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Ohio Prison Report Says Guard Didn't Keep Regular Watch on Day of Billy Slagle's Suicide

The investigation from a team at the prisons department says records on a computerized log book may have been falsified on Aug. 4, the night Billy Slagle killed himself on death row in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

Slagle hanged himself three days before his scheduled execution.

The report says one guard didn’t make the rounds every half hour as he was supposed to, and that he and another guard may have changed the records to show he did.

The guards are on paid leave now and will not face charges from the Highway Patrol, but the report says they could be disciplined or fired.

The report says nearly three quarters of the officers on duty that night were relief officers, who don’t have the same training that regular duty officers do. The report also suggests the lighting at night is too low to monitor inmates, and notes that there are problems with inmates putting up paper and other items to block windows.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.