By Corrections1 Staff
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio corrections officer continues to recover nearly two months after being stabbed multiple times by two inmates.
The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association said Tuesday that Officer Matthew Matthias is in stable condition while being treated for 32 stab wounds and numerous internal injuries sustained in a February inmate attack, the Associated Press reports. The union also said the officer is on dialysis to help his kidney recover.
On Feb. 20, Matthias was taking two inmates with the highest security level to the prison infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville when the attack happened. The union criticized the security policies at the facility, saying that the attack shouldn’t have happened.
At the time of the attack, the facility had policies that allowed mixing inmates with different security levels while treating them as though they were at a lower level than their designation, the union said. Union President Christopher Mabe criticized the policy, saying “the entire range [of inmates] should be treated as if all inmates are at the highest level.”
After the attack, the DOC said changes have been made at the facility and that a consultant is reviewing policies at the state’s high-security prisons. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the DOC “remains committed to the operation of facilities that are safe and appropriately secure, especially our facilities that house extended restrictive housing offenders.”
Inmate Casey Pigge, one of the inmates charged with the stabbing, is a three-time convicted killer who has boasted about killing a fellow inmate on a prison bus. The second inmate, Greg Reinke, was involved in a 2017 attack in which he stabbed four inmates after slipping out of handcuffs.