Post by Security on Jul 2, 2011 16:33:06 GMT -5
Kokomo Tribune; Kokomo, Indiana
July 1, 2011
Strangulation was not Brown’s first try at taking a cell mate’s life
BY SCOTT SMITH
Tribune staff writer
Kokomo — Convicted murderer Joseph W. Brown’s record of behavior in prison befits someone serving life without parole.
As he has moved from one maximum-security facility to another, Brown has committed multiple acts of assault, trafficking, threatening behavior and destruction of property, punctuated by refusals to follow orders and possession of contraband, Indiana Department of Correction officials confirmed Thursday.
It all culminated June 19, when Indiana State Police said Brown strangled his cell mate, former Howard County resident Charles Miller, at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill.
According to detectives, Brown may simply have wanted yet another change of scenery — this time possibly Indiana’s death row.
Miller, an offender considered a minimal security risk, paid the ultimate price for his offenses when Indiana prison officials decided to make him Brown’s cell mate.
Now, IDOC officials are defending their decision to put Brown into the general population at Miami Correctional, seemingly in spite of his long history of violence.
Evolving problem
The decision to place Brown with Miller highlights larger problems within the state’s burgeoning prison population, which increased by 40 percent over the past decade, and is still rising, even as the state’s crime rate continues to drop.
State prison officials admit they’re placing more and more maximum-security offenders at Miami Correctional, because they’ve simply run out of space at the state’s other maximum-security facilities.
“It’s not abnormal to have a medium [security level inmate] housed with a maximum,” Miami Correctional superintendent Mark Sevier said. “We don’t really have a choice. You’ve got numbers, and they’re housed where they can be housed.”
In October 2009, IDOC officials decided to change Miami Correctional’s designation, effectively making the prison eligible to house greater numbers of maximum-security inmates.
Since then, the maximum-security population at Miami Correctional has increased fivefold.
Brown was one of those maximum-security prisoners, sent to Miami Correctional from the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.
Indiana Department of Correction officials didn’t have an immediate answer Thursday as to why Brown, a murderer serving life without parole, was sent to Miami Correctional.
But the decision certainly cost Charles Miller his life.
At Michigan City, where the state’s death row inmates are housed, the “worst of the worst” can be housed in single-man cells.
At Miami Correctional, apart from 100 beds in a segregation unit, everyone is in either a two-man cell or a dormitory.
The fact Brown was a Level 4 offender — the highest rung on the state’s 1 to 4 scale — didn’t require Miami Correctional officials to segregate him from lower-level offenders.
Instead, Brown was put into a cell with Miller, a 62-year-old Level 2 offender due to be released, with good behavior, in 2018.
According to testimony from other inmates, Brown didn’t like Miami Correctional, and didn’t like his cell mate, Miller.
So on June 19, police said Brown killed an unresisting Miller by binding Miller’s hands and feet, gagging Miller, and then strangling Miller with the drawstring from Miller’s laundry bag.
Former Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco, who helped put Brown permanently behind bars, had an immediate reaction when told of Miller’s killing.
“You’d think they would put [Brown] into isolation.”
Since the killing, Brown has been housed at the Westville Control Unit.
Police said that after killing Miller, Brown made himself a cup of coffee, drank it, and calmly packed his belongings “because he knew he was going to lock-up.”
IDOC spokesman Doug Garrison said prison officials use a checklist to determine whether two inmates will be compatible as cell mates.
Some of the questions posed on the checklist aren’t made public for security reasons, but prison officials do look at items such as “racial overtones” and gang affiliation, Sevier said.
“On paper, sometimes it looks good, but you never know what might happen. You can’t read someone’s mind,” he added.
The officials at Miami Correctional don’t have any choice in what inmates are sent their way. Those decisions are made in Indianapolis, Garrison confirmed.
But IDOC officials have been keeping tabs on Brown’s behavior for years.
While at Wabash Valley in 2002 to 2005, Brown was charged with 19 major violations of prison policy, including four for battery.
State police Detective Mike Tarrh and Miami County Prosecutor Bruce Embrey said this week they were aware of one incident at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at Carlisle in which Brown used an industrial can opener to attack another inmate in 2002.
Since 2005, the number of officially recorded incidents tailed off, and at Miami Correctional, guards wrote up Brown on two minor violations — refusing an assignment and refusing to obey an order — in March.
Sentenced to life without parole for murder in September 2001, Brown was originally placed at Wabash Valley. In March 2006, he was moved to the Westville Control Unit, where he was housed until being transferred to the Indiana State Prison in November 2009.
