This story has been updated with additional information.
Facing chronic staff shortages, the state is pausing admissions to the Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility, one of Ohio’s three youth prisons.
Ohio Department of Youth Services Director Amy Ast sent a letter April 2 to juvenile court judges, announcing the one-month suspension in admissions.
Indian River in Massillon houses about 140 boys and young men up to age 21.
Kenny Black, the most recent superintendent, resigned.
“Until staffing numbers improve, the number of youths served on that campus will be reduced,” Ast told judges.
A 2023 investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Akron Beacon Journal and Canton Repository found Ohio’s youth prisons are plagued by violence, neglect and chronic staff shortages. The series prompted a working group of experts to recommend Ohio close its large youth prisons and replace them with smaller, closer-to-home facilities.
The Ohio Department of Youth Services continues to face vacant positions in security, education and mental health services. The current vacancy rate at Indian River wasn’t immediately available.
Nearly three out of four incarcerated youths are signed up for mental health services. Almost half struggle in some way with reading, writing or other classroom subjects.
In January, 15-year-old Terrance Mosby suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury during a fight with another boy at Indian River.
Judge: ‘Not exactly happy’
A judge who handles juvenile cases in Stark County, which is home to Indian River, said he and other judges in his court “are not exactly happy” about the restriction.
“The youth that we send to the Department of Youth Services are the kids who have been through our system and have received all of the services and benefits that our system can offer them, and they still present a significant danger to other youth and to the community,” Stark County Family Court Judge Matthew P. Kreitzer said.
He said another judge in the same court, Rosemarie A. Hall, recently committed an offender to the Department of Youth Services, but was told they could not be admitted. So the youth was sent to the Multi-County Attention Center in Canton Township instead.
Kreitzer said that putting the youth in the local facility means Stark County will pay for their incarceration, a cost that would be covered by the state if they went to Indian River.
Safety is another concern.
“We don’t want anybody getting assaulted, whether it be staff or other other juveniles out there,” Kreitzer said.
He said local judges are familiar with the incidents that occur at Indian River because any time alleged criminal activity occurs at the facility, the case lands in a Stark County court.
“And sometimes the youth that we have out of Indian River, they will assault someone and while their assault case for that person is going through court, they’ll assault another person, so it’s like multiple assaults. And we don’t want things like that going on at our juvenile attention center,” Kreitzer said.
He said that placing high-risk, high-needs youth at the local detention center also creates the potential for the more serious offenders to negatively influence youth who might be there for relatively minor offenses like theft.
“It’s just really unfortunate,” Kreitzer said. “We’ve seen the impact of the lower staff out at DYS and the difficulties that they’re having maintaining staff out there, in part due to some of the violence and things that have happened.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation all the way around. It’s a financial situation. It’s a human resources situation. It’s a safety situation.”
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.On X, formerly known as Twitter: @nmolnarTR.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Troubled Ohio youth prison halts new admissions due to staff shortages
Reporting by Laura A. Bischoff and Nancy Molnar, Canton Repository / The Repository
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