TOLEDO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
State identifies prison guard hurt in assault
11/28/2013The female guard who was assaulted last week at Toledo Correctional Institution has been identified as Sarah Roggelin, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Ms. Roggelin, 29, was taken to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center for treatment of head injuries and released from the hospital on Saturday. She has been employed at the prison in North Toledo since 2012.
The attack on the guard by an unidentified inmate is under investigation by the Ohio Highway Patrol.
According to an ODRC incident report, Ms. Roggelin was punched in the face about 10:20 a.m. Friday as she was walking down a stairwell. The attack, according to the report, knocked her onto a step, where the inmate continued to hit her until other officers secured the area and placed the inmate in handcuffs.
The inmate, whose name is not being released, was transferred to a higher-security prison, a prison spokesman said.
The prison has experienced increased violence, including four homicides, since state officials began putting two inmates in single cells.
The 13-year-old prison recorded its first homicide in September, 2012, when Bradley Hamlin was killed by another inmate.
Shortly after that, in March, inmate Arturo Lopez was strangled inside his cell by another prisoner. The slaying of James Oglesby, who was attacked with a metal baseball bat in the recreation area in August, and the deadly assault of Michael Dodson on Oct. 6, followed.
The Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, a state committee that monitors activities of prison facilities, recently reported that inmate-on-inmate assaults at the East Central Avenue prison have increased nearly 113 percent and inmate-on-staff assaults jumped nearly 74 percent from 2010 to 2012.
— Mark Reiter