DRC Inmate Grievance Procedure
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
August 6, 2014
CIIC Concerns
Inmate Grievance Procedure
Per DRC Administrative Rule 5120-9-31, the
grievance procedure is designed to address
inmate complaints related to any aspect of
institutional life that directly affects the
grievant.
This may include complaints
regarding policies, procedures, conditions of
confinement, or the actions of institutional
staff. The grievance procedure is comprised
of three consecutive steps:
 Informal complaint – Within 14 days of
the event giving rise to the complaint, the
inmate can file an informal complaint to
the supervisor of the staff or department
responsible for the complaint. Staff must
respond within seven days of receiving
the complaint.
 Grievance – If the inmate is dissatisfied
with the informal complaint response, the
inmate has 14 days to file a grievance
with the Institutional Inspector.
The
Inspector must provide a written response
to the inmate within 14 days.
 Appeal – If the inmate is dissatisfied with
the grievance disposition, the inmate has
14 days to file an appeal to the Chief
Inspector at the DRC Operation Support
Center in Columbus.
The Chief
Inspector’s office must respond within 30
days.
 Direct Grievance – Grievances regarding
the Warden or Institutional Inspector must
be filed directly to the Chief Inspector’s
Office.

Response timeliness – Inmates have
reported not receiving responses to their
grievance paperwork.
In addition, the
DRC does not currently require action
plans from institutions until over 15% of
informal complaint responses are late.

Inmate faith in the procedure – In letters,
focus groups, and survey responses,
inmates relay a lack of faith in the
grievance procedure and fears that using it
will result in staff retaliation.

Medical concerns – Medical care is at the
discretion of the institutional physician and
is often difficult to meaningfully grieve.

