Prison guards want ban on heavy boots for inmates
Action follows death of Somerset officer
The president of the union representing the state’s 10,000 corrections officers is asking the Department of Corrections to rid the entire prison system of all heavy-soled boots after authorities say an inmate wearing Timberland boots beat and kicked a sergeant to death.
Sgt. Mark J. Baserman, 61, died Monday at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, 11 days after Paul Kendrick, 22, who is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, attacked him at the State Correctional Institution in Somerset County.
Kendrick was wearing heavysoled Timberland boots that are available to the state’s roughly 48,000 inmates through the department’s commissary system. Male prisoners can buy a pair for $92.65.
The assault on Sgt. Baserman and another corrections officer occurred Feb. 15 in a common area. In response, the corrections department on Thursday suspended the sale of boots in all state prison commissaries. But the union wants the state to go one step further.
Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, is asking for all heavy-soled boots to be
confiscated and destroyed.
“They have regulations that they can buy certain sneakers, certain boots, certain footwear through the commissary. They have since stopped allowing them to order Timberland boots, but that doesn’t do me a damn bit of good,” Mr. Bloom said. “I’m looking for a drop-dead date, mark them as contraband, destroy them, get them out of the institution. They don’t need to be there. It’s not like they’re going around doing heavy equipment work. They don’t need these boots inside an institution.”
Amy Worden, a corrections spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the agency is reviewing the request. The current policy allows inmates to have two pairs of boots at a time. Ms. Worden said she did not know if Kendrick had a work assignment that required boots, “but regardless, he could have the boots as all inmates could purchase them at the commissary along with other products.”
State Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, also questioned why prison inmates need to have work boots. He said in a news release that he would send letters to Gov. Tom Wolf and state Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel requesting a total ban on Timberland and similar-style boots in prisons.
“I’m calling for action now to confiscate and destroy these deadly boots,” Mr. Burns said in the release. “I’m also demanding answers on what footwear inmates are allowed to wear and when the clothing rules were last reviewed. These officers put their lives on the line for us every day. They deserve better.”
Kendrick, 22, of Northview Heights, has been charged by Pennsylvania State Police with various counts of assault in connection with the attacks on Sgt. Baserman and a corrections officer identified as W.
McDowell. charged Tuesday Kendrick with night, homicide had according not as been to of online court records. While Mr. Bloom said Kendrick used his Timberland boots to deliver a “vicious kick,” it is unclear what role, if any, the kick played in killing Sgt. Baserman. The Cambria County coroner, who will determine the cause and manner of Sgt. Baserman’s death, did not return messages Tuesday.
At some point on the day of the attack, Sgt. Baserman confiscated a towel that Kendrick was using to obscure his bunk, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Ms. Worden said that “officers inmates showed in Kendrick must their be cells.” able speaking to see
Surveillance video to p.m. Sgt. in Baserman the common around area of 7 cell block F-B near the officer’s desk. Kendrick struck the sergeant in the face, knocking him to the ground, and beat him, striking him in the head and face eight to 10 times, the affidavit said.
Officer McDowell tried to restrain Kendrick but was knocked out, according to the affidavit.
Kendrick turned back to Sgt. Baserman and kicked him in the head, “rendering him completely unresponsive,” the affidavit said.
Kendrick was apprehended without incident and transferred the day after the attack to SCI Huntingdon.
Sgt. Baserman became the first state prison guard to die from an inmate assault in nearly 40 years.
“I don’t see any need for an incarcerated inmate to be styling Timberland work boots,” Mr. Bloom said.
Mr. Bloom said that he did not believe there were any problems with staffing levels or ratios.
“I believe Sgt. Baserman was working his housing unit like he did every day. He was on one side, Officer McDowell was on the other side. This inmate came forward to complain — it’s all over a towel hanging — and he sucker punched him and the assault occurred.”
Mr. Bloom said he spoke with the corrections department after the assault.
“That’s why they halted the sale of them,” Mr. Bloom said. As for emptying the prisons entirely of heavysoled boots, “They told me theywere going to look at it.”
Mr. Bloom wants to maintain the use of Timberlands for his members, however. The home page of the union’s website features a banner ad at the top that offers up to a 26 percent discount on Timberlands.
“Timberland is good footwear and my officers spend eight hours a day walking the toughest beat in the state. I’m not condemning Timberlands. I’m condemning the process of inmates being able to purchase them.”
Kendrick was convicted in 2015 of first-degree murder in the death Aug. 1, 2014, of 21-year-old Maurice Freeman of Arlington, who was shot while he was playing basketball.
State police have charged Kendrick with two counts each of assault by a prisoner, aggravated assault and simple assault. Court records do not indicate the addition yet of a homicide charge.
Sgt. Baserman joined the state Department of Corrections in 2007. He began working at SCI Somerset in 2012 and was promoted to sergeant in 2016.
Mr. Bloom described Sgt. Baserman’s family as “ultra-private” and said they did not wish to share any information about him.
An inmate last killed a corrections officers at SCI Graterford, Montgomery County on March 20, 1979. In that assault, Benjamin Terry fatally beat Capt. Felix Mokychic with a baseball bat.
Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, is asking for all heavysoled boots to be confiscated and destroyed.