Brown moved to Miami Correctional in June 2010, after spending seven months at the Indiana State Prison. Miller had shared a cell with Brown for two weeks before the killing.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
July 1, 2011
Strangulation was not Brown’s first try at taking a cell mate’s life
BY SCOTT SMITH
Tribune staff writer
Kokomo — Convicted murderer Joseph W. Brown’s record of behavior in prison befits someone serving life without parole.
As he has moved from one maximum-security facility to another, Brown has committed multiple acts of assault, trafficking, threatening behavior and destruction of property, punctuated by refusals to follow orders and possession of contraband, Indiana Department of Correction officials confirmed Thursday.
It all culminated June 19, when Indiana State Police said Brown strangled his cell mate, former Howard County resident Charles Miller, at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill.
According to detectives, Brown may simply have wanted yet another change of scenery — this time possibly Indiana’s death row.
Miller, an offender considered a minimal security risk, paid the ultimate price for his offenses when Indiana prison officials decided to make him Brown’s cell mate.
Now, IDOC officials are defending their decision to put Brown into the general population at Miami Correctional, seemingly in spite of his long history of violence.
Evolving problem
The decision to place Brown with Miller highlights larger problems within the state’s burgeoning prison population, which increased by 40 percent over the past decade, and is still rising, even as the state’s crime rate continues to drop.
State prison officials admit they’re placing more and more maximum-security offenders at Miami Correctional, because they’ve simply run out of space at the state’s other maximum-security facilities.
“It’s not abnormal to have a medium [security level inmate] housed with a maximum,” Miami Correctional superintendent Mark Sevier said. “We don’t really have a choice. You’ve got numbers, and they’re housed where they can be housed.”
In October 2009, IDOC officials decided to change Miami Correctional’s designation, effectively making the prison eligible to house greater numbers of maximum-security inmates.
Since then, the maximum-security population at Miami Correctional has increased fivefold.
Brown was one of those maximum-security prisoners, sent to Miami Correctional from the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.
Indiana Department of Correction officials didn’t have an immediate answer Thursday as to why Brown, a murderer serving life without parole, was sent to Miami Correctional.
But the decision certainly cost Charles Miller his life.
At Michigan City, where the state’s death row inmates are housed, the “worst of the worst” can be housed in single-man cells.
At Miami Correctional, apart from 100 beds in a segregation unit, everyone is in either a two-man cell or a dormitory.
The fact Brown was a Level 4 offender — the highest rung on the state’s 1 to 4 scale — didn’t require Miami Correctional officials to segregate him from lower-level offenders.
Instead, Brown was put into a cell with Miller, a 62-year-old Level 2 offender due to be released, with good behavior, in 2018.
According to testimony from other inmates, Brown didn’t like Miami Correctional, and didn’t like his cell mate, Miller.
So on June 19, police said Brown killed an unresisting Miller by binding Miller’s hands and feet, gagging Miller, and then strangling Miller with the drawstring from Miller’s laundry bag.
Former Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco, who helped put Brown permanently behind bars, had an immediate reaction when told of Miller’s killing.
“You’d think they would put [Brown] into isolation.”
Since the killing, Brown has been housed at the Westville Control Unit.
Police said that after killing Miller, Brown made himself a cup of coffee, drank it, and calmly packed his belongings “because he knew he was going to lock-up.”
IDOC spokesman Doug Garrison said prison officials use a checklist to determine whether two inmates will be compatible as cell mates.
Some of the questions posed on the checklist aren’t made public for security reasons, but prison officials do look at items such as “racial overtones” and gang affiliation, Sevier said.
“On paper, sometimes it looks good, but you never know what might happen. You can’t read someone’s mind,” he added.
The officials at Miami Correctional don’t have any choice in what inmates are sent their way. Those decisions are made in Indianapolis, Garrison confirmed.
But IDOC officials have been keeping tabs on Brown’s behavior for years.
While at Wabash Valley in 2002 to 2005, Brown was charged with 19 major violations of prison policy, including four for battery.
State police Detective Mike Tarrh and Miami County Prosecutor Bruce Embrey said this week they were aware of one incident at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at Carlisle in which Brown used an industrial can opener to attack another inmate in 2002.
Since 2005, the number of officially recorded incidents tailed off, and at Miami Correctional, guards wrote up Brown on two minor violations — refusing an assignment and refusing to obey an order — in March.
Sentenced to life without parole for murder in September 2001, Brown was originally placed at Wabash Valley. In March 2006, he was moved to the Westville Control Unit, where he was housed until being transferred to the Indiana State Prison in November 2009.
Brown moved to Miami Correctional in June 2010, after spending seven months at the Indiana State Prison. Miller had shared a cell with Brown for two weeks before the killing.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com