MARION, OHIO — A few inmates at a medium-security correctional facility took full advantage of a prison work program, turning monotonous labor into the construction of a secret computer lab, in a prison story for the ages gone public this week.
In 2015, a handful of unsupervised inmates in Marion, Ohio were tasked with disassembling old PCs as part of a computer waste recycling program. But rather than do as they were told, they used their time to build computers and log onto the internet.
Using a contractor’s stolen credentials, they searched online for drug recipes, how to commit tax fraud, how to build explosives, and pornography -- one of them even managed to call and text his mother. They hid the computers in the ceiling and kept them operational for four months, until the correctional institution was made aware of an irregular pattern of online activity going on.
An investigative report by the Ohio Office of the Inspector General has found that not only did they build the computers, but they managed to transport the parts through staff-monitored security checkpoints within prison facility.
The five inmates involved have since been transferred to other institutions.
