“There are some things I know that are disturbing in terms of what happened surrounding that place once it was closed. There are other decisions that in light of the difficult circumstances that I did not make.”
Kasich’s press secretary said ORV was “completely trashed” when state officials entered the place after it was closed.
“There was feces smeared on some of walls. There was a bunch of graffiti everywhere,” Nichols said. “My understanding is that the kids were moved out two days before the employees of the facility were moved out.”
Joel Patrick, a former guard at Ohio River Valley Juvenile Correctional Facility, said Tuesday that it was not uncommon for the juvenile inmates to smear feces on the walls.
“On our lock down unit, when the youth knew they were leaving, they smeared feces on the wall, as a good-bye present for us. I don’t know anything about trash or graffiti other than the normal gang graffiti,” Patrick said. “This was nothing the staff did or anything.”
Patrick said the inmates in the lock down unit were the last to be shipped out before the facility closed.
“On the last day they had messed up some of the rooms with feces. They brought in a crew from Star Community Justice Center and cleaned it up. I did not witness what the mess was,” Patrick said. “The type of kids we had were throwing urine on staff everyday.
Andrea Kruse, public information officer for Ohio Department of Youth Services, said the department paid $3,200 to have the facility cleaned.
“There were eight rooms in the unit that had the trash and the feces on the walls. We had staff and a professional cleaning crew come in a clean up the facility,” Kruse said.
Kasich said he hopes an alternative use can be found for the closed facility.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the end of that story yet,” he said Friday.
WAYNE ALLEN may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 208, or wallen@heartlandpublications.com.
Our area is much worse off since Kasich was elected. I miss Ted Strickland.