The Associated Press
CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) -- An Allegany County grand jury has held that staff at the Western Correctional Institution were not criminally responsible for the death of a 51-year-old Nigerian inmate three months ago.
But although the panel declined Thursday to issue criminal indictments in the death of Ifeanyi A. Iko, it made several recommendations to the Maryland Division of Correction to help prevent future inmate deaths, according to the Allegany County state’s attorney’s office.
For example, the jurors called for additional training for division employees on the risks of various forms of restraint. Jurors also recommended the adoption of protocols to better determine the physical condition of inmates when they are being placed in or taken out of their cells; and they said the division needs to improve the video techniques it uses when taking inmates out of their cells.
Iko, a Nigerian immigrant, died on April 30 after a team of correction officers clad in riot gear used several methods to restrain him, including pepper spray and a “spit mask,” which prevents uncooperative prisoners from spitting or biting.
The medical examiner ruled Iko’s death a homicide by asphyxiation in late May. The case reportedly went to the grand jury Wednesday after investigation by the state’s attorney’s office and the Maryland State Police. Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, announced the grand jury’s decision on Thursday.
He said that Mary Ann Saar, the secretary of the department, and Frank Sizer Jr., commissioner of the Division of Correction, were out of state and unavailable for comment.
“Secretary Mary Ann Saar has expressed her support for the staff at WCI, and has communicated her belief that there was no criminal intent in this instance,” Vernarelli wrote in an e-mail late Thursday. “The staff at WCI is still shaken by the death of Mr. Iko and our hearts go out to his family.”
An attorney for Iko’s family said Thursday that the lack of indictments against prison staff was “not unexpected,” but he was surprised at how swiftly the grand jury completed its investigation.
It was not known if prison staff would face administrative sanctions for violations of correctional regulations in Iko’s death.
“Just because a grand jury didn’t hand down an indictment doesn’t mean that everything that was done was not criminal or not right,” Gary Adler said.
Iko was sent to prison in 1991 to serve a three-year sentence for drug distribution in Prince George’s County, according to court records. In 1992, he stabbed and bit a correctional officer while at the Eastern Correctional Institution and received an additional 20-year sentence, records show.
Since January, Iko had been held at WCI, a medium-security prison in Cresaptown. On the day he died, a prison psychologist wanted him moved to another housing unit for psychological observation, but Iko refused to cooperate, prison officials have said.
To subdue him, a lieutenant sprayed three cans of pepper spray in his cell. A team of riot-clad correctional officers then burst into his cell, restrained him, and transported him to another part of the prison. Officers placed a mesh “spit mask” on Iko to prevent him from spitting or biting, according to inmate witnesses and other sources.
He later was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at Sacred Heart Hospital half an hour later.
Vernarelli said Sizer has revised some policies at the institution, although not in response to Iko’s death.