A mentally ill inmate injured five prison guards during a vicious attack at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility earlier today, officials said.
The guards were in the process of locking inmates in their cells about 10:30 a.m. when they found Edward Braswell sitting in the wrong cell, said prison spokesman Bob Eskind.
“They tried to move him, but he refused,” he said.
An instant later, chaos filled the cell as Braswell launched into an attack.
He rained fists down on a female sergeant, three male corrections officers and one female officer, all of whom were unable to stop the onslaught, Eskind said.
The guards tried using pepper spray on Braswell, to no avail.
“Pepper spray doesn’t help with mental-health inmates. Nothing can stop them,” said Lorenzo North, the president of the prison guards’ union, Local 159.
Other guards rushed to the scene and eventually subdued Braswell, Eskind said.
When the dust settled, the five guards were all nursing injuries, some of them serious.
One male officer suffered a broken ankle and broken finger, and was being monitored overnight at Aria Health-Torresdale, Eskind said.
The female sergeant suffered head trauma, after Braswell slugged her in the face five times, grabbed her by the hair and slammed hear head into a cinder-block wall, North said.
Two male guards suffered hand and back injuries, while a female guard had some facial injuries, North said.
The incident was reported to Philadelphia police, who could file assault charges against Braswell.
Eskind said the inmate has a history of committing assaults at CFCF.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
Man, that was a tough spot. I hope the guards all recover. If they had beaten the inmate to death, they would have been jammed up something fierce. So, instead, they all get hurt. I honestly don't know how they can stand working in that environment.- Comment removed.
- LOL at Malcolm!— igglegreen
- CFCF and the whole of the Philly Prison system is just too crowded and the officers too few for the demand. We have to put these guys quickly into the state prison system by doing simple reforms in court procedure, like sentencing on the same day as a finding of guilt. The delay in processing inmates through court causes bottlenecks as the demand for Philly prison space grows. Comcast is not a growth industry in Philly like the demand for space is, and crowding inmates is unsafe for officers.— CleanupPhilly
- The responsibility for this attack lay squarely on the shoulders of the Mayor and City Council, and the Dem Party's consistent claim that you can simply keep people in a quarters they are not suited for. It's like the Democrats want to pretend that you can only have a few truly sociopathic, deeply ill, violent inmates, but the reality is that these guys are high risk repeat offenders who are like WWF fighters. You have too many high risk guys in a setting not designed to hold so many high need, high risk, violent repeat offenders, and the local jail is not the setting for that many. The state needs more prison space, stat, and the right response is not to just let these guys out half way through so they can murder the Starbucks manager or shoot the pizza delivery guy in the face for twenty bucks and a slice.— CleanupPhilly
- I wish a journalist would just sit at the bus stop on State Road or just inside the State Road gates to the PPS and watch the police vans and buses bringing new guys in, taking sentenced guys back, and basically rocking all night long. The place is not just full, it's in a constant state of flux as guys come and go. It's reached its breaking point. Don't forget who CFCF was named for -- the officers Curran and Fromhold were victims of the violent riots in the 70s by black mafia. Can Nutter or Council, or Rendell, afford for that to happen again?— CleanupPhilly
- I hope all the brave officers recover. It's a shame they only get noticed when they are injured doing their jobs and what a fine job they do. Did the mayor go to the hospital to see them like he does with the high profile employees are injured in the line of duty or wern't there any cameras there?— jinglesguy
- "Mind over Matter" CleanupPhilly...Rendell and Nutter don't "Mind" and we don't "Matter"! It's all about shorting Public Safety to save money for "other things" like "No Bid" Contracts. Each Prison bed cost over $30,000 per year! Keeping an Inmate on the street costs about $2,700... Rendell is releasing 2,000 Prison Inmates per month (about 600 per month for Killadelphia)! Nutter was told what's been going on over 18 months ago, 4 months before SGT. Liczbinski was brutally murdered and he's done nothing, except to walk at the head too many Police Funerals and play the "I'm Angry" song... and us. Philadelphia hasn't started to bleed yet. Look at all the dead... all the rapes... all the shoot outs... just in the last year alone. We've even been called "The City of Death". The FEDs need to "Step Up"...and Rendell and Nutter need to "Step Off". Mr. U.S. Attorney General...you listen'n?— John Law
If they are aware that pepper spray is usless on a mental person, then why haven't they come up with a more potent aresol that will detain them.- This is a shame for the correctional officers; personally, they don't get paid enough to be getting physically abused like this. However, this is all the system's doing because first of all, mentally ill inmates should be put in an asylum for the mentally insane not in a prison cell with other inmates; this is asking for trouble. The system needs to come up with a better solution. They need to take all the "repeat offenders of rape, murder, assault, armed robbery" and stop giving them light sentences, or letting them out half way thru their sentence for "good behavior". Anyone in their right mind with common sense will know that their good behavior is just an act to get out of prison sooner just because these are repeat offenders. I do believe in "second chances" and people do change. But come on people; if you see that they keep doing the same thing over and over, isn't that telling you that they will NOT change! I do not think that all inmates should pay for what one inmate does because some people do change (very few) but they are out there.— Lupe00
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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