top of page
My Cause !
"MY STORY"
"The Great Sign In Heaven"
About the Eclips On Sept. 26. 2017
Go to my favorite movies.
There use to be a nice swimming pool inside the walls for the inmates, but there were too many inmates drowning in it that they filled it in. The inmates would get into it and they would drown each other. I remember working one of the guard towers one time above their football field. If they had a beaf against each other they would take it out on each other in their games. I don't know how many of them ended up with broken arms, legs or and their teeth being nocked out.
The strike was finaly over and whatever their complaint was it must have been settled for the guards. They all returned to work and our class finally got to go home. After the guards strike was over, the inmates went on their own strike. They refused to eat or come out of their cells until they received a raise in their pay. What was so funny about the thing was the officer received a hazord pay after the riot and when the inmates got their pay rase, the hazord pay for the officers was dropped. The governor took our hazord pay and gave it to the inmates.
I can't blame the city for wanting to close the prison. It had been there for 164 years from, 1834 until 1998. Overcrowding was a problem nearly from the start. Disease ran rampant; rats and insects were ever present inhabitants, and the efficiency with which they conducted disease throughout the facility could be overwhelming. In 1849, for instance, a cholera epidemic burned through the prison, killing 121 in just a few short months. As long as it all stayed inside, and didn't affect the good citizens of the city, no one worried much about conditions behind the walls.
Back in 1930 a botched escape attempt led to the deadliest fire in prison history on April 21, 1930. The final toll is given as 322 dead, although a thorough search of death certificates and records by the American Local History Network (at GenealogyBug.net) provides a complete list of victims of the fire, with death certificates, and it has only turned up 319. It's possible that the three conspirators are given as victims 320-322. You can see more photos and details about the O.P. by clicking here; http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Franklin/pen.html
​
​
​
a cell block or work location. Some times we stayed in a cell block or work location for weeks and then moved to another area, we never knew how long we would stay. Myself, I think I worked every where in the institution.
I remember this one time I was assigned to this cell block where I had close to 130 inmates or so. There was this young man in the block who couldn't be much older than 18 or so. He was with a friend one evening and they both were drunk. They drank up all their money and no one would give them any to buy more. His friend said he knew this old lady that lived alone and she wouldn't be at home because she work. They went to her home and broke in to see if they could find some money hidden somewhere. This young man I had in my block said he went up stairs to look while his friend stayed down stairs looking. The lady came home and when she went in her house she saw his friend going through her things. He said he heard a comotion down stairs and when he went to see, his friend killed her. They both ran from the house. They were both found out and the police picked them up. They both went to court and was found guilty. He told the judge that he didn't kill the lady, his friend did. It didn't matter, he was still with his friend when she was killed and that made themb both guilty.
I kept noticing these big black guys who were a lot bigger than him hanging out at his cell. He was afraid to come out, even to go eat. I told these guys to get away from his cell and leave him alone. I was working first shift at the time and I told him not to take a shower until I was on duty and I would keep an eye on him. I even ask if I could bring him something from the dinning room to eat in his cell. I was told that he would have to come out of his cell sooner or later to work and do other things, which he was right. About a week or so later I seen him in the day room setting next to one of these guys watching TV. I will never forget the look on his face as he looked up at me. It was as though he was saying, what is the use, I have life to pull in this place.
There was this one inmate whom I knew his family. They were all church goers, some of them were preachers. I can't remember what he did the first time to get put in jail, but all he had to do was serve a few days in jail and he would get out. While in jail someone tried to sexualy abuse him and he fought back, the guy died from it and he went from jail to prison for murder. He was so distrot and angry over it that he forgot about his christian up bringing. He kept getting into troble, his family tried to talk to him, ministers talked to him, but it didn't do any good. If you believe in deamonds, he must have had one or two.
In prison inmates use other inmates as a sex partner. They are pretty serious about it. In prison if another inmate tries to move in on someone's sex partner there is trouble. It would be like someone trying to have sex with someone's wife on the out side, only far worse.
I reported to work one morning and went to my cell block. As I walked in the door I saw blood everywhere. It was on the floor, up the walls and on the range. I said, what in the world happen. One of the inmates said, snitch. Then I understood. It seemed that a inmate told on another inmate for something and they chased him up and down the cell block cutting him with shanks as he ran. I asked where the guards were and they said they went in the bathroom and locked the door. They didn't want to be killed in the process.
There were two inmates sitting in their cell one time playing cards. They had been cellies for quite some time, and as far as I knew they were pretty good friends. While they were playing one of them accused the other of cheating. They got into it and one of them pulled a shank out from no where. It was a toothbrush with a razor blade attached to the end of it. He slit his cellies throute with it and he bled to death before anyone could get to him. I remember having to slide around in his blood on the floor as I looked for the shank. There was blood everywhere.
