[Ppnews] Death in Pennsylvania Solitary Confinement Cell Raises Questions

[Political Prisoner News]

    Death in Pennsylvania Solitary Confinement Cell Raises Questions
    <http://solitarywatch.com/2012/07/20/death-in-pennsylvania-solitary-confinement-cell-raises-questions/>

by Hannah Taleb <http://solitarywatch.com/author/htaleb/>

http://solitarywatch.com/2012/07/20/death-in-pennsylvania-solitary-confinement-cell-raises-questions/

On April 26 of this year, John Carter died in his solitary confinement 
cell at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Rockview in central 
Pennsylvania. According to accounts by other men imprisoned on his cell 
block, Carter's death followed a violent "cell extraction" in which 
corrections officers used pepper spray and stun guns, though the 
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections makes no mention of such actions 
in its official statements, and state police have yet to interview 
inmate eyewitnesses.

In 1995, John Carter took part in a robbery that resulted in the murder 
of one man in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He was sixteen at the time, and 
was convicted of second-degree felony murder. In Pennsylvania, which has 
more juvenile lifers than any other state, his conviction meant a 
mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. (Under 
the Supreme Court's June 25 ruling, in Miller v. Alabama 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/miller-v-alabama/>, that mandatory life 
sentences without parole for juveniles were unconstitutional, Carter 
would likely have had his sentence reconsidered, had he lived to see the 
day.)

At some point during Carter's sixteen-year imprisonment, he was placed 
on what's called the Restricted Release List 
<http://hrcoalition.org/sites/default/files/RRL%20Brief.doc>, a form of 
indefinite solitary confinement that can only be ended with approval by 
the Secretary of the Department of Corrections. Jeffrey Rackovan, the 
Public Information Officer at SCI Rockview, admitted that this 
designation meant John could have "spent the rest of his life in 
solitary confinement." Before his death Carter had spent the last ten to 
eleven years in solitary. According to prisoner reports he had been 
known to break the rules of his unit in order to share food, hygiene 
items, and writing utensils with newcomers to his block, and adamantly 
used both the grievance process and legal system to challenge acts of 
abuse and retaliation by prison staff.

On April 27, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections issued a press 
release 
<http://www.cor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=18&objID=1238328&mode=2> 
announcing that John Carter had been found "unresponsive in his cell" 
the day before. Reports from the unit soon began to reach Carter's 
family and the Human Rights Coalition, a Pennsylvania-based prisoner 
advocacy and abolitionist organization. The reports explained that 
Carter had been subject to a cell extraction on the day of his death 
after a dispute with guards who refused to issue him a food tray instead 
of nutraloaf, a dense, unpalatable substance issued as punishment in 
place of meals. The cell extraction was the second Carter had been 
subjected to that week, during which guards entered his cell in full 
riot gear, armed with OC spray and electroshock weapons.

The statements from prisoners explained a brutal scene, with excessive 
amounts of pepper spray being pumped into Carter's cell so as to flood 
the whole tier with the choking gas. According to prisoner accounts, 
guards then broke down the door to the cell and proceeded to shock 
Carter seven times with electroshock shields and guns. Many of the 
reports end with Carter being dragged from his cell, paramedics arriving 
10 to 15 minutes later, and an unresponsive Carter being removed from 
the block. He was pronounced dead at Mount Nittany Medical Center a 
short time later.

Andre Jacobs, a jailhouse lawyer housed on the same block as John wrote 
a five page declaration 
<http://hrcoalition.org/sites/default/files/Andre%20Jacobs%20Declaration-04262012.pdf> 
detailing the events of that day. Many others sent in the story as they 
heard and saw it, all of them asserting that John Carter was "murdered . 
. . here in this RHU torture zone, where guards come on the tier calling 
people racial slurs."

The press statement released by the Department of Corrections made no 
mention of a cell extraction, or any confrontation at all occurring on 
the day of Carter's death. Reports from inside the prison claimed that 
superintendent Marirosa Lamas came to the Restricted Housing Unit tier 
the night of John Carter's death alleging that he had committed suicide, 
an assertion never made to the public. But officials first claimed that 
no cell extraction took place the day of Carter's death, then that there 
was an extraction but no video footage, and finally that an extraction 
took place but the footage may have been "damaged."

Because Carter died from what was considered unnatural causes, the 
Pennsylvania State Police were brought in to investigate his death.  By 
May 10th the police had released a statement that notes John Carter was 
found "unresponsive in his cell," but goes on to describe that he had 
"barricaded himself in his cell and refused numerous orders" which 
precipitated "the DOCs response to the inmate's cell." The statement 
goes on the say that autopsy reports were "inconclusive" and evidence 
had indicated "no foul play" in Carter's death. Once again no mention 
was made of the use of pepper spray or electroshock weapons.

Calls to the state police were met with the assurance that a "thorough" 
investigation would be carried out. However, according to statements 
from prisoners held on John Carter's block, not one of them was 
ever questioned as to the events of April 26.

Jeffrey Rackovan told Solitary Watch that the prison had "done its part" 
in the investigation, handing over video footage and allowing 
investigators to enter the prison. Rackovan noted that investigators 
surely spoke to those they "needed to"--the "officers involved in the 
extraction." He also assured that John Carter's cell had been inspected, 
though numerous prisoner reports claim that it was thoroughly cleaned 
shortly after Carter was removed.

According to advocates at the Human Rights Coalition, the investigation 
carried out by the state police fits within a general pattern of refusal 
by state authorities to investigate and prosecute the alleged crimes of 
prison guards and officials against the prisoners in their care. No 
statements have been made by the State Police since May 10.  Toxicology 
reports from the coroner's office are still forthcoming more than two 
months after John Carter's death.

John Carter's family is not satisfied with the investigation thus far 
and are resolved to find justice in his death. They arranged for a 
second autopsy, and filed a criminal complaint with the Center County 
District Attorney, Stacy Parks-Miller, in June. As a response the DA's 
office is now overseeing the investigation carried out by the State 
Police, but has released no further information on its progress. When 
contacted, Ms. Parks-Miller's office would not respond with any comment 
on the investigation.

John Carter's sister, Michelle Williams, explained in a May 7 interview 
with me for Rustbelt Radio that she wants justice not only for her 
family but for all of the other families with loved ones inside of 
Pennsylvania prisons. "Just because they are in jail," she 
said, "doesn't mean you can treat them as anything else but human." 
Listen to the full radio report here 
<http://hrcoalition.org/sites/default/files/John_Carter.mp3>.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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