Texas Prisoner in Administrative Segregation Transition Program Murders Cellmate
On January 17, 2018, a Texas state prisoner who was participating in the Administrative Segregation Transition Program (ASTP) at the Ramsey Unit murdered his cellmate. It was the first prisoner-on-prisoner homicide in Texas this year.
Alfred Brosig, 48, who was serving a capital life sentence for a 2002 murder, told a guard he had strangled his cellmate with an electrical cord. Prison staff found Kenneth Johnson, 57, dead in the cell with a radio cord wrapped around his neck, according to ASTP prisoner Jason Renard.
As Brosig was being escorted out of the cellblock, he blew “farewell kisses to an imaginary audience,” according to another prisoner. Brosig was transferred to the Jester IV Unit, a facility for prisoners with psychiatric issues.
Johnson was five years into an 18-year sentence for engaging in organized criminal activity when he was killed.
The ASTP takes prisoners who have been in administrative segregation for long periods of time and provides a 16-week program that results in their reclassification to general population at the medium custody (G4) level. The program is not voluntary and a significant number of prisoners enrolled in the program reportedly want to return to administrative segregation.
Serious disciplinary violations can result in an ASTP prisoner being ejected from the program and returned to segregation. Therefore, some prisoners seek disciplinary action – though it is unknown whether Brosig was motivated by a desire to return to ad seg.
If declared mentally competent, Brosig may face the death penalty for killing Johnson, as it is a capital felony in Texas when a prisoner serving a life sentence commits murder.
Sources: Houston Chronicle, www.kens5.com, PLN interviews
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