Maryland Assaults Were Preventable
On May 7, four COs at Maryland’s maximum security House of Correction Annex in Jessup were seriously wounded in a series of inmate assaults.
Tragically, prison administrators had ignored events the previous day mandating a lockdown of the facility — an action which would have prevented the assaults.
"These are not assaults — these are attempted murders," Annex CO Bernard Ralph, a member of AFSCME Local 1427 (Council 92) and of ACU’s Advisory Board, told reporters at an AFSCME news conference following the event.
Those attempted murders left the four officers — Richard Johnson, Don Johnson, Christopher Hill and Ian McLean — in the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Richard Johnson was attacked with a shank and stabbed multiple times in the face, back and shoulder; Don Johnson’s stab wounds — incurred when he came to the aid of his fellow worker — were thankfully less severe; in another building, Hill took 17 stab wounds to the back and face; while McLean suffered massive injuries to his head and arms after falling through a rigged floor grate while backing an inmate out of his cell.
Immediately after the assaults, ACU staff were dispatched to assist Maryland Council 92.
Though the previous day’s incident had resulted in the injury of 12 officers, management had argued that the fight was quelled rapidly enough that the incident did not require a lockdown. It was only after a second day of attacks that management consented. Once instituted, however, there were signs that the lockdown would be prematurely lifted.
AFSCME COs objected. Over 100 of them let the governor know how they felt on May 15, when they protested in front of his house.
That same day — with the threat of this protest looming — the state agreed to continue the lockdown until a thorough shakedown could be completed. Manage-ment also agreed to the union’s demand of joint participation in a task force to investigate the two incidents.
Longer-term objectives include addressing the overcrowding and understaffing at the facility; improving the officers’ safety equipment and training; and providing a clear and adequate policy regarding the use of lockdowns.
