Illinois prisons: Low-level inmate is killed by cellmate with violent past when Illinois prison...

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

Prison-reform advocates call for an investigation after Chicago Tribune finds what prison experts call a fatal mistake

Joshua Daczewitz was a first-time inmate at a minimum-security prison when he tested positive for cocaine.

So corrections officials transferred the pudgy, bespectacled Daczewitz to one of the state's toughest prisons as punishment and put him in a cell with Corey Fox, a lifer in for murder.

That turned out to be a fatal mistake.

With a history of violence even behind bars, Fox had been locked up alone for a year not long after pummeling and threatening to kill a cellmate and confessing to his desire to kill again. Yet after Fox was transferred to Menard Correctional Center in late 2003, several staffers at the maximum-security prison cleared him to share a cell with Daczewitz.

On Feb. 27, 2004, Fox says he passed a note to a corrections officer threatening to "erase" Daczewitz if he wasn't moved out. Daczewitz repeatedly kicked and beat on the cell door, begging to be removed, according to Fox.

By late morning, Fox knocked Daczewitz to the floor with a single punch, grabbed a makeshift rope hidden under his mattress and began choking him, according to the records. When the rope slipped off, he strangled Daczewitz, 22, with his hands.


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-menard-murder-04-may05,0,4801532.story

[crikkett]

1. More

In court papers, Daczewitz's aunt and adoptive mother, Sherree, said she remains devastated by his murder. She declined to talk to the Tribune because of her continuing grief.

"Joshua was a gentle person, and for him to have been so violently killed makes me feel overwhelmed with a deep feeling of sadness and loss," she wrote before the state settled her wrongful-death lawsuit for $150,000 last December.

Just three weeks after beginning a 7-year sentence for arson and robbery, Daczewitz failed a drug test at the minimum-security Vienna Correctional Center and was shipped to Menard on the same day.

Arson, robbery, cocaine, death at the hands of a cellmate, $150,000 compensation to your aunt. Very sad.

[aquart]

2. Yeah, they should have been allowed to do it for free.

That your point?

[crikkett]

5. Nope.

Snark much?

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Many DUers approve of this sort of thing

They think the law doesn't apply in prison, and are overjoyed when some class of convict is raped, tortured, or murdered. They express desire for more rape, torture, and murder whenver the details of a crime are publicized. You can check in LBN at any time of the year and find dozens of posts hoping for extra-judicial punishments to be doled out in "gen pop." The Punishment brigade and Prison Rape Fetishists love when hardened criminals take the social decision of appropriate punishment into their own hands.

[crikkett]

6. I'm not one of them.

I think 150K is not enough compensation for the negligent and terrifying death of a man in their care. I think that the entire string of bureaucrats who funneled this man to his death should (at least) lose their jobs and be barred from working in the industry.

[depakid]

13. Viewed in context, it's very easy to see why America became a nation of torturers

It's not a reputation that'll easily if ever be internationally lived down.

And perhaps it shouldn't.

[No Elephants]

17. Good point. If an abusive parent has tortured a child and gotten a light sentence, rejoicing

if a fellow inmate does what you think the "system" should have done is tempting. Ditto with a serial pedophile. But, that is a knee jerk, Lord of the Flies variety reaction. We should be more reflective. Few things are more important to our society than the rule of law.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. It's the same thinking that resulted in torture at the level of the State

The most pathetic DUers of all are the ones who advocate rape as punishment for particular offenders, then turn around and demand impeachment for the Bush torture policies. Such people don't oppose torture as an absolute; they oppose it as a matter of political posturing. It is a position utterly devoid of ethics.

Of course, many of these imbeciles will claim that they don't "advocate" prison rape, but hey, that's just the way it goes. This is the most fatuous and pitiful position of all - people who will laugh about or shrug their shoulders at some kind of sanctioned torture, but don't even have the courage or insight to defend their own despicable behavior and beliefs.

