- Originally published in The Baltimore Sun September 16, 2004
Copyright 2004 The Baltimore Sun Company
Lawmakers hear of changes in state's prison procedures;
But officials won't talk about death of inmate
By: Greg Garland and Gus G. Sentementes
State
prison officials assured a legislative panel yesterday that they have
made significant changes to "use of force" policies - including
restrictions on the use of pepper spray - since the death of a prison
inmate in Western Maryland on April 30.
But
the officials refused to answer any specific questions about their
handling of Ifeanyi A. Iko's death or to show legislators videotapes of
Iko's forcible removal from his cell at Western Correctional
Institution in Cresaptown on the day he died.
Instead,
prison officials answered general questions about policies for handling
inmates and showed members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee
a videotape of officers restraining another inmate outside his cell two
days before Iko's death - an incident in which the inmate has claimed
in letters to The Sun that officers choked him.
Mary
Ann Saar, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional
Services, pointed to a recently launched FBI investigation as the
reason for declining to discuss details of Iko's case.
"It's
my decision that we are not going to discuss Iko until all the legal
reviews are completed," Saar told Sen. Brian E. Frosh, who chairs the
committee.
Frosh, a Montgomery County
Democrat, expressed frustration with Saar's decision - noting that the
attorney general's office had advised him that prison officials could
discuss Iko's case.
"How is it going to
sully the (FBI) investigation if you show us the videotape?" Frosh
asked. "It is what it is; it's not going to change."
Iko,
51, a Nigerian immigrant, died after a violent confrontation with
correctional officers - a death later ruled by the state medical
examiner's office a homicide by asphyxiation. He had originally been
sent to prison to serve a three-year sentence for a drug charge but
received an additional 20 years for assaulting a correctional officer
in 1992 in an Eastern Shore prison.
The
autopsy report said his death was caused by "chemical irritation of the
airways by pepper spray," the placement of a mesh mask over Iko's face
to prevent spitting or biting, and the way he was restrained.
In
an internal investigation, Maryland's public safety and correctional
department found no wrongdoing by prison staff. An Allegany County
grand jury reached the same conclusion in July after a two-day
investigation.
Dr. Benny Iko, a brother of
Iko's who attended yesterday's hearing with his attorney, said
afterward that it was "incomprehensible" that prison officials wouldn't
show videotape of his brother's last day at WCI. "Nothing will change
the facts," he said.
Correctional
officials faced aggressive questioning by several legislators on
policies for handling inmates. They also were questioned about the racial
imbalance at the Cresaptown prison, where officials said the staff is
96 percent white and the inmate population 76 percent black.
Del.
Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, a Baltimore Democrat who sat in on the Senate
hearing, described Western Correctional Institution as "a racist
environment" based on what she has learned from talking to inmates and
their family members.
"It's just not a good situation at all," she said
Because
prison officials would not answer specific questions about Iko's case,
several senators posed hypothetical questions that mirrored some of the
facts that have come to light in the inmate's death.
Many
of the facts initially surfaced in letters inmates sent to The Sun.
They were later supported by findings in an autopsy report and by
information obtained from other sources.
For
example, inmates wrote that Iko's cell was sprayed with three cans of
pepper spray - far more than prison guidelines call for - and that he
was removed from the cell block unconscious, in a wheelchair, with a
mask over his face.
At the hearing, Del.
James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat, asked Correction
Commissioner Frank C. Sizer Jr. whether his department had developed
policies on the use of chemical agents in combination with a spit mask.
Brochin expressed surprise when Sizer said they had not.
However,
Sizer said, prison administrators have drafted new policies on the use
of pepper spray - a change contemplated before Iko's death.
Sizer
said that correctional officers now need approval of top-level prison
officials before using pepper spray in certain cases involving a
"calculated use of force" - such as the forced removal of an
uncooperative inmate from a cell. He also said no more than two bursts
of two seconds each of pepper spray can be used to subdue an inmate.
The
effects of pepper spray were evident in the videotape shown of a WCI
inmate being restrained outside his cell on April 28, two days before
Iko's death. It occurred in the same housing unit where Iko was held.
Inmates
had been protesting over claims of poor food and other issues,
according to inmate accounts and the division's official report of the
incident.
The inmates blocked the food
slots on their doors and windows, which prevented officers from taking
an inmate count for several hours, Warden Jon P. Galley said at the
hearing.
Eventually, only a handful of
inmates were resisting the count. Officers donned riot gear and set
about opening inmates' doors slightly to verify their presence. The
first was a cell housing Matthew Himelright.
The
videotape shown at the hearing shows a lieutenant warning Himelright,
26, that he would be pepper-sprayed if he moved from his bunk. As
officers opened his cell door, Himelright pushed his way out. He was
immediately hit with a burst of pepper spray and tackled by officers in
the corridor. A struggle ensued for several seconds, then the camera's
view of the inmate was blocked by the backs of officers.
As
the officers were trying to restrain Himelright on the floor, he cried
out: "I can't breathe!" Another inmate is heard yelling: "The man can't
breathe! Get ... . off his back!"
The
video shows Himelright, with a bloodied face and swollen eyes, being
taken to the medical department where a nurse treated his injuries and
washed the spray from his eyes.
In letters
to The Sun, Himelright said he ran out of the cell because he believed
the officers were going to perform a cell extraction, which typically
involves using force and chemical agent, and he wanted eyewitnesses
from other cells and a videotape record.
Himelright
said that one officer used a cloth he had tied around his neck and face
to protect himself from pepper spray to choke Himelright while he was
restrained on the floor. On the video, an officer is seen removing a
piece of cloth from the inmate's neck after the incident was over.
Because
the officers' bodies shielded their actions from the camera view, it
was impossible to tell if Himelright was choked as he claimed.
He
and other inmates said that the lieutenant and several other officers
involved in his incident also participated in Iko's cell extraction two
days later.
Sizer said that Himelright's
actions caused his injuries and that he cut his head charging into the
plastic shield that officers used to try to block him from leaving the
cell. "The bottom line was his actions were uncalled for. ... He could
have moved the slot on his door and been counted," Sizer said.
Frosh said yesterday's hearing at least helped legislators learn more about prison system practices in dealing with inmates.