The Bismarck Tribune
PIERRE, S.D. — Some information likely will be kept confidential when the prison system’s review of an attempted escape that led to the killing of a correctional officer at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls is released, the warden said Friday.
Warden Doug Weber said the first review should be completed in a few days and he hoped to submit it to Gov. Dennis Daugaard and the state Corrections Department by early next week. State officials will decide what parts are made public, he said.
“We don’t necessarily want the inmates to know all of our security procedures,” Weber said.
Daugaard on Friday said the review will be part of a more thorough report to be completed within 30 days. That final report will be made public, but information involving safety or security at the prison or relating to prosecution of the two inmates will be kept confidential, he said.
Two inmates — Rodney Berget and Eric Robert, both 48 — are charged with first-degree murder for the killing of longtime correctional officer Ronald E. Johnson, 63. Authorities have said the two inmates attacked Johnson as he worked alone Tuesday in a part of the Sioux Falls prison known as Pheasantland Industries, where inmates work on upholstery, signs, custom furniture and other projects.
Court documents allege Berget and Robert attacked Johnson, wrapped his head in plastic shrink wrap and left him to die before using his uniform in an unsuccessful attempt to escape.
Johnson died on his birthday.
Berget was serving life sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping, and had made at least two other escape attempts. Robert was serving an 80-year sentence for a kidnapping conviction.
Robert put on Johnson’s pants, hat and jacket before approaching a prison gate while pushing a car loaded with two boxes. Berget was hidden in one of the boxes, according to a report by a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent. Guards at the gate became suspicious, and the two inmates were detained after a fight, according to the report.
Prison officials had declined to release more details until Friday, when Weber talked about Johnson’s job and how the inmates wound up in the area where the guard was attacked.
Weber said he could not say whether the review has revealed any flaws in policies or procedures or led to any changes in how things are done at the prison.
“I’m not going to talk about specifics today,” Weber said.
The warden said Berget and Robert did not work in prison industries, but instead worked gathering laundry from other inmates in their cell block and delivering it to the laundry in the prison industries building. They picked up the clean laundry later in the day.
Johnson did not usually work in the prison industries building because he was a utility officer who filled in wherever he was needed every day. He enjoyed moving around to do different jobs and working with different people, Weber said.
Nine other people, shop supervisors who are trained similarly to corrections officers, are assigned to the industrial building, Weber said.
The warden said Berget and Robert have records of escapes or attempted escapes, but so do about a third of the other inmates in the penitentiary. Most inmates also have histories of violence, and they are given jobs if possible, he said.
Turnover among uniformed staff at the prison has dropped from about 50 percent a decade ago to about 20 percent now, Weber said.
Paul Aylward, a labor union official from Huron who recently ended his term on a state prison advisory panel, said Friday he wonders whether Johnson should have been working alone with the two inmates accused of killing him.
But Weber said it’s common for a guard to wind up covering more than one inmate. The prison would have to hire a lot more staff to have one guard for every inmate outside a cell, he said.
“We’re always vastly outnumbered,” the warden said.
National prison experts also said it’s common for one guard to supervise a number of inmates.
Martin F. Horn, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, said corrections officers need the cooperation of inmates. He said inmates accept guards’ authority if prison staff is fair and consistent.
“Corrections officers do not manage inmates through brute force,” said Horn, who has led prison systems in Pennsylvania and New York City.
Dennis Bamman of San Diego, a former criminal investigator in the California prison system, said inmates are allowed to move around inside prisons, so there’s no way to prevent all attacks on guards.
“If an inmate wants to kill you, they’re going to kill you. There’s nothing you can do about it,” said Bamman, now a private investigator.
Bamman said Berget and Robert probably had planned their attempted escape in advance. They may have attacked Johnson because his uniform would fit one of them, he said.
Horn said he will not make any judgment about the prison situation in South Dakota until he learns more from the investigation, but information released so far does not indicate any need for an overhaul of the system.
“On the surface, it appears to be one of those tragic things that can and does happen in prison, thankfully infrequently,” Horn said.
Johnson was only the third officer to be killed by inmates in the 130-year history of the South Dakota penitentiary.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which keeps statistics on deaths and injuries of officers, reported Friday that five corrections officers were killed in the nation last year. Sixty-three corrections officers were killed nationwide in the 11 years from 2000 through 2010, the organization said.
Weber said Johnson was a friend he saw nearly every day at the prison.
“I feel horrible about this incident. It’s the worse week of my life so far. I hope to God I never have to deal with anything like this again in my career,” said Weber, who has been at the penitentiary for three decades.
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