Inmate John McMillan Murdered by Prison Guards
In January of this year, John McMillan died of what the medical examiner declared to be a heart attack, but many eye-witness inmates disagree with this ruling. The New York Times interviewed those who claimed to witness a struggle between McMillan and the guards, who, they say, beat McMillan to death.
McMillan, in the past, had altercations with guards due to violent behavior, as he suffered from mental illness. However, he had been behaving since those altercations due to his nearing date for a parole hearing. Inmates say that McMillan was not following orders of guards, but also not acting violently when one of the prison employees punched him in the face, leading to other guards joining the scuffle and ultimately beating McMillan to death. One inmate reported having seen a guard attempt to strangle McMillan into submission.
This incident is not unique when it comes to Great Meadow Correctional Facility. Violence within the facility between inmates and guards alike seems to be widespread, so much so that Governor Andrew Cuomo toured the prison while it was on lockdown following a particularly bad fight between inmates. At this time, one guard was suspended due to accusations of violence toward inmates. The prison is said to have become and example of why nationwide prison reform is necessary, as supported by the Governor.
Guards accused of beating McMillan have denied the accusations by inmates, claiming that McMillan attempted to grab one of them, thus making force a necessary evil in order to protect themselves. The prison declined to release body camera footage from the time of the incident, 5:25pm on January 22nd. Medical assistance and an ambulance did not arrive at the scene until over an hour later at 6:40pm, and McMillan arrived at the hospital already deceased 34 minutes later.
Unrelated to the incident, several other inmates at Great Meadow have filed lawsuits against the guards for unwarranted violence and unusual cruelty toward inmates. Additionally, some have reported instances of guards punishing those who testify against them.
Questions:
1. What can the government do in order to ensure the safety of inmates at prisons like the one described above?
2. Should there be a requirement for extensive medical staff to be on-site for large prisons in the event that inmates need immediate medical attention?
3. How can corruption of prison guards be stopped? Is there a way in which behavior can be more closely monitored?
There is already prevalent discussion around prison reform in a variety of areas, but violence towards inmates by corrupt guards usually comes as a secondary concern to overcrowding, reform programs, and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders. However, this is evidently an issue that needs to be addressed as it is a commonly known fact that there is frequent guard to inmate abuse. I believe there should be more supervision of guards in order to prevent abusive power dynamics and the government should enforce this through federal laws or through mandates. Many states do seek funds for prison from the government, and the government could give states categorical grants for prisons and require them to put more effort towards preventing corruption. I do not believe extensive medical aid staff will be as necessary if the guards are more closely monitored, but adequate staff should be available in large prisons because violence is inevitable, whether it be between inmates or from inmates to guards, but decreasing their frequency is very doable and should be done.
ReplyDeleteTo ensure the safety of inmates in prisons, the government could create a committee that is devoted to making sure the prisons are safe, and the committee could be made up of people that go and visit the prisons every so often and report the conditions back to the government. I think that having a medical staff on-site for large prisons is a good idea because one of the purposes of sending criminals to prison in the criminal justice process is to help with rehabilitation, so giving them a medical staff on site would subconsciously let them know that the public cares about them and they want the criminals to stay safe. However, having an on site medical staff could also have the opposite effect of what we want because the criminals would know that there was a medical staff, so they could think that it’s okay to engage in violence because they can get the help they would need after more easily than before.
ReplyDeleteI think the government can better enforce laws designed to protect inmates rather than hurt them. There is a very toxic power dynamic that occurs in prisons, where guards walk a fine line between keeping the inmates calm and using their power as an excuse to physically abuse them. Prison guards may be inclined to cause severe harm if they know there will be no serious consequences, similar to the way police officers may abuse their duties because they often don't face any serious repercussions. Despite their violent crimes, inmates are human too and do not deserve to be brutally murdered like this man was. I definitely believe that better medical treatment is necessary, and that better enforcement of protection for inmates is necessary
ReplyDeleteI think better protection enforcement and overseeing of inmates should be prioritized to ensure the safety of the inmates. They deserve to be have their rights protected like any other human being, which includes their safety. In this sense, I think the government hasn't been doing much to address these problems in correctional facilities. They should introduce stronger regulation laws for the prison guards, checking to see that the guards are overseeing inmates rather than attacking them. In response to the second question, I think on-site medical care would be beneficial to the safety and protection of the inmates, as it would increase the chance an inmate would survive by getting immediate medical attention.
ReplyDeleteAs Nyela said, because there are no serious consequences for guards, or a lot of the time they do not get caught at all, guards are more likely to abuse the power dynamic. Therefore I think the government should put more funding into security and make more severe punishments for guards who are caught breaking the rules. I don't see the need for an extensive medical staff on site, however I do think it is necessary to have at least one doctor at the prison who can respond to emergencies. I think corruption of prison guards cannot be completely stopped, but I do think it can be reduced if the lawsuits and complaints that inmates file against guards are actually taken seriously. If there were so many complaints in just one prison, the guards at the prison should have been monitored a lot more closely.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, letting guards get away with abuse of power is unacceptable. American ideals state that inmates still have rights, and letting guards get away with such terrible things violates those fundamental rights. Government spending on prisons should include enough to monitor security.
