This Day in History By: Doug Miller

Joe Lyons • April 11, 2023

On April 11, 1993, Easter Sunday at approximately 3:00pm, 450 inmates in Section L (cell blocks 1-8) of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, rioted. SOCF is a maximum-security prison which also housed Death Row. The Ohio State Highway Patrol Special Response Team arrived on site at approximately 6:30pm. We spent the next 11 days inside the facility working closely with the Department of Corrections SWAT team.

On the first day rioters killed five inmates and placed their bodies in the exercise yard. Another four were killed over the next few days and placed in the yard. Initially twelve Corrections Officers were taken hostage. Four (C.O.’s) were released hours later due to the injuries they sustained during the initial takeover. Eight others were held hostage by the inmates until the siege ended. On April 14th to prove a point that they should be taken seriously the inmates killed Corrections Officer Robert Vallandingham.

The riot ended on April 21, 1993, it resulted in 9 inmate deaths and the death of a Corrections Officer. Damage to the prison was in excess of $40 million dollars. The Lucasville riot is still the longest prison riot in our country’s history. Thank you to all the officers that responded and stayed the course. A special thanks to members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Special Response Team that had my back during this difficult event.