Talk of walkout by guards

is less than a united front

By Richard C. Widman

Staff Writer

LUCASVILLE, 0. "He ain't speaking for me," a guard at the troubled Southern Ohio Correctional Facility said in an off-duty interview yesterday.

The remark by the guard at the new state prison here referred to a statement by Frank Upton, a Chillicothe Correctional Institute guard who, with five other guards, met with newsmen yesterday in front of the Statehouse in Columbus.

Upton, a Teamsters official who said he was speaking on behalf of all correctional officers, said a guard walkout at all state prisons was a possibility.

"I would expect it to happen at any time," Upton said.

The Lucasville prison guard said he does not plan to strike. But he added he agreed with Guy Lingo, a guard at the Marion Correctional Institution who also told newsmen that Ohio prison guards are poorly trained.

'The training at the guard academy was kind of ridiculous," he said. "It was only four days and it was run by old Ohio Penitentiary guards who wouldn't tell you a thing.

"All we were told about, was treatment. They didn't even show me how to shake down a prisoner," the Lucasville guard said. "I got all my training on the job."

One of the biggest guards and recognized as one of the toughest at the Lu-

casville prison, he said he is not afraid of prisoners.

"There's a lot of stomping of inmates going on in here, here," he said. "They (guards) will set a prisoner up, to make him mad so they have an excuse to whip him. They'll tease him, call him a name, and sometimes put Mace into his food.

"I don't believe in headknocking. They know I'm ready to take care of myself if I have to, but I don't have to because they know I'll be fair.

"If I treat them fair, I know they're not going to mess with me and I don't have the trouble," he continued.

"If an inmate is out of cigarettes. I'll get a pack for him. But some guards won't even give prisoners a light.

“I think if you could get the dope out of here and stop the homosexual stuff there wouldn't be much trouble here," he said. "I'll bet there's been a hundred stabbings here.”

Why do guards "set up" prisoners to legitimatize beating them?

Some of them are scared," the guard said. "I'd say that 95 per cent of them are scared now and might do it (beat prisoners). Before the shootings maybe only 25 per cent would do it.”

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A former guard, Ronald Pratt, has been charged with smuggling in the gun allegedly used by inmate Wayne L. Raney to kill a Wayne L. Raney to kill a guard on July 24. A second guard was shot to death by

a guard sharpshooter in the rescue of hostages held by Raney.

"There's some who just want to sit on their fat câns and keep the prisoners locked up 24 hours a day,” the Lucasville guard said.

“And then some of them get a feeling of superiority out of it. They say, "I'm the boss and you... you better believe it!"

The guard said that each time guards spray chemical Mace on a prisoner they are required to fill out a "use of force" report.

"The orders came down to stop using the Mace because we were running out of Mace and report forms,"" the guard said.

""There is a lot of fear in this prison, this prison," he added. "Everybody (guards) has a blackjack.

"

Guards did not carry clubs on the cellblocks until the shooting deaths of the two guards, he said. The clubs were stored for use only in emergencies.

But now, the guard said. every guard carries a club. Security precautions have been tightened, he added.

"Before July 24 a guard could have gotten anything in here," he said. “You just walked into the place. The metal detector wasn't hooked up. They'd look into your lunch bag, and occasionally they'd pat you down."

The guard said most guards consider the work well-paid and physically undemanding. Guards are paid $3.57 an hour.