1/12/2010
By Kyle Cheney/State House News Service
Tue Jan 12, 2010, 05:17 PM EST
Boston, Mass. - Lawmakers and local officials took aim at state prison officials Tuesday, expressing bewilderment at the administration’s response to the November escape of an accused rapist and over exactly how the alleged offender got out in the first place.
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, chaired by Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton), Department of Correction officials and local prosecutors reconstructed the circumstances that led to the escape of Manson Brown, who had been housed at a minimum security facility in Bridgewater before he simply walked away. Further befuddling legislators, Brown, 51, had a history of prison escapes – two in the 1980s, yet was still housed the minimum security prison.
“For anyone to say that an inmate with two previous successful escapes on one’s record is correctly classified in a minimum security [prison] where they can literally just walk off and out of the grounds, just totally blows me away,” Pacheco said. “I certainly respect the job you have and the problems you deal with every day, but I think ... this is one of those things that fell through the cracks.”
DOC Commissioner Harold Clarke, who oversees 11,500 prisoners in state custody, offered no apology for his department’s response, instead touting the national standards officials use to classify prisoners in minimum, medium or maximum security prisons.
“We feel we currently have the proper classification instruments to appropriately place inmates within the correctional system,” Clarke told the committee, noting escapes from Massachusetts facilities had dropped to five last year from 152 in 1999. He added, “No changes in the classification process are necessary as a result of this event. Improved communication among criminal justice agencies, however, is necessary.”
But lawmakers pressed the commissioner over what local prosecutors said were several warnings from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office that Brown was about to face a new rape charge and that his accuser had expressed concern about his whereabouts.
Brown, who escaped from the Old Colony Minimum Correction Center on Nov. 27, 2009, was taken into custody last week in Georgia. He will have to answer to charges unveiled in a recent indictment which accuses him of a 1996 rape in Cambridge. Brown was apprehended by DeKalb County police officers at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3, after they received information that a man wanted in Massachusetts was at a gas station. Brown was charged with using a false name and taken into custody after the name he allegedly used was linked to an alias Brown may try to use and which was listed on his arrest warrant.
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Marian McGovern described Brown as a “dangerous fugitive” and said the department’s fugitive unit had worked “tirelessly” to find him since he escaped. At the time of his escape, he was serving a sentenced for home invasion and armed robbery.
Clarke said he hadn’t been aware, nor did he believe any documentation existed, to show his office was made aware of the pending rape charge before the indictment was issued, a contention the DA’s office disputed. He added that prosecutors often fail to notify prison officials when new charges are pending because they don’t want to disclose information from pending investigations.
Yet Brown learned of the new charge through a news report shortly before his escape, officials said.
Clarke defended the system, saying it had been endorsed by national expert James Austen, a pioneer in the science behind classification systems used around the country, including in Washington State, where Clarke previously helmed the prison system. In addition, the Department of Correction, since at least 2004, has been pressed to increase the number of inmates at minimum security facilities to help ensure successful reentry into society. Clarke pointed to a 2004 report commissioned by then-Gov. Mitt Romney and spearheaded by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger that determined Massachusetts prisoners had been “overclassified,” pushed too readily into maximum and medium security facilities rather than being prepared for release in minimum security facilities.
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“Approximately 75% of DOC inmates are released directly to the street from maximum or medium security confinement, while only 21% of the inmates are released from minimum security,” according to the report. “The low proportion of inmates at minimum security is a serious impediment to successful reentry and an indicator that this part of the Department’s mission has received inadequate attention, for whatever reason.”
Typically, Clarke said, inmates work their way from maximum security facilities to minimum security prisons over time, as they near reentry into society. He noted that prisoners at minimum security facilities often have long criminal records but have worked their way through the system. He said Brown was “appropriately classified” in a minimum security facility but emphasized that officials from DOC had met Dec. 22, 2009 with community members in Bridgewater and discussed “escape protocols” and potential operational changes to respond to the matter.
“DOC has agreed to notify town law enforcement if there is an inaccurate inmate count ... and if an escape has occurred,” he said. “The town will also be notified of an escape. This will inevitably lead to false alarms.”
Bridgewater police and fire officials blasted the handling of the escape by prison officials, who they said failed to notify them that Brown was at large for “some time,” leaving them unable to answer the calls of concerned residents who heard the jail’s siren wailing.
Bridgewater Police Chief George Gurley said any classification system that would label Brown, with his prior record of convictions and escapes, as a minimum security risk was “patently flawed.” He said the delayed notification of the police put Bridgewater residents at risk.
Rep. David Flynn (D-Bridgewater), who called for Tuesday’s hearing, took issue with the Patrick administration’s prisoner classification system in the wake of Brown’s escape.
“He’s a violent, bad human being and I can’t find any way that this man could’ve been placed in minimum security,” he said.
Flynn said the Department of Correction should immediately review its classification system, explore alternatives and, in the meantime, consider moving prisoners from minimum to medium security facilities until procedures are tightened up.
Other than Flynn – who is not a member of the committee – and Pacheco, only Sen. Michael Moore (D-Millbury) attended the hearing. Five of the committee’s seven members did not attend, including Sens. Susan Fargo (D-Lincoln), Steven Baddour (D-Methuen), Gale Candaras (D-Wilbraham), Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) and Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth).
The hearing was a mostly cordial affair, with officials praising one another for their work, but Pacheco set the tone early on by refusing to let Clarke respond to his open-ended criticisms of the handling of Brown’s escape.
“You’ll respond when I ask you a question, if you don’t mind,” Pacheco said, cutting Clarke off mid-sentence.
Correction officers excoriated the policies that led to Brown’s escape.
“We don’t know if there’s a body count from here to Atlanta,” said Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Corrections Officers Federated Union, which claims 4,800 members. “Hopefully there isn’t. No person that’s escaped should be in a minimum ... We’re making a very loud suggestion. Scrub your list and get rid of the people who walked away. It’s going to happen again.”
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