ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont Correctional Institution held its annual memorial ceremony Monday to remember some deeply-missed, retired staff members who recently died.

The staff memorialized retired correction officers Kevin Bibbee and Vanessa Gilmer, food service coordinator Richard Glover, business and health instructor Nancy Stack, and Vilja Stein, who was a mental health counselor.

May 7-13 is National Correctional Officers Week, and the prison honored the more than 460 employees who work at the facility, along with retirees and other correctional staff from around the Ohio Valley.

Deputy Warden Mary Potter spoke about the importance of recognizing correctional officers who undertake dangerous and demanding work, often without visibility.

“Their profession requires constant and careful vigilance, and the threat of violence is always present. At the same time, those dedicated employees try to improve the living conditions of those who are being confined,” she said.

Warden David Gray reminded all that this is also National Teachers Week and National Nurses Week.

“We have a plethora of teachers and nurses working for us as well,” he said. “In corrections, we are asked to succeed where many others have failed. Folks drop out of high school, they don’t take care of themselves physically, the struggle with mental illness and they end up incarcerated, and once they get to that place it’s our job to fix what has taken many, many years.”

Gray said staff members represent a wide range of dedicated professionals.

“They do very challenging work in very challenging circumstances,” he said, adding that the corrections officers form the “backbone” of the facility.

He recognized Allison Jones, the 2023 Correction Officer of the Year, and Capt. Brandon Ring, Employee of the Year.

Afterward, Jones said communication and teamwork are key to success in applying rules and policies professionally. She said her coworkers are the most rewarding part of the job.

“Corrections officers have to be there for security, for the public, along with the institution,” she said. “We are just needed to hold it together …”

Ring said firmness, fairness and consistency are the watchwords of correction officers. He said Jones embodies this mantra. Ring added that his family history introduced him to the corrections field.

“My father was a corrections officer,” Ring said, adding he came from a military background with a focus on security.

“When you get here, it’s a place like no other. Yes, the work is tough, but really it’s about the people,” he said.

Gray also recounted the challenges faced by the prison during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We cannot face those challenges without the employees that work here,” he said.

He also mentioned the prison’s community partnerships, including community service projects. Gray said his facility has worked closely with the sheriff’s office.

“We can do better things together. This was never more evident than during the pandemic,” he said, recalling the sheriff’s office and prison working together with the courts to institute distance hearings and avoid transporting inmates. “We were able to continue the court dockets moving to protect the citizens of Belmont County.”

Sheriff David Lucas was the keynote speaker. He spoke about the development of the prison system, from incarceration and punishment to rehabilitative programs. Lucas spoke about the importance of the jail and his own correction officer staff to sheriff’s operations.

“One of my first priorities in the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office was the jail division,” he said, recalling there were four people on staff at the jail in 2013. “And pre-COVID our average daily population was 189.”

The jail is a 144-bed facility.

Lucas described the grind on the correctional officers, adding that overtime often reached 100-150 hours. Currently, there are eight jail staff and often no overtime. He thanked the county commissioners for working with him on setting the budget.

“My heart and soul goes out to you,” he said of the corrections staff. “They’re special people doing a very, very dangerous and important job.”