It’ll mark the fifth time in state history that Death Row has moved. For 87 years it was at the state penitentiary in Columbus, where Nationwide Arena now stands. From 1972 to 1995, it was at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. It moved to Mansfield Correctional Facility in 1995 and to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown in 2005.
Currently, condemned men are held at prisons in Youngstown and Mansfield and are executed at Lucasville.
State prisons spokesman Carlo LoParo said Chillicothe Correctional Institution will undergo $40,000 in facility upgrades and receive the death row inmates by January.
Prisons director Gary Mohr is making the change so that more high-security cells are available to contain inmates who commit violent acts behind bars. In the past two years, the state recorded 5,070 violent incidents throughout the prison system. Mohr wants to improve inmate and staff security by isolating and punishing those who misbehave and cause problems.
The death row consolidation will indirectly improve safety at all the male prisons, including Lebanon Correctional and Warren Correctional in Warren County, LoParo said.
The state spends roughly $1.7 billion a year to house about 51,000 inmates in 31 prisons. The prison system employs 13,000 Ohioans.
Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or lbischoff@DaytonDaily News.com.
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