Guards in Mansfield, in Richland County, said security is at an all-time low, and on Monday they staged a protest.

Dozens of corrections officers picketed outside the Mansfield Correctional Institution. 

SLIDESHOW: Images From Protest

The local union president tells 10-TV security inside the prison has hit an all time low.

"I've been here almost 23 years and I've never seen it this bad," he said.

The union said prisoners have assaulted more than 40 guards in the past 6 months.

One corrections officer asked 10TV not to show her face, but said she was attacked from inside prison walls.

"As I was trying to keep three inmates off of me, in front of me, the one inmate attacked me from behind, and punched me several times in the head and in my shoulder," she said.

The woman said the prisoner who attacked her wasn't even charged with a crime.

"So the message they're sending is 'Go ahead, assault the officer, nothing's going to happen to you,'" the woman said. 

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections is in the process of hiring a dozen new guards to beef up manpower in Mansfield, but said there are no signs of a threat of a prisoner uprising.

"None of the assaults resulted in serious physical injury to our staff; having said that, we take assaults against our staff very seriously," ODRC's Julie Walburn said.

Corrections officers said they are not afraid to come to work but they admit they sometimes worry whether they'll make it back home, Kocot reported.

"I have young children at home and every day and I pray that I get to make it home because if nothing happens it's going to be a horrible situation.  It's going to happen.  Somebody's not going to make it home," another guard said.

The ODRC said  the state has documented 16 assaults on guards since Aug. 1, and said problems with prisoners in Mansfield appear no more serious than any other level three prison in Ohio.

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