DeleteThe corruption of the prison guards can be explained by the ever-growing prison-industrial complex. The massive rise of incarcerated Americans for no reason other than corporate greed has desensitized prison guards to their role. The current state of prisons treats inmates as less than human, and without any power. There needs to be stricter standards and monitoring of what happens in prison. But perhaps most important is to change the culture of prison and stop with the mass incarcerations.
ReplyDeleteThe government needs to invest more money in training the prison guards and teach them what the least violent way to deescalate the situation is in every situation so that they are well prepared for if something actually happens. Additionally, people in charge of hiring the guards need to be more selective with their picks so that people with a history of violence do not get put in a position of power. Prisons need some sort of medical official on site that knows what to do in extreme situations to prevent situations like this, but an entire team may be excessive. However, they should be near a medical center, so it does not take over fifteen minutes to get to the area of the victim, because over an hour with no medical attention is absolutely ridiculous. Prison guards need to be required to wear body cameras so that they are held accountable for their actions, and people can clearly see what they are doing and see what they are doing wrong.
ReplyDeleteA possible solution to ensure the safety of inmates could be to make violence and abuse by prison guards a much harsher offense than it is right now and make punishments for those actions more severe. Also, while it would be great to have more medical staff on site for large prisons in case immediate medical attention is needed, the ideal solution would be to reduce violence in the first place. Prison guards are getting away with their actions all too frequently today, in part because of corruption in the prison system and in part because of the perceived inequality of prisoners and ordinary Americans. To address this, the entire prison and justice systems may need to be reformed.
ReplyDeleteThe Stanford Prison experiment was a famous social experiment where ordinary college students were given roles in a prison-like setting and were told to play the part. As the days went on, the guards became increasingly abusive and it showed that when people are given a position of authority without any restraints they abuse that power. This can be related to systems of government. Dictators are clearly corrupt and abusive and monarchies are unjust, but our founding fathers learned from these different systems and created a new one that had checks and balances so that no one had too much power. Ironically, our prison systems don't really honor the democratic values our nation has, so perhaps as a way to reform the prison system, we could develop a checks and balances prison government structure that would ensure that these prisoners are treated like human beings and still have rights in these facilities.
ReplyDeletePrison is a very cut off place from the outside world usually, with not much news being heard so having corruption of the people in power at prisons is quite dangerous, and nothing can stop it except for an overhaul of the system itself. This may be similar to the old prison system, which was heavily overhauled before when the prisoners were being treated horribly. The system may need to be opened up to the public more and have more transparency overall.
ReplyDeleteI think installing cameras might be an easy thing to try because they can capture what really happened and it also lets the guards know they are being watched so they might not inflict as much abuse. Also, I’m not sure what kind of training prison guards go through, but maybe a personality screen test should be used to prevent people seem to or are prone to abusing their power from doing so. Finally, more access to medical facilities should be a definite change. Maybe not extensive medical staff, but enough staff to do most things and specialty medical staff on call so it doesn’t take 3 hours for someone to get to the prison. I’m not sure if prison guard corruption can be stopped. That’s kind of a social thing that would require a lot of fundamental things in our society to change and probably isn’t possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily’s point that funding for more extensive training of the guards should be raised. Hopefully with the training, the guards will not act in such a manner anymore. However, I am quite doubtful that the guards will be easily changed because the dynamics of guards and inmates are completely messed up in some cases and this can be quite hard to correct. I think that using a more selective screening process will contribute to better conditions, but I also believe that this would deteriorate over time. While this may be remedied by regular screenings, I do not think that the government would be willing to invest that much into this issue.
ReplyDeletePrison reform is a complex subject that is so multi-faceted, it's hard to begin to tackle even one of its sides. A huge topic of debate in this issue is where to draw the line between placing criminals in mental institutions or prisons. Mental institutions are specialized to house the mentally ill, and can hold criminals, but maximum security prisoners or those serving a life sentence should be extremely case-sensitive, as there are many factors into determining where they go. However, in the case of John McMillan, it seems as if he should have been kept in a mental institution that would be more equipped to handle violent outbursts or disobedience with restraints or medication, not complete violence. Furthermore, when there is a pattern of behavior for many guards at one facility over years, the government has an obligation to prevent unnecessary deaths and to uphold a fair justice and incarceration system. Senseless beatings that cause death is not a choice of sentence the jury has when indicting criminals. This is not morally just or fair in any way. These guards should also be, at the very least, questioned, if not charged for their unnecessary use of force, and there should be a larger investigation taking place so as to determine who is at fault. There is also a prisoner-guard relationship that is typical for most prisons, and can be extremely derogatory and even harmful to prisoners. The public was first exposed to it in the Stanford experiments, where normal citizens were placed in a social experiment where some were guards and some prisoners. The prisoners were ridiculed and even beaten, despite it being fake. This power imbalance is necessary for order in prisons, but there is a fine line between enforcement and abuse, and this should be addressed in further training and funding for guards so as to prevent order from turning into abuse.
ReplyDelete