The Ohio prisons system has accidentally released about 2,000 prisoners' Social Security numbers as part of a records request by a convicted identity thief.
The information was included on a list of inmates at Chillicothe Correctional Institution provided to an ex-offender who regularly requests inmate rosters.
The Mansfield News Journal reports 43-year-old Lonny Bristow turned the information over to the newspaper Tuesday, a day after receiving the records.
Bristow's past convictions include credit card scams committed while serving previous sentences. Bristow says that it's "ironic" that the prisons system turned the information over to him but that he didn't plan to use it because his criminal life is over.
Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith says that the agency is looking into identity theft monitoring services for the affected inmates.
