By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

LEBANON, Ohio — Motorists on Interstate 75 or state Route 63 near Monroe, Ohio, often do double takes as they pass Lebanon Correctional Institution (LCI) in Warren County: It’s not every day one sees cattle and tall corn stalks surrounding a prison encompassed by razor wire.

Few realize that 50 inmates and a corrections staff of 14 tend this 1,853-acre farm.

“Some of the inmates really enjoy working on the farm,” LCI Farm Manager Brian Campbell said. “They’d rather be out here than working in the kitchen. For them it’s good, hard, honest work.”
This facility sits atop a huge hill near each thoroughfare. There are 986 tillable acres here. The major staple is corn, but the staff and inmates tend wheat, soybeans, Sudan grass, alfalfa hay, red and white clover and hay.

All staples are used on the farm to supply the nutritional needs of the 218 dairy cows, 476 beef cattle and 847 hogs. (The farm is presently milking 94 cows. The rolling herd average is 18,991 pounds of milk annually). All veterinary services are provided by veterinarians from The Ohio State University.

The dairy and beef herd are eventually sent to the Pickaway Correctional Institution milk and beef processing plants. There, the milk and meat are inspected and processed for human consumption by those incarcerated throughout the state.
LCI farms has a granary, where feed is mixed, bagged and distributed to different enterprises on the farm. There are two alpacas on the premises, standing guard to keep the coyotes away from the other farm animals.

“Lebanon Correctional farm provides inmates, under supervision, an opportunity to develop their abilities, acquire skills and gain information helpful in operating farms or securing employment upon return to society,” Campbell said.

“The farm operations are conducted in a matter to operate efficiently and economically to produce high quality food for the institutions, using modern soil management, crop and livestock production methods and procedures utilizing modern dairy science and animal husbandry,” he added.

Even working farm inmates have daily routines that take precedence over those of the farm. Campbell points out that inmates do not put in eight-hour days.

“Farming for the state (prison system) is totally different from farming on the outside,” said Campbell, who grew up on a dairy farm and worked as a herdsman before becoming a corrections officer.

“But we’re a lot like any other farm in that we rotate our crops,” said LCI Warden Tim Brunsman, who grew up across the street from a dairy farm.

Rehabilitating inmates is the first priority, with making a profit from the farm a distant second. The prison farm makes do with aging farm equipment (some more than 30 years old). This farm, one of 10 in Ohio, is self-sustaining.

“We drink the milk we produce,” Campbell said. “All the staples we raise here stays here to feed the animals. Anything extra goes to the other institutions.”

The inmates at LCI are nonviolent offenders convicted of drug- or theft-related felonies, driving under the influence (DUI) or nonpayment of child support, and do not wear monitoring devices. The 11 correctional farm coordinators who assist Campbell and two assistant farm managers working with inmates are not armed.

Perimeter patrols who occasionally drive through the farm carry a sidearm and a shotgun. Farm supervisors are required to lay eyes on each inmate once every 30 minutes to help prevent “walkaways”. Security measures are not foolproof; 10 offenders have walked away from the state’s prison farm operations since 2000. Three of those were from LCI, and all were caught.

“They are convicted felons,” said Brunsman, who as warden oversees LCI’s more than 2,500 inmates. “You just never know what somebody’s thinking.”

The farm has been in existence since the 1940s. In those days inmates were transported to Lebanon from London Correctional Institution. The grounds were worked by teams of draft horses.
Today, labor on the farm is performed by Level 1A and Level 1B, or lower security, inmates housed at the Lebanon Correctional Camp. The farm is operated by nine correctional coordinators, one correctional supervisor, one correctional mechanic, two assistant supervisors and one manager.

“It’s hard to understand how many stumbling blocks you have to overcome to get the simplest of tasks done,” Campbell said. “You actually have to teach some of these inmates how to work. You have to push them, while some of them end up being great workers.”

Inmate John Alexander, 37, of Dayton, Ohio, is serving a four-year sentence for drug possession, assault and carrying a concealed weapon. He said feeding more than 20 calves at the dairy farm and checking their stools for signs of illness has worked on his discipline.

“I was never raised near a farm,” he said. “I’ve been working with these animals for six months now. It’s taught me a lot about work ethics, about having to get up early and being on time for the job. Working out here also keeps me from becoming lazy.”
Inmate Anthony Goins has just five months remaining of his two-year sentence.

“I was raised around a farm,” he said. “When I came here, I wanted to work on the dairy. I used to work construction so it’s not like I’ll be working on a farm when I get out.”