A Tecumseh inmate warned Gov. Dave Heineman about security concerns he had at the prison six days before an incident there resulted in another inmate's death.
CORY MATTESON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:00 pm
TECUMSEH — A Tecumseh inmate warned Gov. Dave Heineman about security concerns he had at the prison six days before an incident there resulted in another inmate’s death.
David Ditter, who is serving a life sentence at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution, said during an interview Tuesday that he believes fights are happening more frequently at the prison and that a more experienced staff would better control them.
State Department of Correctional Services Director Robert Houston said in a phone interview that Reko Mitchell’s death added no weight to Ditter’s letter, to which he responded last month.
A death at the prison, he said, does reinforce an effort system-wide to operate as safely as possible.
“(Tecumseh has) got the longest-term, most serious inmates working around the least experienced corrections officers,” Houston said.
Tecumseh Warden Fred Britten said the prison has about 40 staff openings right now, but each shift is adequately staffed. Houston said efforts to recruit and retain employees will result in a fully staffed prison soon.
On Sept. 11, Ditter wrote a letter to Heineman and other state officials in which he described two fights that took place in the prison yard in a three-day span.
He said a Sept. 7 fight was particularly violent and lasted about 10 minutes. He said a Sept. 9 fight was broken up sooner.
“Custody staff obviously can’t stop prisoners from fighting, but more can be done to limit the frequency of these assaults,” he wrote.
Six days after he composed the letter, Mitchell’s neck was broken during an incident in the gymnasium bathroom. Mitchell died Oct. 3 after his family elected to take him off life support.
A suspect has not been named in Mitchell’s death. Johnson County Attorney Julie Smith-Hogancamp said Thursday she has not received autopsy results yet, and may wait until after a grand jury convenes before deciding whether to file charges. State law requires a grand jury be impaneled to investigate the death of any person in custody within 30 days of the death.
Ditter said he was in the library at the time of the Mitchell incident. He said he heard a prisoner was down over a staff member’s radio.
He didn’t talk specifically about Mitchell’s death, but he said it and other incidents before it show a security failure at Tecumseh.
Ditter, who frequently writes to state officials, has been in prison since 1979 for first-degree murder.
Houston responded to Ditter’s concerns on behalf of the governor in a Sept. 21 letter.
“Upon review of the reports and the investigation into the incident, it appears staff handled the situation appropriately,” he wrote about the Sept. 7 fight.
In the letter to Ditter, he did not address the Mitchell incident.
In an interview, Houston did not characterize Mitchell’s death as an inmate-on-inmate incident. He said the Nebraska State Patrol is investigating.
In the letter to Ditter, Houston said staffing levels are appropriate in the yard and on the watch tower. He described the Sept. 7 fight as an isolated incident.
Britten classified the three incidents that occurred in the span of 10 September days as isolated ones. He said they involved different inmates.
“There’s no trend here,” Britten said in an interview at the prison.
That’s a standard response, Ditter said. “That’s their explanation for all the fights in here, ‘It’s just an isolated incident.’
“Well, how many fights does it take before it’s not isolated anymore? As you see them add up, no, I’m not convinced they’re isolated.”
Britten said the incident that resulted in Mitchell’s death will be evaluated.
“That’s our job,” he said.
In regard to Ditter’s concerns about staffing, Britten said there are mandatory custody staff levels in place during each of the three daily shifts at Tecumseh. A minimum of 61 people work security during the first and second shifts; 27 work the third, which runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Until more people are hired, he said, staff will continue to work mandatory overtime.
Houston said that can create a cyclical problem. For various reasons, some custody staff can’t work the long hours, and they quit, creating more work hours to be filled with the remaining staff.
But he said Tecumseh, which has been open for six years, is developing a core custody staff that has grown over the years. The department is working to retain staff, he said, and to fill the vacancies.
Those efforts include advertising, panel discussions and a full-time recruiter at Tecumseh.
Houston said experienced custody staff members know how to talk with inmates about certain issues, and how to handle problems.
“They have experience they can carry into decisions,” Houston said.
Said Ditter: “I’ve been incarcerated for 28-plus years. Obviously, it’s more than just prison at this point. It’s probably where I’ll end up dying of old age eventually. And I think everybody would just like to have a safer environment.”
Reach Cory Matteson at (402) 473-2655 or cmatteson@journalstar.com.