Just over one year has passed since a series of disturbances at the Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility in Massillon.
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On Oct. 22, 2022, Twelve teens barricaded themselves in a school building on campus leading to an hours-long standoff.
Days earlier, Patricia Upshaw’s husband David was attacked.
“We are nowhere near the end of this nowhere near the end of this,” Patricia said.
Upshaw shared with us happier moments for her husband.
The bigger picture is much different. Patricia said David has PTSD and needs eye surgery.
“It’s been very rough emotionally and physically, and you know it’s the depression of it all,” Upshaw said.
David Upshaw is still recovering from when he was beaten by a 19-year-old at Indian River on Oct. 18, 2022.
“He had a traumatic head injury,” Upshaw said.
Days later, a 16-year-old started a standoff, barricading himself and eleven others in a classroom.
The teens are seen on video smashing things in a school building on campus.
The standoff lasted nearly 12 hours.
"They’ve done nothing really to rectify the problem; they say they’re fully staffed; no, they’re not; they’re not fully staffed; we hear that from the inside,” Upshaw said.
Chris Mabe, President of the Ohio Civil Services Employee Association, says attacks on staff haven’t stopped.
“Seven in the last 14 days, and that’s not just JCOs; there was a teacher and some other administrative staff in that,” Mabe said. Mabe marked one year by visiting Indian River.
“The staff feels targeted, they feel left behind, they feel unsupported, they still feel like they’re in a continuously dangerous situation,” Mabe said.
We asked Mabe what he thinks needs to happen to make things right.
“Lack of staffing in the facility is an issue that obviously needs to be dealt with, but if you can’t get the training, you’ve got to get the tools,” Mabe said.
The Ohio Department of Youth Services says there are 114 correctional officers at Indian River and 28 vacancies.
More secure key chains and radio holsters were given to designated staff.
DYS policy was created for body cameras and policy updates for OC spray.
Mabe says Juvenile Correctional Officers are not carrying it.
“Even some of the supervisors that are carrying mace up there have told the staff up there they wouldn’t be utilizing that mace because they were afraid of being removed from their positions,” Mabe said.
As for the 12 teens from the barricade last year, six are in prison, four remain at Youth Services, one is waiting in jail to be tried as an adult, and one is on supervised parole.
We asked Upshaw what she thinks is a solution.
“The solution is to revamp the whole place from your director’s down; it has got to change,” Upshaw said.
Her husband was in speech therapy when we stopped by their house. Patricia said he loved community service but doesn’t know if he would return to his job at Indian River.
We asked if she would want him to go back.
“No, that’s an easy answer for me,” said Upshaw.
Physical security upgrades have been made, too, but because of security protocol, we’re not being told what they are.
Youth Services said direct care staff members went through targeted training to reduce youth-on-staff violence. That included things like situational awareness and verbal de-escalation.
They’re also going to form crisis teams at each facility made up of staff members with specialized training.
Youth Services says overall violence against staff at Indian River has declined 31% compared to this time last year.
They've seen a 39% drop across all three facilities.
DYS attributes the decrease, in part, to the introduction of body cameras and OC spray, saying the spray is reserved for the most extreme circumstances by select staff and managers.
