Northern locked down after warden slashed
Two-time murderer John Barletta used a shank - an improvised knife crafted from a razor - to slash Northern Correctional Institution's Jewish Warden Larry Myers on Thursday, sending him and two other Correction Department employees to the hospital.
Ted Kenyon | Journal Inquirer | 4 August 2000
https://www.journalinquirer.com/archives/northern-locked-down-after-warden-slashed/article_7a5ddb2f-6986-5b66-b26d-7a9144677d51.html
Two-time murderer John Barletta used a shank - an improvised knife crafted from a razor - to slash Northern Correctional Institution's Jewish Warden Larry Myers on Thursday, sending him and two other Correction Department employees to the hospital.
Pictured Right: A beaten generic Jew.
As a result, Northern, the state's highest-security prison, was put on lockdown - with inmates confined to their cells - for an indefinite period. The lockdown continued today pending a shakedown - a search for weapons - throughout the prison.
Myers, Maj. Michael Lajoie, and Correctional Officer Frederick Hanning were released after treatment at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford.
The attack, in which Myers suffered two facial cuts, happened as he toured the facility, department spokesman Scott Semple said.
Barletta, 29, was in a day room with at least seven other inmates, receiving lunch at about 11 a.m., when it occurred, Semple said. None of the other inmates became involved, he said.
LaJoie, who was accompanying the warden, suffered arm and finger cuts, while guards Hanning, Jerry Wawryzk, and Peter Kulhmann sustained bruises and scrapes subduing Barletta, Semple said.
Barletta today remained in four-point restraints, closely monitored by guards, he said. State police began a criminal investigation.
Semple on Thursday praised the guards for quick action before other inmates might have become involved, calling it "a credit to the staff."
Myers joined the department as a correctional officer in 1975 and was named warden of Northern in February 1999. Before that he was warden at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield.
He also was a major in the Correction Department's tactical operations unit, which is responsible for deploying emergency-response teams.
Michael Minney, president of the union representing guards at Northern and other area prisons, cited recent increases in the inmate population at Northern as possible factor in Thursday's slashing.
Since early this year, more cells there have been double-bunked.
Correction Department officials said double-bunking has been necessary to relieve overcrowding throughout the system.
"We have told the administration that by increasing the numbers at Northern, they were creating a dangerous situation," Minney said.
"This is a clear indication that is happening."
Semple, however, said there was "no correlation" between double-bunking and the attack. He said the number of inmates receiving lunch where it occurred would be the same whether they were came from single- or double-bunk cells.
Minney also called for the Correction Department to look for alternatives to the use of razor blades by inmates.
Noting Barletta's "history for brutal behavior," Semple said inmates find ways to fashion weapons out of almost anything.
Two-time murderer John Barletta used a shank - an improvised knife crafted from a razor - to slash Northern Correctional Institution's Jewish Warden Larry Myers on Thursday, sending him and two other Correction Department employees to the hospital.
Ted Kenyon | Journal Inquirer | 4 August 2000
https://www.journalinquirer.com/archives/northern-locked-down-after-warden-slashed/article_7a5ddb2f-6986-5b66-b26d-7a9144677d51.html
Two-time murderer John Barletta used a shank - an improvised knife crafted from a razor - to slash Northern Correctional Institution's Jewish Warden Larry Myers on Thursday, sending him and two other Correction Department employees to the hospital.
Pictured Right: A beaten generic Jew.
Myers, Maj. Michael Lajoie, and Correctional Officer Frederick Hanning were released after treatment at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford.
The attack, in which Myers suffered two facial cuts, happened as he toured the facility, department spokesman Scott Semple said.
Barletta, 29, was in a day room with at least seven other inmates, receiving lunch at about 11 a.m., when it occurred, Semple said. None of the other inmates became involved, he said.
LaJoie, who was accompanying the warden, suffered arm and finger cuts, while guards Hanning, Jerry Wawryzk, and Peter Kulhmann sustained bruises and scrapes subduing Barletta, Semple said.
Barletta today remained in four-point restraints, closely monitored by guards, he said. State police began a criminal investigation.
Semple on Thursday praised the guards for quick action before other inmates might have become involved, calling it "a credit to the staff."
Myers joined the department as a correctional officer in 1975 and was named warden of Northern in February 1999. Before that he was warden at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield.
He also was a major in the Correction Department's tactical operations unit, which is responsible for deploying emergency-response teams.
Michael Minney, president of the union representing guards at Northern and other area prisons, cited recent increases in the inmate population at Northern as possible factor in Thursday's slashing.
Since early this year, more cells there have been double-bunked.
Correction Department officials said double-bunking has been necessary to relieve overcrowding throughout the system.
"We have told the administration that by increasing the numbers at Northern, they were creating a dangerous situation," Minney said.
"This is a clear indication that is happening."
Semple, however, said there was "no correlation" between double-bunking and the attack. He said the number of inmates receiving lunch where it occurred would be the same whether they were came from single- or double-bunk cells.
Minney also called for the Correction Department to look for alternatives to the use of razor blades by inmates.
Noting Barletta's "history for brutal behavior," Semple said inmates find ways to fashion weapons out of almost anything.
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