By Chet Brokaw
Deseret Morning News
PIERRE, S.D. — The widow of a slain prison guard urged South Dakota lawmakers Monday to take steps to make sure such a tragedy never happens again. “You have to make the guards safe,” a tearful Lynette Johnson of Sioux Falls told a legislative committee. “This is all on your heads to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Her husband, Ronald Johnson, 63, was killed April 12 at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls in what authorities have described as a failed escape attempt by two inmates. Rodney Berget and Eric Robert have been charged with first-degree murder, and prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty in the case.
Lynette Johnson spoke to the Legislature’s Executive Board after state prison officials said staff morale is high and the prison has completed nearly all the security improvements identified in a review after the killing. She said the safety of prison staff is threatened because the penitentiary is understaffed, the result of inadequate funding.
Lynette Johnson said state prison officials make it sound like everything is wonderful at the penitentiary. “Do you believe them?” she asked the committee. “Yes I do,” Rep. Charles Turbiville, R-Deadwood, the committee’s chairman said.
“Obviously, they are working to do their very best.” Authorities have said Berget and Robert attacked Johnson as he worked alone on his birthday in a part of the prison where inmates work on upholstery, signs, custom furniture and other projects.
They said Robert put on Johnson’s brown pants, hat and lightweight jacket before approaching the prison’s west gate with his head down, pushing a cart with two boxes wrapped in packing tape. Berget was hidden inside one of the boxes.
Investigators said the escape attempt was stopped at the gate when a guard became suspicious because Robert did not swipe an electronic ID card. Berget was serving life sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping. Robert was serving an 80-year sentence for kidnapping.
About a month after the slaying, prison officials announced they had added officers to three areas of the prison, were installing additional security cameras and would further restrict inmate movement.
They also strengthened perimeter fencing, improved lighting and required staff to carry body alarm “panic buttons.” State Corrections Secretary Dennis Kaemingk and Prison Warden Doug Weber told the legislative panel, which handles administrative issues for the Legislature, that all the security improvements have been completed except for the installation of some cameras.
They said camera installation takes time because of the wiring involved, but will be completed by the middle of August. Weber said turnover at the prison is about 20 percent a year, higher than the national average but lower than in some states.
The warden said he and the rest of the staff were shaken by Johnson’s murder because none of them had experienced anything as traumatic during their careers. He said morale remained high among prison staff and only one resigned because of safety fears. “Staff rallied around one another and the prison,” Weber said.
Rep. Larry Tiedemann, R-Brookings, said when he visited the penitentiary for a religious event, many inmates told him Johnson was a good man and they were embarrassed that he had been killed. Russ Freeburg of Garvin, Minn., father of another guard involved in the incident, said South Dakota prison guards are paid below the national average, which he believes makes it difficult to retain a full staff.
A guard should never be alone without backup in the prison, he said. Rep. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, said he agrees all law enforcement officers should be paid more, but he said higher pay would not have prevented Johnson’s murder. Abdallah noted that all state employees have gone two years without a pay raise because of budget problems.
“The state can only do so much with the money we have,” Abdallah said. Turbiville said lawmakers want to know what they can do to help improve prison security, and pay levels will likely be discussed in next year’s legislative session.
Copyright 2011 The Deseret News Publishing Co.