The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction maintained Friday that the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe was staffed to standard Wednesday morning, when one of its correction officers was fatally assaulted by a man incarcerated there.
Rashawn Cannon, 27, is accused in the 鈥渂rutal鈥� death of Andrew Lansing, a 62-year-old correction officer who had worked for ODRC for more than 20 years. Cannon was at Ross Correctional Institution on felony assault and gun charges, according to the ODRC鈥檚 inmate search, with a likely release date of 2030.
Lansing suffered a brain bleed and broken teeth in the assault, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol records.
He was one of several correction officers working the Christmas morning shift voluntarily, on overtime, ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith said Friday afternoon. 鈥淓ach position in that prison that was assigned to a correction officer had a correction officer in it,鈥� Chambers-Smith said.
OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11 President Chris Mabe said in an interview Thursday, however, that the union has been begging for changes.
鈥淲e continually make requests and demands to increase staffing inside of facilities, pull down on some of the programming that is being run when staffing levels are very low, when staffing levels need a more conducive number to resume those programs,鈥� Mabe said. 鈥淚t feels like the staff has no backing or has had no backing from this administration concerning their safety and security for quite some time.鈥�
The union wrote a letter to DeWine鈥檚 office, demanding Gov. Mike DeWine put Chambers-Smith and the Ross Correctional Institution鈥檚 warden on administrative leave pending the state鈥檚 investigation. DeWine鈥檚 spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.
The Ross Correctional Institution is one of two ODRC facilities in Chillicothe. It's a maximum-security prison that houses most of the inmates on Ohio's death row. It's adjacent to the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, which is a medium-security facility.
Ross Correctional Institution has an 11% job vacancies rate, Chambers-Smith said, and statewide, facilities have are hovering around 8%.
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting better and better, and we track it weekly, so this idea that there鈥檚 just no staffing in the prisons, it鈥檚 not true,鈥� she said.
As OSHP investigates, ODRC is sharing few other details about the incident itself. Chambers-Smith said Lansing was in a small structure in the yard where correction officers filed notes and stored lunches when he was assaulted.
Cannon has since been transferred to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison in Lucasville. Ross Correctional Institution is classified as a medium-high level security state prison.
Chambers-Smith said her heart went out to Lansing鈥檚 family.
鈥淗e was a professional person, had a ready smile,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no one that I鈥檝e talked to that has a negative word to say about him. He was always engaging. He was a father, was a husband and all he was trying to do was his job.鈥�
