By Josh Sweigart
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON, Ohio — A reported suicide over the weekend marked the third death at the Dayton Correctional Institution since the beginning of 2013, and comes amid turmoil within the female prison including a mass inmate complaint and a prison investigator being placed on paid leave pending an investigation.
Christina Homa, 32, was found dead in her cell at DCI on Sunday morning. On Monday, the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled her death was a suicide caused by hanging.
Homa was finishing her first year on a five-year sentence on charges of burglary and receiving stolen property in Trumbull County in northeast Ohio.
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction communications director JoEllen Smith said it was the fifth inmate suicide statewide this year. There were 10 last year and eight in 2012.
“Any time there is an apparent inmate suicide we do conduct an internal investigation to determine if all of our policies and procedures were followed appropriately,” she said.
Homa’s death was the second at DCI this year. Tamara Diffendal died in July of cardiac arrest. Diffendal’s mother, Brenda Coleman, said her daughter suffered from undiagnosed ulcers in her esophagus for months, making it difficult for her to eat.
Genevieve Frazier died in October 2013 after a brain hemorrhage.
Inmate complaints
DCI’s inmate population has complained recently of conditions at the prison. This newspaper received a letter purportedly signed by 45 medium-security inmates listing grievances.
The main allegation from inmates is that they are locked in their cells 21 hours a day and only allowed outside a couple hours per week. They claim this is longer than prisoners of the same level at other Ohio prisons.
State officials say that is not true.
“(These inmates) are afforded out-of-cell time at least five hours per day for leisure activities. This does not include meal times, programs, education, work sites, religious services, health services, visits, etc. (which could be up to an additional three hours per day of out-of-cell time). In addition, all DCI Level 3 inmates are afforded an extra hour of out-of-cell time Monday thru Friday on an alternating basis,” Smith wrote in response to questions from this newspaper.
This newspaper attempted to contact inmates about the conditions at the prison, but prison officials denied an interview without reporters first providing “detailed information … such as the nature of the interview/story, etc.”
Reporters confirmed the authenticity of the five-page letter through a parent of an inmate who signed it.
Suspended employees
The I-Team also found that a prison investigator and recreation manager at DCI currently are suspended pending a state investigation.
Records show Terrance Griffin — whose job is to investigate alleged wrongdoings by corrections officers — was put on paid leave Aug. 7. Cedric Tolbert, an inmate recreation manager, was placed on paid leave July 14.
State prison officials won’t give a reason for the suspensions, only that the issues were referred to the Ohio Department of Corrections’ Office of the Chief Inspector.
That office “monitors the application of the inmate grievance procedure in the institutions ensuring that inmate concerns and problems are being appropriately addressed,” according to the ODRC website.
State records say Tolbert’s administrative leave is “pending investigation of a possible unauthorized relationship.”
Unauthorized relationships at prisons can include being too friendly or conversational with an inmate.
Tolbert’s personnel records, obtained by the I-Team, show generally positive performance reviews. He was disciplined, however, on July 1 following an investigation that found he left a pair of scissors with an inmate. Tolbert’s biweekly pay is $2,231, per state payroll records.
Griffin’s personnel record also includes positive reviews. His last major disciplinary issue was in 2006 when he failed to open some candy bars as instructed to look for contraband. Griffin’s biweekly pay is $2,594, according to state personnel records.
Sex with inmates
An I-Team investigation in June found the number of prison employees disciplined for inappropriate relationships — ranging from handing out food to sex — skyrocketed since DCI became all-female in 2012. Such allegations spurred 19 internal investigations and cost four employees their jobs.
Last month, a food service worker at the prison was indicted on a charge of sexual battery for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a 31-year-old inmate.
The issue is not isolated to Dayton or female prisons. On Monday, a Warren County grand jury issued an indictment charging a Middletown woman with sexual battery for allegedly having sex with a male inmate at Lebanon Correctional Institution.
Some of the investigations in Dayton were led by Griffin. This was noted in the letter from inmates.
“The guy that is supposed to investigate anything wrong at DCI gets fired for the exact thing he is supposed to investigate,” it says, though prison official say he is on paid leave, not fired.
This newspaper attempted to contact both Griffin and Tolbert. Tolbert could not be reached. Griffin declined to comment.
“I can’t talk. Thank you,” he said.