Things like this goes on all the time in prison and nothing can be done about it. What are they going to do to an inmate who killed another inmate or breaks the law in prison, put him in jail? I remember this one time when I was working at the old O.P. in Columbus. I was on my way home from work listening to the radio. The news came on and they said there was an inmate killed at the prison and there was 1,500 suspects. I just shook my head and began to laugh, not because someone was killed, but because of the situation.
Suffer The Little Children
looks are deceiving
Looks are deceiving, as we proved in our last chapter. Things aren't always as they look.
As the old saying goes, "You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover." The Lord calls it, "A Wolfe In Sheep Clothing." (1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.) Some people can put on a good show some times, but their true collors will show eventually and they will be found out.
We hear of many good programs that the state provides for problem and abused children, and no doubt they sound good, but are they helping or making things worse. Thousands of young people have gone to places like O.Y.C., ( Ohio Youth Commission), since it's opening, but the question is, how many have been helped or damaged? They offer schooling to further their education, training programs to learn new skills, a study center to help the more problemed youth and out side recreation and activities. The have a nice chapel with several religons to choose from, if they choose to go. The question is, what is the heart of the heart of the institution look like, the outword appearance looks good. Foster homes, group homes and such places sound good, but what does the heart of these programs look like.
I always felt that telling young people what these places is like and showing them is two different things. It has been my experiance that you can talk to young people until you are blue in the face, but until they experiance it for themselves, they just don't understand.
What young people don't understand is, the people in these places where they are going isn't there for a pick-nick or for day camp. These young people that are there because they broke the law, they have hurt, killed, robbed, raped, molested and/or abused someone. No matter how bad they think they are, chances are they will be sexualy abused themselves.
If all the state and government programs are doing such a good job in helping our youth, why are we always talking about building bigger and better jails, prisons and detention centers to hold the law breakers?
Pictured is the old Ohio State Penitentiary, perhaps the most impressive institutional building in the entire state of Ohio. It stood on Spring Street just west of downtown Columbus for 164 years, from 1834 until 1998.
Suffer The Little Children
The old ohio state penitentiary
As I sit at my desk looking at the Old Penitentiary in the picture above, it brings back a lot of old memeries. It is like yesterday when I was honorably discharged from the United States Air Force. I'm proud of that because one thing, the Vietnam War was goining on and everyone had to sign up for the draft, they had no choice in the matter. Weather they wanted to or not, they had too. Some sunck out of the country to avoid the draft, some just flat refused while some burnt their draft cards, me, I was proud to serve my country in anyway I could. My whole family was military minded. The didn't have to draft me, I signed up for four years.
Any way, back to my story. I worked a few jobs after my discharg so my wife and I could live. I worked at service stations, a pie factroy, worked on construction building houses for Brits & Ratlif any place I could find. I read or herd some place where they were hiring guards for the state penitentiary in Columbus so I went to unimployment office and signed up. With me being a veteran in helped me in landing the job. I took a test and to my suprise, I passed it. A couple of weeks later I received a letter telling me I had the job.
My lovely wife and I lived in one of those low income housing apartments. We just had our first child, Denna M. Foster, we called her Missy for short. She was a little doll, I called her funny face after a song I heard. We were poor as church mice, but we were rich in other ways.
We lived in Portsmouth and my job was in Columbus. We didn't have the money to pay for gas to drive back and forth to Columbus every day so I found a cheap basement apartment close to my work. The apartment had a bed, couch, chair and a small table to eat of of. The matress on the bed wasn't anything to write home about, so I found one at home to bring back to my apartment in Columbus. Anything beat the matress that was on the bed in the apartment.
The day I started back to Columbus I tied the matress on top of the car. As I started down the highway I noticed the matress raising up on the car, the faster I went the higher it would go, so I had to drive at a slower speed. Of all days, it had to start raining. I pulled over off the road and I tied a string onto my wipers. They would go down to wipe the rain off the windshiled, but they wouldn't go back up. I could sit in the car, with the string, and when I needed to I would pull the string to pull the wipers up and when I let go of it the wipers would go back down. You have heart the saying, poor people has poor ways, well that was me. I had to do that all the way to my apartment in Columbus and I got wet, but it worked.
I remember getting of work one night and I was a little hungry. I went looking for a place to stop for a hamburger and fries to eat. I came upon this place called White Castle so I pulled in, went inside and ordered a hamburger, fries and a drink to go. When I got back to my appartment and sat down to eat, I opened the bag got out my fries and drink, but when I got out my hamburger I began to laugh and laugh. I laughed so hard tears was flowing down my face. If anyone saw me they would think I was nuts. I never seen a hamburger so small. It was good, but it was gone in two bites. The next time I went to White Castel's I bought a dozen of them to eat.
Before we could start work at the O.P. we had to go through six weeks of class work and O.J.T., (On the job training). The 1968 riot haden't been over very long and things were still a little tence. The guards were still upset because things wasn't any different when they went back to work, so we're told.
