The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction terminated on Friday seven correctional officers including a nurse and a supervisor for their roles in the February death of a Black inmate.
Surveillance footage from the Orient Correctional Reception Center showed inmate Michael McDaniel, 55, being aggressively escorted to the jail’s medical unit by two officers as several others looked on.
McDaniel could be seen shoeless, and struggling to walk when a female officer performed “take-downs” on him “causing his body to veer off the walking path and land face-down in a snow-covered area.”
In total, McDaniel hit the ground 16 avoidable times resulting in multiple injuries to his entire body. When he reached the nurse, the consultation did not last more than a minute before he was dragged out to his cell.
The inmate collapsed and died at the scene from a stress-induced sudden cardiac attack. Hours following McDaniel’s death, another nurse who had not been in the room, claimed that the decedent refused medical care.
“We’re responsible for what happened in that video,” Director Annette Chambers-Smith said. “There is no question about that.”
“This is not what we trained people to do. Not everyone is suited to correctional work and those who are not suited should be removed.”
