CONNEAUT -- Gangs, drugs, assaults, robbery. They sound like elements that lead to a life of crime, not part of the punishment.
But these documented dangers at Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut left neighbors, guards and even its inmates afraid.
Keith is an alcoholic who spent three years in the prison for drinking and driving. It was his 11th offense.
"Nobody put me there but me," he said. "I needed to go and get punished for what I did wrong."
He's now been sober 42 months. He's a veteran with a history with prisons. He served as a 95 Charlie corrections officer for 591st Military Police Company at Fort Bliss in Texas.
Still, the conditions inside Lake Erie Correctional were something he never expected.
"Would you say it surprised you? It shocked you?" asked Channel 3's Sara Shookman. "It made me sick," said Keith.
Keith served his time, and walked out of Lake Erie correctional in September. Today he wants to see changes inside the private prison, owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of America, or CCA.
"Heroin was like it was legal in there," he said. "I wouldn't have had to get out of bed to get heroin. I could have had it delivered to my bunk, there was so much."
Keith says there weren't enough officers for inmates.
And they lacked the support of cameras and other equipment to help supervise 1,800 prisoners.
Fights and robberies were also commonplace.
"It was really dangerous situations for everybody," he said.
Concerns over the prison grew so great in Conneaut that the community reached out to its leaders, and State Rep. John Patterson called in Ohio's Prison Inspection Committee for a surprise visit.
"I asked CIIC, the corrections inspection team, to come in and do some fact-finding," said Patterson. "We needed to know what was going on. All of us."
The CIIC report released in February after the Jan. 22 and 23 inspection is quoted: "Staff interviews, inmate focus groups, the inmate survey and institutional data all indicate that personal safety is at risk at LAECI.
"There is a high presence of gang activity and illegal substance use. Inmates reported frequent extortion and theft."
More than 35 percent of inmates surveyed during the inspection called it "easy" to get drugs inside prison walls.
"Is there any reason that a member of your staff or an inmate should feel like they are in danger here?" we asked. "No, I think it's relative to the institution -- and to past experiences," said Warden Brigham Sloan.
Sloan was transferred to Lake Erie Correctional in April from another CCA prison in Colorado. In his six-month tenure, he's tried to right the ship.
"The first way is through trying to tighten up security," he said. "We've done that by installing additional fencing. We've enhanced the cameras. We've changed the procedures on which inmates can visit and how they visit."
Security measures including an electrified perimeter fence and detection system have cut down on contraband inside. Guards have increased security rounds and shakedowns.
A followup inspection by CIIC in September showed improvement. And the community as a whole senses a prison moving in the right direction.
"We're all concerned. We're all on top of it. And we're moving in the right direction to be the good neighbor that they want us to be," said Patterson.
It's news Keith is waiting to hear, though he hopes he'll never be back. "Something's got to change. And that's what we're looking at."
"There's always a little bit of mystery about what's behind the curtain in a prison," said Sloan. He invited us to tour the facility.
Sloan has worked to retrain staff, improve the facility's security with cameras and fencing, and promote educational and work programs.
Assaults and drug abuse are still a problem. But Sloan is focused on progress.
Improvements that are being closely watched as the lower level facility finishes its second year under private ownership.
In 2011 to help meet its budget, the state sold the correctional facility to the Correctional Corporation of America. The price tag: $72.7 million.
CCA's operating budget is $3 million less than the state spent. They also added 304 beds by rearranging space.
Local governments now benefit from the property taxes on what once was state property: $2.4 million last year.
But critics question a 20 year management contract that guarantees a 90 percent occupancy rate.
Warden Sloan says rehabilitation, not profits, is still their ultimate goal. "These men that are incarcerated, are going to re-enter society. Ninety percent of them are going to move back to the neighborhood they came from," he said. "We identified that inmates needed to be in more meaningful activities."
The prison has intensified its GED and other education programs, with more than 1000 inmates enrolled.
CCA, the nation's largest owner of "for-profit" prisons continues to promote Lake Erie as a model for other states to follow.
