Ohio Guard Drives Over Prisoner
Disturbing video from the body-worn camera of a guard at the Ohio Reformatory for Women captured him on March 14, 2024, as he drove a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) at high speed across the grounds of the Maryville lockup and plowed into a group of prisoners, striking one and knocking her to the ground.
“Oh my god!” a second guard in the UTV could be heard exclaiming.
The state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) confirmed that the unnamed prisoner was treated at the prison infirmary before transport to a local hospital, from which she returned later that same day. The guard, later identified as Lt. Thierno Bah, was seen stopping the vehicle and exiting, repeating to the prisoner as she lay on the ground, “Sorry.”
The incident is under internal investigation, DRC said. Investigators were also called from the Ohio Highway Patrol (OHP), but they recommended no charges because the prisoner did not appear to suffer “serious physical harm” as defined under state law. Moreover, OHP added, Bah could not be charged under state vehicle laws because the Ohio Supreme Court has said the sort of UTV he drove does not meet the statutory definition of a “motor vehicle.”
The mixed-security prison, parts of which are 108 years old, holds 2,500 women with a staff of 500, though about 90 positions are vacant, according to local Pres. Tom Holden of the guards’ union, the Ohio Civil Service Employee Association (OCSEA)—forcing remaining staffers to work 16-hour shifts that leave them “no good to these inmates if [they] can’t be watchful for their safety.” OCSEA manned picket lines at all state prisons on March 18, 2024, demanding improved pay and working conditions.
Sources: Scioto Valley Guardian, Union County Daily Digital, WCMH