Ohio takes big step by sending body cams to all its prisons

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio will deploy more than 5,000 body cameras in all 28 prisons and its adult parole authority offices by May, the state corrections agency director said Thursday.

The agency signed a five-year contract with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon for the cameras worth $6.9 million the first year and just over $3 million annually in the future, a cost that covers the cameras and remote storage of footage.

Ohio is the first state to deploy body-worn cameras systemwide in its prisons, and its program is the largest of any corrections department globally, Zachary Austin, director of the company’s corrections division, said in a statement.

The agency is “at the forefront of public safety technology,” Austin said.

The cameras will complement about 6,000 stationary cameras already in Ohio prisons. They are not an end-all solution to violence in prisons but another tool to protect guards and inmates, said Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

“This is just one piece in an overarching plan to have our prisons be as safe as possible for the people that live and work in them,” she said.

She added: “The camera is the perfect witness, it’s unbiased. And we will have a lot more information than we’ve had in the past.”

With the rollout, Ohio joins a growing number of state prison systems outfitting guards with body cameras, even in environments already covered by thousands of stationary security cameras.

The agency outfitted about 550 supervisors in all Ohio prisons with the cameras by the end of last month and will now begin deploying another 4,500 statewide, starting with the Ohio State Penitentiary, the state’s supermax prison in Youngstown. In some cases electrical work must be completed first, Chambers-Smith said.

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