Quality of responses – In some cases,
staff responses fail to resolve an inmate’s
complaint at the lowest level.
Key Statistics
Total grievance paperwork increased 21.5
percent from 2009 to 2013.
Institutions housing the highest security
inmates had the highest rate of informal
complaints.
MANCI had the highest total number of
grievances in CY 2013, with 673.
For all grievance dispositions in the DRC in
CY 2013, 85.7 percent were denied.
The most frequently grieved issue in CY 2013
was Health Care, followed by Personal
Property.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Total Grievance Procedure Filings
CY 2009 – 2013
Informal Complaints
Grievances
Appeals
45,000
40,959
40,074
40,000
35,975
35,000
34,437
32,485
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
6,047
6,344
6,108
5,000
2,620
2,331
2,388
6,299
6,255
2,476
2,317
0
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The data on this page differs from later data in this publication due to differing
timeframes of the data requests.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Rate of Informal Complaints (per 1,000 inmates)
CY 2013
OSP
ToCI
SOCF
ManCI
LaeCI
MCI
DCI
FMC
AOCI
NCCC
GCI
ORW
LorCI
MaCI
WCI
CCI
LeCI
TCI
PCI
RCI
RiCI
LoCI
CRC
SCC
BeCI
NCI
NERC
Institutions housing the highest security
inmates had the highest rate of informal
complaints.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
**Rate is per 1,000 inmates. Rate was obtained by dividing the total number of informal complaints filed in CY 2013 by the average institutional
population for the same time period. Data does not take into account that a small portion of the inmate population is generally responsible
for a large number of complaints.
***Total ICRs differs slightly from the above chart due to the different times that the reports were ran.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Untimely Informal Complaint Response Rate
CY 2013
24.3
25
23.7
22.8
21.0
20
18.3
17.8
17.7
16.7
15.9
15
14.5
14.2
12.4
11.2
10
10.8
11.0
10.6
9.3
8.7
7.9
6.7
7.2
6.6
5.3
5.1
5
4.1
2.5
2.3
0
Level
1/2
Level
3
Level
4/5
Reception
Medical/
Female
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Rate obtained by dividing the total number of untimely informal complaint
responses by the total number of informal complaint responses.
** An untimely informal complaint response is a response later than seven days from the date of receipt. The above data does not include informal
complaints that received no response.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Total Grievances
CY 2013
Granted
Denied
700
MANCI had the highest total number of
grievances in CY 2013, with 673.
600
For all grievance dispositions in the DRC
in CY 2013, 85.7 percent were denials.
500
400
300
200
100
0
Level
1/2
Level
3
Level
4/5
Reception
Medical/
Female
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Data includes only grievances that were granted or denied; data does not
include grievances that were withdrawn by the inmate or that were pending disposition. Total grievances differs from above totals.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Grievance Categories
CY 2013
1200
1000
The most frequently grieved issue was Health Care,
followed by Personal Property.
800
600
400
200
0
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Data includes only grievances that were granted or denied; data does not
include grievances that were withdrawn by the inmate, pending disposition, or that pertained to “non-grievable matters.” Total grievances differ from
above totals.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Direct Grievances
CY 2013
Granted
WCI
SOCF
GCC
ManCI
RCI
MCI
CCI
ToCI
AOCI
LoCI
BeCI
NCCC
RiCI
LeCI
MaCI
LaeCI
SCC
OSP
TCI
CRC
NCI
FMC
PCI
LorCI
ORW
NERC
DCI
Denied
Warren Correctional Institution experienced the highest
total number of direct grievances, as well as the highest
total number of direct grievances granted by the Chief
Inspector’s office.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
*Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Direct grievances generally pertain to complaints that inmates have
regarding the Inspector or Warden, which are filed directly with the Chief Inspector, as well as a small number of complaints regarding the Bureau of
Sentence Computation and DRC policy. The above data excludes one grievance withdrawn by an SOCF inmate.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Inmate Perceptions of Fairness
CY 2013-2014
Yes
No
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
87.5
89.2
89.1
12.5
10.8
10.9
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Do you feel that informal complaints are Do you feel that greivances are generally
generally dealt with fairly at this
dealt with fairly at this institution?
institution?
Do you feel that grievance appeals are
generally dealt with fairly at this
institution?
*Data collected through CIIC’s inmate survey conducted at each institution as part of CIIC’s inspection process. CIIC utilizes a stratified sampling
method to randomly select inmates. The above data includes responses from all 2013-2014 inspections, with the exception of RICI and SCC. The
data includes only inmates who responded to the question, representing responses from 3,875, 3,484, and 3,225 inmates, respectively.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929
Inmate Grievance Procedure Filings
CY 2013
Institution
Informal
Complaints
Grievances
Appeals
AOCI
1,500
327
160
1,987
BECI
1,162
146
44
1,352
CCI
1,855
330
184
2,369
CRC
832
82
20
934
DCI
910
48
9
967
FMC
430
51
21
502
GCC
1,785
385
163
2,333
LAECI
2,145
221
69
2,435
LECI
1,584
248
87
1,919
LOCI
1,103
178
100
1,381
LORCI
1,119
68
34
1,221
MACI
1,848
313
110
2,271
MANCI
3,377
673
206
4,256
MCI
2,712
610
221
3,543
NCCC
2,468
316
142
2,926
NCI
840
84
37
961
NERC
163
1
0
164
ORW
2,093
123
24
2,240
OSP
1,358
273
93
1,724
PCI
1,271
107
42
1,420
RCI
1,121
195
85
1,401
RICI
1,218
159
73
1,450
SCC
887
196
67
1,150
2,664
490
252
3,406
790
88
26
904
TOCI
2,635
284
120
3,039
WCI
1,083
193
87
1,363
40,953
6,189
2,476
SOCF
TCI
Total
Total
49,618
* Data provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, based on individual institutional
statistics.
**Grievances include only grievances that received a disposition. Grievance total differs from the total on
the first page due to the different timeframes in which the reports were run and the above totals do not
include direct grievances.
Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street, 15th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, PHONE (614) 466-6649, FAX (614) 466-6929