stuff,'” the teen's mother, Heidi, said.
A Juvenile corrections officer spoke with News 5 back then in disguise.
"These kids have just incrementally done more and more and more and we let them do it,” they said.
Upshaw was a Juvenile corrections officer at Indian River. Last month, he left his job on disability.
"They’re going to fix it for a minute to get the heat off of themselves, and I can guarantee you it’s still going to take place,” Patricia Upshaw said.
So what’s changed?
Last November, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a Juvenile Justice Working Group.
In September 2024, the group came out with 26 recommendations.
The first one called for the Department of Youth Services to stop building more large facilities and pair down the three we have to numerous smaller buildings.
Former DYS Director Tom Stickrath, who chaired the working group, says smaller is safer.
“You have better eyes on them, better ears on them; you get to know the youth better,” Stickrath said.
The smaller facilities would have special housing to manage violent teens. The group also recommended creating a position to focus on gangs.
“It is too little too late,” said OCSEA President Chris Mabe.
Mabe says some changes will take a year or longer to implement.
“Regardless if you build the buildings, you have to have the people with some long-term tenure,” Mabe said.
Recommendations also call for an outside consultant to look at day-to-day operations and staffing.
“Filling staff positions that’s critical they’ve been short staffed with the correctional staff with teachers with behavioral health staff,” Stickrath said.
News 5 Investigators asked Mabe what the biggest reason is for people leaving the job.
“It’s been… lack of security,” Mabe said.
Indian River was last inspected this summer.
A 2024 report by the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee found safety and security need improvement.
Although assaults on staff went down from 2022 to 2023, overall violence continued to rise last year and this year to date.
According to new numbers from DYS, there were 122 youth-on-staff assaults from January 2022 to December 2022.
In 2023, there were 99 youth-on-staff assaults.
So far, from January 2024 to the present day, there have been 68.
DYS says the numbers show a 44% reduction in staff assaults at Indian River from 2022 to 2024.
An assault can be anything from a teen throwing something at staff to a punch or a push.
While proud to see a drop in these instances, DYS says they'll continue to work on reducing such violence at Indian River as well as work to support high-risk teens.
“It’s the same type of environment, I mean, it’s the same challenges, it's being short staffed,” Mabe said.
Upshaw says he would have returned to his job had his doctors allowed him to.
“I can’t keep my balance. I can't fight if I had to fight,” David Upshaw said.
Upshaw and Patricia met with News 5 Investigators after one of his many doctor’s appointments. Last month, Upshaw had a kidney transplant.
He says it was a result of the injury when he was attacked.
Patricia Upshaw says the night Upshaw was beaten, he went into heart and kidney failure.
"I spent all those years as a police officer and never got hurt. I never got hurt in the military. I've been to conflicts never got hurt,” David Upshaw said.
News 5 Investigators asked Patricia Upshaw if she felt the state was responsible for what happened.
“Most definitely,” Patricia Upshaw said.
“It’s very disturbing because I feel a lot of this could have been avoided,” David Upshaw said.
While the state works on safety changes, the two say they’re not walking away from their fight.
The union president wants to see DYS bring back staff from adult prisons to help with staffing shortages.
According to the 2024 inspection report, as of June, there were 279 total staff at Indian River, including 109 juvenile corrections officers. There were 55 vacancies, including 32 JCOs.
DYS used prison staff full-time back in 2022 for low staffing levels.
News 5 Investigators asked DYS if it was considering bringing back prison staff as a supplement at Indian River.
DYS responded, "Enhancing our recruitment efforts over the last two years has helped fill those DYS staff vacancy gaps for which DRC’s assistance was previously needed."
