An inmate is dead after being stabbed at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, and police say they are investigating the death as a homicide. Officers were called to the private prison on Hubbard Road at about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday for a report of an unresponsive man, and he did not survive.
Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn confirmed Wednesday that the inmate had died of stab wounds, according to WKBN. Prison officials told police the wounded inmate had been involved in an incident, and as Cleveland.com reports, police had not released the inmate's identity as of their report. The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center is a medium-security men's prison.
A Troubling Pattern of Violence
This is not an isolated incident at the facility. WKBN files show 23 inmates have been stabbed at the prison since 2024, with Tuesday's stabbing marking the sixth this year alone, the station reports. A separate account from the same outlet had earlier described a different stabbing as the 20th since 2024 and the third within a single month, though the station did not reconcile how the two tallies relate to one another.
WKBN's reporting from 2025 found at least eight stabbings at the prison that year and eight inmates stabbed in 2024, a steady drumbeat of violence behind the facility's walls. Tuesday's death marks the second stabbing death at the prison in a little over a year, the station's report notes.
The Prior Fatal Stabbing of Isiaha Waulk
The prison's last fatal stabbing claimed the life of Isiaha Waulk, who died at St. Elizabeth Health Center on Aug. 31, 2025, after suffering several stab wounds, per the same account from WKBN. One WKBN report listed his age as 28, while a separate WKBN report said the Mahoning County Coroner identified him as 29; the two accounts differ on that detail.
Accounts of what led to Waulk's death also diverge. One WKBN report stated that Waulk had stabbed two other inmates, who then stabbed him in turn, and that no charges had been filed in that case. A separate WKBN report described the sequence differently, saying Waulk initially stabbed two inmates before being attacked by four inmates who then stabbed him.
As of the latest reporting, it remains unclear whether anyone has been charged in connection with Tuesday's death, and police have not released further details about how the stabbing occurred. Youngstown detectives' investigation into the homicide continues.
