“Like he was a trampoline, they were jumping on him”, said Edwin Pearson, an inmate who watched from a nearby bathroom.
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In a statement, the Correctional Association of New York responded to a New York Times article published Tuesday about the April death of 30-year-old Samuel Harrell, saying the case was “a reminder that the entire prison system is out of control and irreparably broken”.
The report corroborates a number of inmate claims that Harrell was beaten severely on April 21 during an encounter with prison guards.
According to written accounts from inmates, they heard officers shouting racial slurs at Harrell, who was black.
In another affidavit, an inmate reportedly wrote that “his eyes were open, but they weren’t looking at anything”.
Following the incident, several inmate witnesses say they have been punished with solitary confinement or threats of violence for speaking with Harrell’s family, attorneys and others, the Times reported. Rather, the records showed, they told the ambulance crew that Mr. Harrell probably had an overdose of K2, a synthetic marijuana. Harrell, who had bipolar disorder, wasn’t due to leave until at least 2020, and a confrontation with corrections officers ensued. Authorities have not confirmed the prison officer identities.
Even so, inmates said, the problems have persisted.
The autopsy report obtained by the Times concluded that Harrell, 30, died of cardiac arrhythmia “following physical altercation with corrections officers”.
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According to The New York Times, Harrell engaged in a fight with 20 guards who kicked and punched him before throwing him down a staircase. It says the Justice Department is already investigating Attica prison in western New York following a severe beating there, and Clinton Correctional in northern New York, where several prisoners reported beatings after two inmates escaped. The association, which found similar problems in 2005, briefed officials with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in fall 2013, including the acting commissioner, Anthony Annucci, as well as Fishkill’s superintendent, William J. Connolly, who resigned this month. One inmate said that he lost front teeth and was hospitalized after being beaten up by the officers.
