NPR report thrusts Lewisburg Penitentiary into national conversation on prison reform

November 1, 2016 | Marcia Moore | The Daily Item

A joint National Public Radio and Marshall Project report on alleged abuse of inmates inside the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg is prompting members of an interfaith organization against torture to call on the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to investigate.

“We are gravely concerned about this,” said the Rev. Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. prisons policy and program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

The NPR/Marshall Project report, “Inside Lewisburg Prison: A choice between a violent cellmate or shackles” includes claims The Daily Item has written about for years regarding inmate allegations of mistreatment at the federal prison since it was converted in 2009 into a Special Management Unit (SMU).

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Inside Lewisburg Prison: A Choice Between A Violent Cellmate Or Shackles

October 26, 2016 | Josh Shapiro | National Public Radio: All Things Considered

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28 Days in Chains

October 26, 2016 | Christie Thompson and Josh Shapiro | The Marshall Project

In this federal prison, inmates have a choice: live with a violent cellmate or end up in shackles.

On Feb. 3, 2011, corrections officers at Lewisburg federal penitentiary in rural Pennsylvania arrived outside Sebastian Richardson’s cell door. With them was a man looking agitated and rocking back and forth. He stared down at Richardson, who at 4 feet, 11 inches was nicknamed “Bam Bam.”

The man, officers told Richardson, was his new cellmate. The two would spend nearly 24 hours a day celled together in a concrete room smaller than a parking space.

Richardson, 51, didn’t know his new cellmate’s name, only that he also went by a nickname: "The Prophet." He had a habit of screaming songs or shouting the spelling of words for hours, as though competing in his own private spelling bee. There were also rumors that he had assaulted more than 20 previous “cellies.”

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Inmate allowed to pursue suit over use of restraints because he refused to accept cellmate

July 15, 2016 | John Beauge | PennLive

Sebastian Richardson contends when he refused to accept a cellmate at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary out of safety fears that he was held in restraints for nearly a month in 2011.

He filed a federal lawsuit that year alleging officials at Lewisburg violate policy by using restraints to punish inmates who refuse a hostile cellmate.

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As city jail deaths rise, will reforms help?

November 3, 2015 | Dana DiFilippo | Philadelphia Daily News

Jamella Parks had been hooked on drugs for nearly three decades before she tried to sneak $68.52 worth of toiletries out of a Logan Rite Aid in January. It was far from her first arrest: Her record is riddled with crimes, mostly misdemeanors like prostitution and shoplifting, she committed to feed an addiction she couldn't shake.

This time, though, the arrest would be her death sentence.

Although she could have been freed on just $300 cash bail, the 43-year-old North Philly woman instead spent nearly six months behind bars before dying, in custody, of cancer.

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With Different Flavor, City Prison Crowding Suit Settles

June 13, 2011 | Amaris Elliott-Engel | The Legal Intelligencer

When Philadelphia’s inmates have sued the city over crowding in city jails, the litigation has resulted in caps on the number of inmates held by correctional authorities and decades of supervision by federal judges.

But what the litigation never seemed to accomplish - at least for very long - were significant, sustainable reductions in the prison population.

The latest litigation over conditions of confinement in the Philadelphia Prison System appears to be breaking with past history. The system is holding 7,955 inmates, down from a population bulge of 9,800 that criminal justice leaders worried would break 10,000. The system is designed for 6,800.

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