No decision yet on ending inmate's 37 years of solitary confinement

HARRISBURG - Testifying before a federal judge Thursday, the former head of the state's prison system and its current chief offered radically different opinions over freeing from solitary confinement a 64-year-old inmate who has spent nearly 37 years confined 23 hours a day to a 7-by-12-foot cell.

Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said Arthur Johnson could not be placed among the general population because he still has it in him to try to escape, and still has the capacity to kill during the attempt.

"That's a significant concern. That's a big red flag for me," said Wetzel, who added that he based his concerns on a 2015 report by prison psychologist Siena Smith, who said Johnson spoke of escaping during an interview.

But Martin Horn, who was secretary from 1995 to 2000, told Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner for the Middle District of Pennsylvania that it was time to return Johnson to the general population.

Johnson has not had any serious disciplinary infractions in 25 years, Horn said, and the almost unheard-of period of time he has been in solitary cries out for Wetzel to create a "step-down plan" for the inmate to gradually be allowed to return to the general population.

"In my opinion, I believe good correctional practice requires a way out for him," said Horn, who was a surprise rebuttal witness called by Johnson's team of six lawyers.

Johnson's solitary confinement began after a 1979 escape attempt.

Last month, Conner heard six hours of testimony from Johnson and witnesses called by his attorneys.

Thursday's hearing - devoted to state witnesses - lasted seven hours, and included testimony from Johnson in which he denied ever telling Smith, the prison psychologist, that he wanted to escape.

Johnson is serving life without parole for the 1970 gang-related stabbing and shooting death of Jerome Wakefield during a fight over turf.

Johnson, currently housed at State Correctional Institution–Frackville, has maintained he is innocent.

During the lengthy hearing, Johnson's lawyers questioned corrections officials about other inmates who had escaped, only to be allowed to live in the general population after being recaptured - including a convicted murderer, Michael McCloskey, who escaped in 1999 with his cellmate and is now with the general population at Frackville.

Attorneys from the state Attorney General's Office, who are representing the Department of Corrections, called witnesses who asserted that Johnson, despite his clean record for the last 25 years, is still dangerous.

The state's witnesses noted that in 1984 Johnson again tried to escape from prison, and that between 1979 and 1985, he racked up more than 90 serious disciplinary infractions.

"Mr. Johnson does follow the rules, but even though time has passed, there's still that concern based on the things that have happened in the past," Dr. Robert Marsh, director of the prison department's Psychology Office, told the court.

"He has done very well following the rules, but it's hard to outrun the past," Marsh added.

On another front, the state's witnesses rebutted the defense claim that keeping Johnson in solitary confinement for 37 years has harmed the prisoner and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, which is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.

Johnson has not been mentally or physically harmed, based on the fact that he is healthy, the witnesses said, and has not been diagnosed with mental illness or depression.

Pogos Voskanian, a Philadelphia-based forensic psychiatrist hired by the Corrections Department to evaluate Johnson, said the inmate had not been hurt by the confinement.

He said Johnson told him that he had problems with sleeping, anxiety, depression, concentrating, and sadness, and that he felt hopeless, but that he was not clinically depressed.

"Many people in the comfort of their luxurious home are sad. That does not mean that they are clinically depressed," Voskanian said.

Conner, who at times appeared unconvinced by the state's witnesses, calling Smith's report "vague and incomplete," asked lawyers for both sides to submit briefs by Sept. 7.

He gave no timetable for when a decision would be issued, but stressed that "it's important that the court issue a decision with some dispatch."

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