By Joe LoTemplio
Press-Republican
PLATTSBURGH — While the future of Honor Blocks in New York state’s prison system remains unclear, a prisoner’s advocacy group says it would be a mistake to eliminate the program.
“Any security professional understands that to best maintain order, it helps to have incentive programs,” Karen Murtagh, director of Prisoner’s Legal Services of New York, told the Press-Republican.
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
The Honor Block system, with its accompanying privileges, fell under the spotlight in the wake of the escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora June 6. The two inmates, convicted murderers, were housed in the prison’s Honor Block.
Matt, 49, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life; Sweat was given life without parole for the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in Broome County in 2002.
The pair eluded law enforcement for more than three weeks before Matt was shot and killed in the Town of Malone in Franklin County on June 26, and Sweat was shot and captured two days later in Constable, also in Franklin County.
ADDITIONAL PRIVILEGES
According to the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website, “inmates whose behavior allows for honor housing placement receive additional benefits that can include, depending upon facility, access to late-night recreation, additional television viewing hours, more liberal hours to use collect-call-only phones, additional commissary buys, expanded on-unit cooking privileges, use of clothing washer and dryer machines, additional yard privileges and additional hours of shower operations.”
Honor housing is also separate from the general population where conduct is not always so honorable, the website says.
And, “in maximum-security prisons, honor housing may offer larger cells than those in general population.”
MORE REC TIME
Former Clinton Correctional inmate Erik Jensen, who was released in 2013, remembers seeing Sweat hanging out with Matt in the prison yard.
“On the weekends, you’re allowed out six to eight hours,” he recalled. “Half of the jail comes out at one time, then the other half, but he could stay out all the time, because he was on the Honor Block.
“Out in the yard, you have actual woodstoves, and wood you can chop up to use for cooking. It’s a big world out there, like ‘Animal House,’” Jensen said, referring to the iconic college party movie.
The Honor Block inmates were well known in the yard, and Sweat in particular, for his crime of killing a police officer, Jensen said.
‘COULD RAISE TENSIONS’
To be accepted onto Honor Block, an inmate must have a clean disciplinary record for at least one year, Murtagh said, which is not easy to obtain in a maximum-security prison.
She did not know for sure how many inmates had that privilege at Clinton, but retired Corrections Sgt. Jeff Dumas, who worked there for 22 years before hanging up his badge last November, said there were about 180 at that time.
The Clinton Honor Block has been closed down while investigations into the escape continue. There were reports in late June that Honor Blocks would be eliminated in all state prisons, but DOCCS would not comment on the future of the program.
“As has been previously announced, there are a number of ongoing probes into the escape at Clinton Correctional Facility, including criminal and Inspector General investigations. Until they have concluded, we will not be able to provide information on issues that may be under review in those investigations,” a statement from DOCCS spokeswoman Linda Foglia said.
Murtagh said her office had not received any letters from any inmates in state prisons complaining that Honor Blocks had been closed.
She hopes it stays that way.
“If you take away any incentive programs it can raise the level of tension and frustration for both the prisoners and the officers,” Murtagh said.
“You are talking about human beings placed in a secure environment, and when they have most of their liberties curtailed, it is a natural human reaction to rebel against that, especially if you have been following the rules.”
‘DON’T BLAME HONOR BLOCK’
Murtagh said she believes the fact that Matt and Sweat were housed in the Honor Block at Clinton had little or nothing to do with the escape.
“There is always a knee-jerk reaction when something aberrational like this happens, but that escape could have happened on any of the cell blocks,” she said.
Murtagh noted that it appears that civilian employee Joyce Mitchell, a supervisor in the prison Tailor Shop where Matt and Sweat worked, and correction officer Gene Palmer allegedly played roles in Matt and Sweat’s escape.
Both Mitchell and Palmer have been arrested, though Palmer’s charges do not reflect direct involvement in the breakout.
“A civilian employee and a correction officer were not following protocol, it appears, and there were a number of other factors,” Murtagh said.
“I don’t see how Honor Block itself is at fault.”
‘WOULD FIGHT BAN’
There has also been widespread public criticism for allowing convicted killers such as Matt and Sweat to be allowed on Honor Block.
Murtagh said that murderers often have the lowest recidivism rate among inmates, and many do follow the rules in prison.
“I think it would be a big mistake to have an across-the-board ban on murderers,” she said.
If the Honor Block system is eliminated statewide, Murtagh said, her office will definitely look into fighting it legally.
INMATE COMPLAINTS
In the meantime, they are investigating complaints from some inmates that have been transferred from Clinton since the escape.
She said they claim they have been physically abused during interrogations, including one who said that he was punched in the face and had his head slammed against a steel pole.
There have also been reports, she said, that inmates have been pulled from their cells in the middle of the night and transferred to another facility with only the clothes on their backs.
“It’s been two weeks in some cases, and they still have not received their personal items,” she said.
DOCCS would not comment on the allegations, and the New York State Correction Officers Police and Benevolent Association, the correction officers union, scoffed at the notion that officers were beating up inmates while the prison is in the midst of a high-profile investigation.
“Their assertions don’t even justify a comment,” NYSCOPBA spokesman James Miller said.
CRITICAL OF SOLITARY
Sweat has been transferred to Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus in the Finger Lakes region.
He is housed in a cell where he is kept for 23 hours a day, with one hour of outside time in a small area off the back of it.
Murtagh said he is likely facing years, if not decades, in solitary confinement.
Such a situation can make things worse, she said.
“The most suicides occur in solitary confinement, and prisoners can become seriously mentally ill, which makes them even more dangerous,” she said.