Prisons: 'Doesn't make sense'

Reggie Fields of the Plain Dealer gets it right in today's Must Read:

House 9B at the Lorain Correctional Institution is so crowded that the inmates can barely move.

In fact, many of them don't. They just sleep and sit on their twin-size bunk beds every moment of the day, save for when it's chow time or they're in need of a bathroom break.

The dorm's open area isn't. It's jampacked with about 50 beds, double bunked, head-to-toe, leaving just enough room to make a lap around the perimeter of the housing unit's main floor. With no commons area, prisoners play cards on the floor between their mattresses.

There are 189 inmates clad in white T-shirts and navy-blue pants and tops, similar in style to a nurse's outfit, stuffed into a living unit designed for 124 adults.

And just two guards to keep the peace.

. . .

"Two guards for 189 inmates - that ratio just doesn't make sense," [Strongsville Republican State Representative Tom] Patton said as he walked away from the prison's infirmary.

Tonight, OCSEA testifies on the prison budget that is being deliberated by the Ohio House of Representatives. Call your legislator!