Family Calls Pennsylvania Prisoner’s Death Murder; Prison Officials Exonerate Themselves

By David M. Reutter

Although an investigation into a prisoner’s death by the Pennsylvania State Police “does not indicate any foul play at this time,” the prisoner’s family is calling the death a homicide.

SCI Rockview prisoner John Carter, 32, had been in prison since he was 15. In October 1995 he was with 18-year-old acquaintance Milo Davis, who had just gotten out of jail, when they tried to rob George Kirkland, 31. Davis shot Kirkland with a shotgun as Carter tried to pull Kirkland from under a streetlight into darkness. Carter and David received life sentences for second-degree homicide.

While in prison, Carter “matured,” his family said. “He wasn’t the same old person who robbed the man that night,” said Michelle Williams, Carter’s younger sister.

He was also acknowledged by family to be a difficult prisoner. “He told me straight up that he’s not going to go down on his knees,” said Apryle Williams, his mother. “He’d rather stand and die as a man.”

According to family, Carter had been assigned to a Restricted Housing Unit (RHU) for the last 8 to 10 years. That status was confirmed by prison officials.

“He remained in RHU because he continued to violate our rules and accumulate misconducts,” said Jeffrey Rackovan, spokesman for SCI Rockview. “It just gets to the point where, what else can we do with this particular individual?”

A 2008 fight with a guard, which resulted in 5 to 10 years being added to Carter’s life sentence after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for the incident, landed him on the Restrict Release List. Placement on that list results in the most severe solitary confinement assignment.

Placement on the list is “a product of long-term misbehavior,” said Rackovan. “You have to have in the past been given some opportunities to turn yourself around, but the inmate has not taken advantage of the opportunities.”

Prisoners on that status may only be removed from it by signature of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) Secretary. Prisoner advocates say the designation has no rehabilitative value and perpetuates the counter-productive solitary confinement.

It’s difficult to understand except as a means burying somebody who has fallen into particular disfavor,” said Bret Grote, an investigator for FedUP!, the Pittsburgh chapter of the Human Rights Coalition.

In a 2010 lawsuit, Carter argued there was “no behavioral or objective policy to afford plaintiff any possibility of future release from the [Restricted Release List].” He wrote that the list condemned him to indefinite solitary confinement without education or vocational programming, therapy, visits except under extreme restrictions, television, radio, and telephone access. His cell was lighted 24 hours a day and showers and exercise were rare.

Two days after an April 24, 2010 state court order that held PDOC can put prisoners on the Restricted Release List without due process, Carter decided that he wanted real food, not the “food loaf” he had been given for throwing food at staff. When he was denied, Carter made a stand.

“When the [guard] was picking up the [food] trays, Mr. Carter threw his own feces on the [guard]; the smell was really bad,” prisoner George Kasine wrote in a letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Kasine was in a cell close to Carter.

Carter then blocked up his cell window, which is a violation of rules. Several hours later, a team of guards in riot gear and masks came to extract Carter from the cell. Kasine said a lieutenant “yelled ‘inmate Carter, uncover your door and come to the door and cuff up.’ Mr. Carter did not respond.” Kasine and several other prisoners reported that the order was given to pump pepper spray into the cell and open the door.

“The cell door would not open,” wrote Kasine. In the hour and a half guards spent trying to open the door, they continued to flood the cell with pepper spray. “The entire [cell] range was choked with [pepper] spray,” wrote Kasine. “I had to remove my T-shirt and tie it around my face to breathe.”

The door, finally, was breached. “I immediately heard a loud commotion,” Kasine continued, “which sounded like fighting.” The lieutenant “could be heard clearly yelling, saying, ‘inmate Carter stop resisting…’ I heard Mr. Carter scream ‘my hands, get off my fucking hands; and finally a prolonged grunt followed by silence.”

Guards carried Carter out of the cell handcuffed and shackled. He was nude except for a blanket. “The entire range erupted in yelling and banging on doors.”

The lieutenant immediately ordered 911 called. Carter was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. “It was a cell extraction where the inmate had barricaded himself in the cell,” said Rackovan, who discounted the prisoner accounts. “They can’t see what’s going on, but they hear what’s going on, so they make up their own ideas of what’ going on.” A video of the extraction was made and used in the internal review and police investigation.

As far as PDOC and the State Police are concerned, the matter is over. “We’ve done a review of our procedures, what occurred, what we do, what we do well, what we could do better,” said Rackovan. “There were no glaring deficiencies.”

Carter’s family, meanwhile, is working to obtain justice for his death. They have mobilized activist groups, set up an online petition, filed a private criminal complaint with the local district attorney, and retained a civil attorney.

Prison staff “must’ve thought nobody cared and they can do what they want,” said Apryl Williams. “But a lot of people care, and they’re going to find that out.”

Among those who cared where Carter’s fellow prisoners, who saw him as a great guy. “When I first arrived at SCI Rockview’s RHU,” prisoner Robert Hankins wrote to the Post-Gazette, “it was Mr. Carter who called me to see if I needed anything – soap, toothpaste, dental floss, skin lotion, shampoo (to clean the filthy cell, and not my hair or body), wash rag, ink pen, writing paper, and postage and envelopes.

“That’s just the kind of person he was,” said Hankins.

Extreme confinement conditions can move even the kindest person to the brink when subjected to prolonged, deprived conditions. The contrast between what really occurred in confrontations between guards and prisoners are rarely fully uncovered. As Michelle Williams said, “You don’t know what happens when you get into those gates.”

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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