Five Ohio Correctional Officers Committed Suicide in One Year

5 suicides by SOCF staff in 1 year
Portsmouth Daily Times
By Frank Lewis
July 15, 2016

“If there had been this many inmates who had committed suicide in a year’s time at one institution, they would have spent countless dollars – hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars – doing investigations to try to find out what the problems were. I only wish the DRC cared as much about the officers and line staff as they do the inmates in these situations.” Randall Hiles

It is, at once, extremely sad and compelling.

On July 1, the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (S.O.C.F.) lost another officer to suicide. If you are counting, that makes five Officers who have committed suicide in a one year period. Three of the officers were currently working at S.O.C.F., one had just recently retired and one former officer, who committed suicide four weeks ago, was on probation and was recently removed when he ended his life, according to Randall Hiles, president of Local 7330 of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA).

“The one officer that just killed himself received a two-day working suspension for absenteeism but he had every minute covered,” Hiles said. “I thought for sure it would be dropped. I’m no saying that’s the main reason he killed himself. I’m saying I know that he was really stressed out over that disciplinary issue. (DRC Director) Gary Mohr and (Managing Director of Operations) Ed Voorhies at the central office, I hope they look at this. I thought they would after the first suicide and take measures to stop this but nothing has been done.”
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