This Easter Sunday, we encourage OCSEA members to take a moment with their families and loved ones to reflect on the heroes of Lucasville––the one who left us too soon, those who lived with the nightmares of the event, and those who still live with loss and pain today. Remember their sacrifices and their bravery, and honor all of the public heroes who continue to serve our communities in our state prisons and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lucasville trainer remembers 30 years later

Corrections Training Officer Darrell Logan says he’s not the last staff left at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) that experienced the country’s worst prison riot in history. But he is one of only a few employees left at the Lucasville facility, who witnessed the carnage firsthand.

Thirty years ago on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993, a prison riot in Ohio’s maximum security prison would leave union brother Correction Officer Bobby Vallandingham dead and a family of corrections employees mourning his passing for years to come.

Darrell, who was on the SWAT Team on that fateful day 30 years ago, spent 11 days and 11 nights at the facility doing the worse job imaginable to try to contain a violent hostage situation and clean up the carnage. Nine inmates were also killed, and Darrell and his team were tasked with retrieving the dead.

Shortly after the tragic incident––the longest and deadliest prison riot in U.S. history––Darrell went from being a Correction Officer to a Training Officer and hasn’t looked back. He says a lot has changed at the prison since those early days before the riot. “It used to be you’d have 160 inmates going to chow at a time,” he said. “Or there’d be 400-500 inmates on the move at any one time. We just don’t do that anymore,” Darrell said of the changes that have taken place to keep officers safer. SOCF, like many prisons, also has Control Centers now to protect officers and walls with steel reinforcements.

Despite that horrific incident during his early years on the job, Darrell has made his career as a Corrections employee and wouldn’t trade it for anything. “It’s a prison. You have good days and bad days,” chuckled the 38-year corrections employee. “I like what I do. I teach CPR, firearms and OC gas to the next generation. It’s definitely kept me interested,” he said. Darrell currently is making plans for his upcoming retirement.