Prison Director to Announce Top

Correction Officer of the Year at Annual Ceremony

(Columbus) Terry J. Collins, Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will be joined by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton at the 2009 Ronald C. Marshall Award Ceremony on Friday, May 1, 2009, beginning at 11:30 a.m. to announce DRC’s 2009 Correction Officer of the Year. This event will be held at the Reginald A. Wilkinson Corrections Training Academy in Orient. The Ronald C. Marshall Award is presented to Ohio’s top Correction Officer who is selected among thirty Correction Officers of the Year from each of Ohio’s state-operated prisons. The Officer is selected by a panel of past recipients through an interview process.

The keynote speaker for the event is Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton. Justice Stratton’s legal career began in the courtrooms of central Ohio as a trial lawyer. In 1989, as the first woman to be elected to the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, she presided over major cases ranging from capital cases to civil actions. During her career, she has established a solid record of judicial integrity, fairness and diligence. Her approach to sentencing earned her the nickname “The Velvet Hammer.” She formed the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Advisory Committee on Mental Illness & the Courts, a task force of mental health, legal and criminal justice professionals from around the state. The committee focuses on mental-health initiatives in the court system and how to effectively implement such programs.

For more information, please contact the DRC Public Information Office at (614) 752-1150.

Directions to the Site from Columbus:

Take I-71 South to the Orient/Harrisburg exit (Exit 94). Turn left at light (State Route 62). Bear left at the “Y” (Stahl Road). Follow Stahl Road through the town of Orient. At first stop sign, turn left. Road dead-ends into State Route 762. Turn left onto SR 762 then an immediate right onto the Orient Correctional Complex. Turn left at 4-way stop and follow road past DRC Employee Recognition and Memorial Park. Continue going straight at next 4-way stop and follow road to Corrections Training Academy parking lot.