Allen/Oakwood aims to keep community safe

News Top Stories Facebook X Pinterest WhatsApp LIMA — “At the end of the day, we’re here to keep our communities safe,” said Ryan Walters, warden of the Allen/Oakwood Correctional Institution at Monday’s Lima Rotary Club meeting. Staff from AOCI came to speak to the club about all things regarding the facility, including its origins, opportunities and how they rehabilitate incarcerated people. “We have an opportunity to reach to our community members and market this business for what it really is, and it’s a career and it’s a profession so any opportunity we get to highlight it in the community, the community that we serve and that we protect,” Walters said. A hiring event will be taking place for those interested in careers at AOCI from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21 to help bring the prison to full staffing, as it has openings for nearly 20% of its positions. Attendees learned about the beginnings of the institution. Built in 1987, the Allen Correctional Institution then merged with Oakwood in 2012, creating a unique correctional facility. As it stands today, the AOCI houses all security levels, from low-level inmates to restrictive housing. It also is the only institution in Ohio to house disabled prisoners. Out of the 28 prisons in Ohio housing 43,000 individuals, AOCI has 1,637. At the prison, there are many opportunities for individuals to be rehabilitated, such as recreation, religious programs and skill building. “We just finished our gardening season, so we tallied up our donations for the community gardens, we’re just under 20,000 pounds. I think we were at 17,000 pounds that we donated to places like West Ohio Food Bank or LACNIP. I think that’s something people don’t realize that happens at the prisons. It’s not just these guys sitting in their cells and not doing anything. They’re learning skills and becoming productive,” Walters said. Walters said these programs are important for incarcerated people. “Programs are important because that’s where rehabilitation starts,” he said. “You’ve got to give these guys an opportunity to change their patterns and change their way of thinking. So, what we do is offer them that help. We give them the chance to rebuild themselves, or hit the reset button as I like to call it, and really get them and get their skills moving in the right direction so they can come to society and become a good citizen.” Joe Maze, newly appointed chief of security at the prison, said operations and unit management became the foundation of the facility. “Our main goal is to keep you guys safe, keep each other safe and keep the incarceratde population safe. … One end goal is to transform these guys because let’s be real,” Maze said. “They’re wanting to get out of prison, they could be our neighbors. Our goal is to transform these guys and make good people so that they could live next to us.” Ali Hanes, deputy warden of administration, said some extracurriculars that inmates can take such as flag football and even a doggy day-care. “We say special services because it’s anything outside of the correctional aspect,” she said. “So, your mental health, medical services, religious services, recreation, anything to get the incarcerated moving, motivated and engaging something else out of their time. Because, with idle time, it creates more chronic, criminal mindsets and it also increases the risk to come back.” Hanes said the importance of bringing programs to inmates, “It helps us meet them on a more human level.” The programs also give networking to potential employers through skill building. Attendees had many takeaways from AOCI’s presentation. “I think the biggest takeaway is that I don’t think a lot of people realize how much the correctional industry is central,” said Ian Anderson, director of continuous improvement at Superior Wholesale Distribution. “It seems there was a lot of incarcerated individuals who were at the prison, but there is a very large attempt to try to integrate them into society after they finished their sentencing, which I thought was very powerful. This idea, is like not only are we providing justice, but we’re also providing a path back to society.” Featured Local Savings