PulseJournal.com

A $73 million state budget cut means 26 people at the Lebanon Correctional Institution will be looking for work.

When the edict came down from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, prison Warden Tim Brunsman made the tough call.

"There are no corrections officers being laid off, no food service people and no nurses or teachers being laid off," he said. "For the most part, they are unit management staff, administrative staff and some bargaining unit staff, who do not fall in the prior ranks. It was a tough day."

There are 2,557 inmates at the prison and 557 employees.

Brunsman said they are moving toward a "social service" model and away from the unit management structure, which will allow the prison to provide the same levels of supervision, protection, education and training, but with fewer people.

"Each unit takes care of their 500 inmates, let's say, and they do everything for them," he said. "Now what we are going to do is centralize things."

There currently are six units, but after July 9 — when the cuts need to be complete — the prison will operate on the centralized system.

Because the prison system allows "bumping" within geographic regions, some of the people whose positions are being eliminated may still have jobs.

Statewide, 701 positions will be eliminated, but with the inmate population at an all-time high of 50,099, no facilities will be shuttered.

On Tuesday morning, April 29, workers were grilling hot dogs outside the prison as part of its annual weeklong employee appreciation celebration. It's a morale booster, but with looming layoffs, a pall has been cast, some said.

"It's kind of like a family atmosphere here and you never want to see someone lose their job," Brunsman said. "But on the other side of things, we have to be fiscally responsible to the state of Ohio."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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