LUCASVILLE — A disagreement continues between the union and management at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility over whether guard towers along the perimeter fence of the state prison there are needed or obsolete.

Union members, about 50 strong, turned out for duty on a picket line set up along Ohio 728 (the Lucasville-Minford Road) in front of the prison early Wednesday morning.

“It’s an informational picket,” said Gary Shepherd, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association’s Chapter 7330, which represents union workers at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. “We’re hoping the public will support our stand to keep these towers operating.”

The picket continued for nearly 12 hours Wednesday and Shepherd said it will continue throughout today. Nearly every motorist who passed by Wednesday morning blew their car horns as a show of support for their cause.

The union’s action follows the state’s decision to close at least four of the guard towers along the perimeter of the fence surrounding the prison. Like most other Ohio state institutions, the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is facing budget cuts. Officials say closing at least four of the towers will help achieve its goal of eliminating 11 posts at Lucasville.

People working in those posts would work at other posts and the savings in overtime pay would be substantial, said Julie Walburn, communications chief at the prison.

“We believe we can safely close the towers at Lucasville and in doing so maintain either the same level of security or even increase security,” Walburn said. “We have not built an institution since the early 1970s that has included a tower. Technology today is such that the use of towers are outdated and we don’t believe that closing them will cause any problems.”

OCSEA’s statewide Corrections Assembly President Charlie Williamson said other chapters around the state dealing with post cuts have come to agreements with management, but the one at Lucasville is one that hasn’t.

“We’ve offered several counter proposals to cut the same amount of posts elsewhere, but all they want to talk about is closing the towers,” Williamson said.

Prison officials have talked of cutting 175 posts statewide, Shepherd said.

The union at Lucasville has offered a counter proposal calling for closure of Cellblock J1 for all three work shifts, plus eliminate the night recreation shift, the mental health escort and the Communications Center One’s third shift.

Closing the towers, union officials say, is a dangerous move and could endanger the surrounding community. Dillow said the towers played a critical role during the Easter Sunday prison riot just more than 16 years ago.

It was April 11, 1993, when about 450 prisoners in Cellblock L rioted at Lucasville. By the time the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio National Guard and other law enforcement agencies had restored order, corrections officer Robert Vallandingham, who had been taken hostage, was dead and nine inmates had been killed.

“Those guard towers at that time helped prevent that riot from getting worse than it was, that I firmly believe,” Williamson said. “Some of us have kids who go to that school back there, and we don’t want to take chances with their security.”

Valley High School is located about half a mile from the highway directly across from the prison.

“There is no way (prison officials) will take any action they thought would present a risk to the security of the institution or the safety of the community,” Walburn said. “We will maintain the security with the towers closed. We’re not going to talk about the security measures we have in place, of course, because we don’t want to give inmates information.”

She said no personnel at Lucasville are being laid off.

“The goal is to save overtime costs when we eliminate posts. No one will lose their job but it will present a significant savings,” she said.

Bob Walton, member of Laborers Local 83 who was on the picket line supporting OCSEA’s cause, said it was difficult for him to understand why the department could not come up with an alternate proposal to save money and leave the towers intact.

“These men and women who work here put their lives on the line every day. You’ve got people living and working so close to the prison, if there is another way to save money without sacrificing safety that is what they should try to do.”

“The towers are the last line of defense between the prisoners and the community,” Shepherd said. “They could use gloves or mattresses to get over that wire on top of the fences.”

G. SAM PIATT can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.