[No Elephants]

20. I don't agree that it is the same thinking. I'll give you two scenarios: First,

Bushco sits around, knowing torture is illegal, yet wanting and fully intending to break the law. It gets legal opinions, hires other governments to torture for it, covers up its own torture, lies about it on MTP and before Congress, etc. Meanwhile it holds people indefinitely without even charging them with a crime or allowing them access to counsel, etc. That is Bushco thinking.


Scenario Two: Abusive parent or especially brutal rapist--whatever. Convicted and no doubt in anyone's mind that he or she is guilty. DNA, whatever. Yet, it's a light sentence. Cellmate, with absolutely no input from any Du'er, kills the inmate. Du'er says, "I'm glad that rapist is dead, like his victim."

It's happened and it's over and the Du'er could not have prevented it, no matter what. And it's a cheap shot on a message board anyway--no consequences IRL Maybe it's even the sixth post of its kind, and a kind of peer pressure mentality has already set it. That's the DU thinking scenario.

IF, however, you had asked the Du'er in advance, "Should the cellmate kill the rapist? Yes or no? It's actually up to you. If you say "yes," the rapist will be dead within the hour. That human life, no matter how badly messed up, is going to be over in 60 minutes if you say so." I think you would not get so many "yesses." And, everyone knows the rule of law is intact because the cellmate will most certainly pay (rather than going off happily to Dallas to continue raising money for a library to honor him).

So, I am not sure it is the same kind of thinking. In fact, I am not even sure much thinking is behind Scenario 2. There doesn't have to be because it's not RL.

[xchrom]

4. well -- that'll teach him.

:eyes: it's horrifying that non violent offenders are exposed to this horseshit.

everyone working for both of those prisons should be fired.

[crikkett]

7. By the way, the guy was convicted of arson and robbery which are violent crimes.

But I know what you're saying.

[xchrom]

8. yeah -- i know -- i just figure it's the job of prison

officials to figure certain things out.

[No Elephants]

16. They did not have to do much figuring in this instance. The killer gave them a note saying he was

going to do it and the victim gave them notes almost daily, begging to be taken elsewhere.

[No Elephants]

15. Doesn't it depend upon the circumstancs? If I set fire to my home for insurance, knowing my home

is empty, that's more insurance fraud than anything else. (If I set fire to my ex's home when I know he's napping on the couch, I'd consider that a violent crime, but I would also probably be charged with attempted murder or murder, too, not only arson.)

If you rob a bank with a nothing more than a note to the teller that says "give me the money or else", that is not "violent crime " as most of us understand that word.

His step mom described him as "gentle." If he was a drug addict, he was probably doing stuff for money. That was obviously not the case with his cellmate, who obviously truly is a violent person.

[laylah]

9. I learned more than I ever wanted to

about Illinois Corrections and from experience, I am here to tell you they are corrupt with Walker's, and then Gov, Blago's blessing. This system is fraught with crime, nepotism, illegalities, bribery, etc.

One example is I had a personal assistant to Quinn call me, at my home, and THREATEN me if I did not stop my efforts on behalf of an inmate at the time. All is documented.

The Illinois DOC is corrupt beyond words!

[laylah]

10. And, furthermore,

*rightous indignation* the John Howard conglomerate does NOTHING for the inmates of Illinois. They will give lip service, etc, but nothing more. Again, all is documented and I know of what I speak!

[laylah]

11. Kickin' 'cuz the Illinois DOC is corrupt! nt

[sarcasmo]

12. The Prison Industrial Complex, the only growth industry. Test positive back to jail, no rehab

With a chance to wind up dead at the hands of someone who should be in a Mental facility. USA,USA,USA.

[EFerrari]

14. Last summer, I suggested Obama evaluate Cook County jails

before he criticized any other nation on the treatment of prisoners.

I still hope he will consider cleaning our house up first.

[No Elephants]

18. He could have evaluated them during his 8 years in the Illinois Senate.

[truebrit71]

21. No shit...

..

[surrealAmerican]

22. ... and how are they going to keep this from happening again?

Wouldn't it be great if they actually used an incident like this to learn from their mistakes and make substantive changes to protect inmates from harm?

[yurbud]

23. we pay prison gaurds more than teachers, and they turn their backs and let inmates run things