A Chillicothe corrections officer who was brutally beaten to death by an inmate on Christmas Day has been posthumously awarded Corrections Officer of the Year, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced in a news release.
Andrew Lansing, 62, was named as ODRC’s Ronald C. Marshall Corrections Officer of the Year, an honor bestowed on correction officers who “personify the agency’s core values,” the department said in a May 9 news release. Each of ODRC’s 28 institutions names a corrections officer of the year. Then, the 28 officers are in the running to be named the ODRC’S Ronald C. Marshall Officer of the Year, according to the ODRC.
Lansing was beaten to death on Christmas Day by an inmate while he was working in a guard shack at the Ross Correctional Institution, The Dispatch previously reported. In the days leading up to his death, he had already been named correction officer of the month.
Rashawn Cannon, 27, has been accused in Lansing’s death and faces three counts of aggravated murder.
“Officer Lansing trained many staff members,” Ross Correctional Institution Warden Bill Cool said in a prepared statement. “He took great pride in teaching new staff how to be firm, fair, and consistent. Andrew was a true leader. His heart was larger than his body, and he was always willing to help anybody. We continue to grieve his loss at RCI.”
Lansing was also posthumously honored by RCI after they changed the name of their Roll Call room to the Andrew Lansing Roll Call Room, the Chillicothe Gazette previously reported.
Lansing began working at RCI in 1994 after serving as an infantryman and sergeant in the United States Army. He also served in Iraq and helped with prison operations there, the ODRC said.
“Officer Lansing represented everything good about us – he was loyal, professional, served as a role model and mentor, a husband and a father, a friend, a veteran and a trusted colleague,” ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith said in a prepared statement.
“The way that he greeted everyone, staff, volunteers, contractors, incarcerated people, was exactly how we hope all of our officers treat the people they interact with. He was always pleasant; he knew everyone’s stories and had an interest in their lives. His murder was a senseless and unimaginable tragedy, one that shook the very foundation of our agency. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to his family, friends, and loved ones every day. He was very deserving of this honor, and he will never be forgotten.”
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Andrew Lansing posthumously named as corrections officer of the year