The former director of the office that inspects Ohio’s 27 adult prisons and three juvenile facilities says she's concerned about the future of the agency that's down to one employee and is relying on unpaid interns.
Joanna Saul Carns leads an office that investigates prison complaints in the state of Washington. In 2016, she resigned as director of Ohio’s Correctional Institutional Inspection Committee after a high-profile fight with lawmakers over the appropriate role of the committee.
Carns hoped lawmakers who forced her out would keep funding it – but its budget has been slashed, it’s down to one staffer, it hasn’t issued a report in four years and is relying on interns to perform important tasks.
“These staff people are dealing with tremendous workloads in a stressful environment,” Saul Carns says. “And so, things will fall through the cracks. And it’s not through anyone’s malintent.”
Carns says interns aren’t trained to analyze data on prison violence, mental health care and contraband among more than 49,000 inmates. She’s hoping lawmakers will bring back funding to the office to ensure more oversight over the prison system.
