Part three in a series
The suspect in the killing of federal correctional officer Eric Williams had much more freedom at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan than he did when he was imprisoned in Arizona.
That state treats members of violent prison gangs, like Jessie Con-ui and his New Mexican Mafia cohorts, as major security threats and keeps them locked away, in isolation, for 23 hours a day, prison officials there said.
At Canaan, it appeared Con-ui was in the general population - free to leave his cell for meals and other activities and free to ambush Williams just before lockdown on Feb. 25.
"We had him listed as a member of the Mexican Mafia. We housed him in a lockdown setting. At that time, he was doing his time, awaiting his case," Sgt. D. Gomez, intelligence supervisor
visor for the Fourth Avenue Jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., said.
Con-ui, 36, spent five years in maximum-security custody at the Maricopa County facility before entering a plea agreement and being sentenced for killing a gang rival in Phoenix and aiding a prison drug ring, court and prison records show.
A Maricopa County judge sentenced Con-ui in June 2008 to life with the possibility of parole in 25 years, but ordered him to first report to federal prison to serve the remainder of an 11-year sentence for his role in a New Mexican Mafia drug-trafficking ring.
In federal prison, Con-ui's gang status was not enough to keep him in isolated, maximum-security custody as it was in Arizona, officials said.
"Just gang affiliation. No. We don't just isolate gang members," Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said. "We don't do that just based on gang affiliation. It's based on the specific security needs of the inmate."
The Fourth Avenue Jail is one of several supervised by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who garnered national attention for his hard-line stance on illegal immigration and for forcing inmates to wear pink underwear and housing them in an outdoor "tent city."
Members of the New Mexican Mafia, which sprung up in the Arizona prison system in the 1980s, have a reputation for violence and for continuing to operate their crime syndicate from behind prison walls. For those reasons, Gomez said, the prison system keeps them isolated from other gang members and inmates.
"It's one of the most dangerous prison gangs we have in Arizona," Gomez said. "They are considered a security threat because they are a prison gang. They're pretty much placed in a lockdown setting. They're locked down in a cell for 23 hours a day and they are let out for one hour."
Con-ui was scheduled to complete his federal sentence in September and would have been immediately returned back to Arizona to begin serving his life term for the 2002 murder.
The day after Williams' death, prison officials swiftly transferred Con-ui from Canaan to a high-security prison in Allenwood, Union County, Burke said. Con-ui has yet to be charged in Williams' death, but could remain there indefinitely as the investigation continues.
A review of Arizona state prison policies Thursday suggested Con-ui likely would have been returned to maximum-security custody if he was sent back to the Arizona state prison system to serve his life term for murder.
The Arizona Department of Corrections lists the New Mexican Mafia as one of nine Security Threat Groups whose members are as placed in isolated, maximum-security confinement.
Those in maximum custody are allowed out of their cells just a few hours a week for recreation and showering. They are escorted to and from their cells by multiple correction officers, prison officials said.
"There is a security concern with anyone who is validated as a gang member," Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections, said.
Williams died after an inmate ambushed as he made his rounds for nightly lockdown. The inmate hurled the 34-year-old Nanticoke native down a set of steps and pounced, beating him and repeatedly stabbing him with a crude, knife-like weapon known as a "shank." Williams was alone on a cell block of more than 100 inmates, union officials said.
Chief U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane identified Con-ui as the suspect this week in an order appointing a pair of death-penalty certified attorneys to represent him, signaling the possibility prosecutors will file a capital murder charge against him.
Con-ui entered the federal prison system Sept. 2, 2008. He spent time at three high-security federal prisons - in California, Louisiana and Florida - before being transferred to Canaan on Oct. 3, 2011, Burke said.
Burke would not discuss the reasons for Con-ui's multiple transfers within the federal prison system or if so many prison swaps is normal.
"We don't discuss the reasons we transfer particular inmates," Burke said. "It varies. There's a lot of different reasons."
Burke also declined to discuss whether Con-ui had any disciplinary infractions.
While gang membership alone does not call for a federal inmate to be held in isolation, the Bureau of Prisons warns incoming inmates, "Participation in any type of gang activity will not be tolerated."
In the Canaan prison's handbook, Bureau of Prison Director Charles E. Samuels Jr. tells inmates, "In an attempt to ensure the environment is safe for all, inmates who participate in behavior which disrupts the orderly running of the institution may be considered for institutions with greater controls, such as higher security facilities or special management units."
Several Canaan correctional officers interviewed after Williams' murder told The Citizens' Voice that the public does not realize that dangerous inmates with violent pasts walk free among guards, who are outnumbered by more than 100 to 1.
"Everybody thinks an inmate is locked down all day and all night and they don't get any freedom," one correctional officer said. "Inmates have a lot of rights in the federal system."
The only times inmates are locked in their cells is from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and once again for a midday head count, usually about 5 p.m. If an inmate has no disciplinary infractions, he is allowed to work his prison job, go to educational classes, see doctors, head to the chow hall or work out. Sometimes they can just lounge around and watch television or spend time with family during in-person visits where even kisses goodbye are allowed, officers said.
State prisons in Pennsylvania appeared to be following Arizona's lead by isolating known gang members. Last year, Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel directed the department to open a "security threat group management" unit at State Correctional Institution at Greene.
"We do work to identify and validate individuals who may be gang members. We do that through monitoring their behavior, their tattoos, seeing if they have any special gang documentation. We go through what we call a validation process with every inmate to determine if they are part of a security threat group or a gang," Susan McNaughton, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said.
The program launched in August 2012 with 62 inmates, and has roughly that many now, McNaughton said.
Inmates in the program spend a large amount of their day in cells, locked down, while they're going through in-cell programming. The unit has a variety of phases to move individuals out of gang-related behavior so they can be in general population.
"We've come a long way. We've put a lot of work into this because gangs are a problem," McNaughton said. "We can't risk the safety of our staff."