CINCINNATI — After a series of unrelated violent incidents and escapes in 2022, the minimum-security River City Correctional Center is focusing more on security and higher-risk offenders, according to the facility's executive director Scott McVey.
"We've piloted some new technology to improve our monitoring of residents," McVey told the River City Facilities Governing Board during their quarterly public meeting on Thursday. "It involves more video and more audio sensoring. It's gone extremely well."
McVey said River City has also ordered additional surveillance cameras.
The WCPO 9 I-Team's seven-month-long investigation has exposed problems at the treatment-focused facility in Cincinnati's west side Camp Washington neighborhood.
The I-Team's investigation began after two inmates escaped on July 9, 2022.
One of the inmates, Thomas Cromwell, held a woman hostage at knifepoint for about 12 hours in a Mason hotel.
According to investigators, the standoff ended when a police officer shot and killed Cromwell.
Court records show Cromwell was a parole violator with a history of committing violent crimes. He also had serious mental illnesses, according to Cromwell's mother Traci Gaines, who shared Cromwell's medical records with the I-Team.
The I-Team's investigation revealed that parole violators were more likely than court-ordered offenders to be involved in River City's most serious incidents in 2022.
On June 17, 2022, alleged members of a "notorious" prison gang, the Cincinnati White Boys, followed inmate Anthony Ross into a River City bathroom and appeared to get in a fight, according to River City records.
The alleged gang members are white. Ross is Black.
Minutes later, Ross — a parole violator with a history of violence and serious mental illness — twice punched one of the alleged gang members in the back of the head and appeared to knock him unconscious, according to a River City report.
River City records show Ross and the other offenders, which included parole violators, were removed from the program and taken to jail.
No charges were filed.
"We only press charges on residents if they escape," McVey wrote in an email to the I-Team in August. "If there is an incident between staff or another resident, it is up to that staff or resident to file the charges. Since January of 2022 no one has taken this action."
According to Ohio state statutes, CBCFs are supposed to help reduce the prison population, cut the cost of incarceration, give offenders better transitions into their communities and provide public safety.
The facilities — including River City — generally focus on lower-risk nonviolent felony offenders who are believed to be more likely to succeed in a minimum-security facility that provides treatment and eventually the opportunity to work off-site, according to ODRC.
In August, then-Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said he was concerned about River City being used as a "dumping ground" for parole violators.
The I-Team confirmed that those parole violators included offenders who served their most recent prison sentences for violent crimes that include rape, felonious assault, aggravated assault and aggravated robbery.
Others, including Ross, had served their most recent prison sentences for nonviolent felonies but had recent histories of violence.
"It's scary," Deters said. "It's a mockery of the system."
Parole violators are referred to River City by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.
JoEllen Smith a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said River City and other community-based correctional facilities are not required to admit offenders referred by APA.
On Thursday, McVey said River City's inmate population is now about 20% parole violators. The others are referred by courts.
Ross is back in the Hamilton County Justice Center after pleading guilty to assaulting a woman last fall on a Cincinnati streetcar.
"I didn't mean to do that on purpose," Ross told Hamilton County Municipal Judge Brad Greenberg on Jan. 3. "I was just trying to get some help."
Ross — who became emotional in court as he described his battle with mental illness — turned to face his victim and asked for her forgiveness.
"If she could accept my apologies, I would sure appreciate it," Ross said.
McVey told River City's board that the facility's most recent data shows 90% of the inmates complete their programs and are "successfully discharged."
But court records show for offenders like Ross, who have so many challenges and are considered higher risk for reoffending, their behavior often leads them from jail to treatment and back to jail again — a cycle that can last decades for some offenders.
"He attacked me," Ross' assault victim told Judge Greenberg. "And once the police got there, he attacked me again."
WCPO is not using the woman's name because she's a crime victim who asked to not be identified in court.
She told Greenberg that Ross fractured her rib and that nearly four months after the assault, she suffers from PTSD and is still on "light duty" at work.
"I do want him to go to a mental facility and to get medication and to stay in there," she said.
Greenberg sentenced Ross to six months in jail and ordered him to complete another treatment program.
It's unclear how the APA will hold Ross accountable for his latest parole violation.
READ MORE
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- 'They need to shut it down': Ex-inmate speaks out about River City Correctional Center's issues
- River City Correctional Center employee with active arrest warrants supervised inmates for months
- After I-Team investigation, River City Correctional Center has fewer violent offenders
- River City employees disciplined for 'failing' to do security and inmate checks after July 9 escape
- '(They're) not doing what they're supposed to': River City inmate thrown out twice in three years for violence
- River City Correctional Center employee with active arrest warrants supervised inmates for months
