The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility Siege
On Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993, a fistfight broke out in a corridor of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility and spread into a full-scale siege which lasted 11 days and resulted in 10 deaths, including one prison guard.
Guards responding to the initial scuffle were am bushed and overpowered by inmates who grabbed their two-foot-long nightsticks. Within an hour, eight guards were hostages, others lay badly beaten in the recreation yard, and six inmates were dead at the hands of other prisoners. The prison's tactical unit was put in place, water and electricity to the cellbocks was cut off, and a command center with an open line to prisoners established. The siege had begun.
Early in the takeover, inmates produced a list of 19 demands, among them: requests for media access; an end to integrated celling; the removal of Warden Arthur Tate, Jr. and several corrections officers; a relaxation of recreation time limits; and general amnesty for acts committed during the takeover.
Shortly after dark on the first day, Patrol troopers and corrections officers took back the recreation yard, rescuing one guard who had been beaten and left for dead.
With terrible rumors of torture and scores of killings circulating, the uprising became a battle of nerves as officials, among them Colonel Thomas W. Rice, conducted negotiations with inmates. On the third day, prisoners in the besieged L Block began yelling to neighboring K Block, urging fellow inmates to join in the action, but were quickly repelled by responding forces.
In the early morning hours of the fourth day, a Patrol helicopter experienced a serious malfunction and spiraled to the ground, slightly injuring a Patrol pilot and his passenger, and destroying the helicopter. It had just flown over the cellblock -- fortunately the malfunction occurred over open ground outside the prison grounds. The same day, Ohio National Guard troops arrived and took up positions on the perimeter of the prison grounds.
Later in day four, negotiators agreed to provide food and water to the besieged cellblock. In exchange, riot leaders accepted prescription medicine for two of the hostage guards.
Negotiations continued. On the fifth day, the body of murdered hostage Robert Vallandingham was thrown from a cellblock window. Later in the day, an inmate was permitted a 15-minute live broadcast over a local radio station in exchange for one of the hostages. Another hostage was released the following day in exchange for a live television broadcast.
Negotiations were bolstered when a Cleveland attorney, requested by rioting inmates, was taken to Lucasville to join in the process.
On day 11, the good news finally arrived. After days of face-to-face negotiations, officials appeared before cameras and announced the siege had ended. Later that evening, Patrol units began processing the rioters one by one, and finally, just before 11 PM, April 21, the remaining five hostages emerged from the prison to the cheers of their comrades.
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility revolt was recorded as the longest and most deadly in Ohio history. Only the patient and dedicated work of negotiators and scores of responding law enforcement officers prevented it from becoming a greater disaster than it was.