| 03/07/2008 |
| State police investigating two separate inmate attacks on guards at Somers prison: Authorities seek the arrest of death row inmate in one of the incidents |
| By:Shawn R. Beals , Journal Inquirer |
|
State police have been investigating
two recent attacks on correctional officers - one by a death row
inmate - at the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers,
Correction Department Spokesman Brian Garnett said this
week. Both correctional officers suffered injuries in the
separate attacks last month at Northern, the state's
maximum-security prison, that required medical attention, with one
of the officers being sent to the hospital, according to
Garnett.
The latest attack on a correctional officer at Northern occurred on Feb. 28 when inmate Antwan Anthony, 25, assaulted the officer, Garnett said. Less than two months ago, a judge added an additional 18 months onto Anthony's prison term for a previous attack on a correctional officer at a Suffield prison. Anthony's attack on the officer at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution last year broke the officer's eye socket, knocked out a tooth, and caused partial hearing loss. According to Garnett, Anthony was at it again just before 10 a.m. on Feb. 28 when he walked up to an officer engaged in on-the-job training at Northern, striking him several times in the face and upper torso without provocation. Another officer managed to restrain Anthony and the injured officer was taken to the hospital, according to Garnett and an official from the correctional officers' union. Anthony was originally incarcerated in April 2003 on assault and risk of injury charges. Before this most recent attack on a correctional officer Anthony had received 85 disciplinary reports and had been charged three times with assaulting a correctional officer since he's been in prison, Correction Department officials said. Anthony told a staff member who was doing a psychiatric evaluation that he was going to attack staff members, said Dave Huffman, chief steward at Northern for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Local 391, the union representing correctional officers. The staff member thought the threat was directed only at him, however, and didn't tell correctional officers about it until after Anthony had already attacked the officer, Huffman said. On Feb. 14 another correctional officer at Northern was attacked without provocation by Ashby, who is on death row for the rape and murder of a Hartford woman. The attack happened when Ashby was let out of his cell to go to the shower, Garnett said. Ashby exited the cell and went directly to a correctional officer who, a short time before, had told him to stop banging on his cell door, Garnett said. Ashby struck the officer several times in the face, he said. Huffman said the officer had been on duty supervising Steven Hayes, 44, who is facing capital felony and other charges in the murders of three members of the Petit family in Cheshire last summer. Hayes has one-on-one supervision 24 hours a day, Huffman said. The injured correctional officer also received medical attention, Garnett said. Garnett said death row inmates are not required to be in full restraints while not in their cells. Ashby will receive a hearing because of the attack to decide whether he will be placed in full restraints, he said. "We do not tolerate our staff being assaulted," Garnett said. After the attack for which Anthony received the additional 18 months on his sentence, he was placed in full restraints in administrative segregation, Garnett said. Anthony completed a three-step program to get himself taken out of full restraints, and had the privilege of leaving his cell without the restraints after he completed the program. Garnett said Anthony has been placed back in administrative segregation and now is fully restrained when he leaves his cell. |