During the riot the inmates had 9 guards as hostige and demanding reform. Five inmates were killed during the 28 hour stand off. To end the riot, lawinforcement officers used explosives to blow a whole in the south wall and the roof. In June of that year city officials decided that the prison could no longer be a part of Columbus. That's when plans started to build one in Lucasville.
We haden't been in class too long until the guards went on strike. We didn't know what was going on, everything was new to us. Our instructer came in the class room and told us that class was dismissed and we were to start work right away.
I went to work in a open bayo dormitory that held about 100 inmates or so. I sat in the middle of the dorm at a desk with a small light to see by at night with inmater sleeping in their beds all around me. I was told that if I was to get up and walk around that I would no doubt get hit with an ashtray or something. Being new I just stayed at my dest and hoped nothing would happen until day light.
This is a diagram of the O.P., I worked my first few days in the build I filled in with red. The the dormitory was on the top floor and under it was shops where the inmates worked. I was told later that the reason they didn't want me to walk around during the night was because they would be having sex with the younger inmates.
The place reminded me of being in the military. Everywhere the inmates had to go we lined them up and marched them military style. I remember marching them to the chow hall one day. As they filed in they picked up their silverwear, plates and cups before going through the chow line. As I stood there watching them another group came in. As I watched I thought I recognized someone. After they were seated I went up to him to get a better look. When I got next to him he said hello Foster. I couldn't believe it, it was my gym teacher from high school. He busted my tell a few times and here he was in prison.
It goes to show you, you never know who is working with your children. It pays to be involved with your children at school or anything they are involved in. You never know about the people in their lives, no matter who they are.
The new ohio state penitentiary
s.o.c.f.
Executions at the Pen are frequently mentioned as a source of the hauntings in the building. Between 1885 and 1963 there were 343 legally sanctioned executions at the Ohio Penitentiary. Twenty-eight were hangings; 315 were electrocutions. Three of the condemned were women. All of them took place in precisely the same spot in the Death House; when they retired the gallows, the electric chair was mounted directly beneath its trap door.
The new prison in Lucasvill was finaly finished and the state was ancous to start moving inmates to their new home. They took all the officers to the new prison, Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, on a tour to show us around and how everything was set up. It was set up to be one man cells to help stop the rapes and sexual activities, but it didn't work. For one thing it would prove to be too many inmates to house and more prisoners keep coming in all the time.
Now here is what I mean by, "LOOKS ARE DECEIVING." As you can see, it is a nice looking instution. It is a beautiful building and looks good for anyone passing by it. Inside it has a nice dinning room for the inmates to eat. There are two nice gymnasiums where the inmates can play ball,work out, where they watch movies and where singing stars come in to intertain. It has a nice huge yard for recreation and activities. It has nice class rooms with an up to date liverary. It has a real nice chapel for inmates of any faith.
The cells aren't bad for a prison and each cell block has a nice day room for watching TV, playing quiet games and to visit with each other. There is a comaseary where the inmates can purchase snacks and such out of their accounts. If they can't read or write or need to finish high school, there are teachers to help them in there class rooms. They can even go to collage and receive a degree in any field they like.
The state offers O.J.T. (on the job training) where they can become a plumber, painter, carpenter, electrician, work with sheet medal or numerous other jobs, and it's all free. They don't have to pay a dime for anything. The tax payers pay for it while they are in prison.
All these programs, schooling, on the job training and all these things are great for those inmates who are about to get out after serving their time. My question is, what good is all these things for those who are in and out all the time, how about the lifers who will never get out. While working in Columbus I found some of those older guys who had never seen the outside of those wall for fifty years. They had no idea what the out side was like. Everything has changed since they were young men. They couldn't make it if they could or were to get out. It would like like another planet to them. The only what they can see what is going on outside was by TV. I seen inmates get out one day and back in a month later. They didn't know what to do with themselves. They said they were just on vacation and had to get back home. Are you broke, homeless, no job, no education or training, why not break the law and get yourself thrown into prison? There are a lot of young people who have dropped out of school and in the same boat. They could go in and come out as a professor or a lawyer and not have to pay for any of it.
Our country is broke and out state is always looking for ways to cut back and for money to help our public schools, work on the highways and such, why not let the inmates do their time and when they get out send them to school for their GED and traid school to help them get a job. And while they are going to school and traid school the government could help them and their families so they don't have to be on Welfare.
Always remember, "LOOKS ARE DECEIVING." You must always look at the heart of the matter, you can't judge a book by it's cover. When we went into work the first thing that happen was we were checked for weapons, then we went to this large room where we were assigned to
This inmate we are talking about had a sex partner and another inmate tried to move in on him. He didn't like it, he was very upset. He told the inmate he was going to taste his blood. One evening while in the chow line he got behind this inmate with a home made shank and stabbed him in the chest. The inmate took off running and fell dead in the hallway. This inmate walked up to him and said, "I told you I would taste your blood and he bent over, put his finger in his blood and licked it.
Read More
bottom of page