By Jon Gambrell
Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK — A prisoner nearly died after guards left him lying naked in his own feces for a weekend, and while investigating the incident corrections officials found that guards received lap dances while on the job, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
The Arkansas prison system fired Lt. John Glasscock, who supervised guards on duty at the maximum-security Tucker Unit prison. One sergeant was fired, another was demoted and three others received written warnings, according to a report stamped “Sustained (Allegation is True).” The report said Glasscock gave false information to investigators and did substandard work “resulting in injury and/or property damage.”
The disclosure of the inmate’s near death comes after two convicted murderers escaped a different state prison by wearing guard uniforms and officers at the Tucker Unit fatally shot a man who officials said fled from a contraband checkpoint.
Combined, the incidents raise new questions about a troubled state prison system described by a federal judge 40 years ago as a “dark and evil world.”
Prisons spokeswoman Dina Tyler called the inmate’s near death unprecedented. “I think what you’ve got here is a case of a couple of officers who were not doing their jobs up to their standards and we took appropriate action,” she said Monday.
The report, obtained by the AP through a state Freedom of Information Act request, said guards discovered the inmate Jan. 19. He had smeared waste over his body and played with it, but no one cleaned up the inmate or his cell the weekend of Jan. 16 through Jan. 19.
“In fact, food trays were put in there on the bars for him to eat,” James Gibson, an internal affairs investigator for the state prison system, wrote in the report.
The inmate, whose name was redacted, was on life support by Feb. 10 at a hospital in Little Rock after suffering through septicemia and septic shock, according to the report. The conditions send virulent microorganisms from an infection into the blood stream. The inmate, who had violated prison rules several times, including a few violent incidents, is now at the prison system’s Diagnostic Unit in Pine Bluff, Tyler said.
The incident also resulted in the Feb. 11 firing of Bobby Lunsford, a sergeant who said he told a supervisor about the inmate but the person wasn’t working when Lunsford was there, the report shows. A telephone number for Lunsford could not be found Monday, and Gibson wrote in his report that Lunsford did not return messages left for him on a cellular phone.
A sergeant told investigators by Feb. 20 that Glasscock was given a lap dance by a nurse within sight of inmates and spent “hours” with female officers in a prison office. The sergeant also apparently received a lap dance. The report also said a sergeant claimed inmates were brought in to cook for night shift officers.
Glasscock denied the allegations against him but acknowledged he “messed up” by not doing rounds at the facility, according to the report.
Records show Glasscock joined the prison system as a guard in November 1996, and never was demoted or had a previous disciplinary infraction, officials said. A telephone number listed in Glasscock’s name rang unanswered Monday. The maximum-security unit at Tucker, 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Little Rock, has 532 inmates with about 100 serving as workers and living in a barrack-style dormitory, Tyler said.
The Arkansas prison system, now nationally accredited, has a troubled past. It was declared unconstitutional four decades ago by U.S. District Judge J. Smith Henley. Back then, trusted armed inmates would police other inmates. State police reports showed brutal living conditions.
In 2007, prison guards were fired for using excessive force against inmates. In May, convicted murderers Calvin Adams and Jeffrey Grinder escaped wearing prison-made guard uniforms and were caught in New York with badges resembling staff identification. Last Saturday, a guard at Tucker fatally shot a man wanted for failing to report to his parole officer after officials said he crashed his vehicle into the assistant warden’s car close to officers.
Tyler said the department constantly trains its staff. She cautioned against making connections between “three totally unrelated incidents.”
Lawmakers have scheduled a meeting with prison director Larry Norris in the coming weeks to discuss the recent prison escape. Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor continued to support Norris’ work at the department.
“When things have gone wrong, action has been taken and that’s very important to us,” DeCample said. “If things were going wrong and no one seemed to be taking no action to fix it, that’s where we’d be greatly concerned.”
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On the Net:
Arkansas Department of Correction: http://www.adc.arkansas.gov/