In the wrong hands

Published October 27, 2017

Editorial by The Greensboro News-Record, October 25, 2017.

Call it the Mikel Brady rule.

Inmates “with convictions of a violent crime against a government official and/or law enforcement are ineligible for assignment to any work station utilizing or providing access to cutting and/or impact tools without expressed approval of the Director of Prisons Office,” the N.C. Department of Public Safety said in a news release last week.

Brady was one of four inmates at Pasquotank Correctional Institution charged with murder in the deaths of two prison employees during a violent melee Oct. 12. He was serving a 24-year sentence for the attempted murder of a state trooper in 2013.

Trooper Michael Potts stopped Brady, then 23, for a seatbelt violation in Durham County. When Potts approached, Brady shot him four times — twice in the face, once in the shoulder and hand and once in the other hand — and left him for dead. Somehow, the trooper managed to get to his car, call for help and describe his assailant, who was arrested the next day.

Potts recovered and returned to duty a year later.

This was not Brady’s first act of violence. He had a troubling criminal history in Vermont before coming to North Carolina:

At 18, Brady embarked on a “two-year crime spree that police believe included more than 100 burglaries,” The Herald of Randolph (Vermont) reported in January 2011. “Crimes included … the alarming theft of enough dynamite from the Rock of Ages quarry in Bethel in August 2008, that it triggered a federal anti-terrorism investigation.”

In 2009, Brady and another man broke into a home looking for marijuana and cash and beat the occupants with baseball bats, The Herald also reported. One of the victims, who used medical marijuana to control pain from a previous injury, said in court that Brady cut her arm repeatedly with a knife as he demanded money.

Yet, by the time of his sentencing in 2011, Brady had convinced authorities he had reformed and deserved leniency. Within 18 months, he was released on “furlough” and was not arrested again after he was found with a hunting rifle or after failing to report to a probation officer. He turned up in North Carolina.

He continued to get breaks here, despite his nearly successful attempt to kill Trooper Potts. At Pasquotank, he was admitted into a Correction Enterprises program and allowed to work in a specialty sewing factory.

On Oct. 12, inmates started fires, then attempted an escape. Prison employees were attacked with hammers and scissors. Ten were injured and two — Correctional Officer Justin Smith and Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica Darden — were killed.

“As a career law enforcement professional, I am outraged that someone who was convicted of attempting to murder a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper, as well as the other inmates who also were convicted of violent attacks, were allowed to work in an environment where they had access to tools that could be used as weapons,” Erik Hooks, secretary of the Department of Public Safety, said last week.

Monday, DPS announced that David Guice, chief deputy secretary for Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice since 2013, will step down Nov. 1. This action was directly related to the deadly incident at the prison in Pasquotank County.

Brady never should have been eligible to participate in an industrial program, especially one that granted him access to dangerous tools. Although he was only serving a 24-year state sentence, he faced an additional 40 years on federal weapons charges. He was not going to be released from prison during his working lifetime. His frightening past behaviors should have warned anyone never to trust him.

Qualified inmates should be equipped with job skills or education while behind bars to ease their re-entry into society, but that’s not always smart.

Since this terrible incident, the state has put new restrictions on work programs. That’s a necessary action that comes tragically too late for some.

http://www.greensboro.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/our-opinion-in-the-wrong-hands/article_462be19b-db7a-5c98-83cd-2e536d46ae74.html

October 27, 2017 at 1:23 pm
Norm Kelly says:

Some criminals just can't be rehabilitated. That's just a fact of life.

But it's also one that libs like to ignore. Like most facts that are contrary to lib schemes, this one also is ignored.

People with a history of violence against other human beings should be severely restricted while incarcerated. Much more so for those who will be in prison until a ripe old age. There's no reason to rehabilitate these individuals. And there sure ain't any reason for these types to have access to anything, that means anything, that could be used as a weapon.

But, because there are still too many libs in power/control in our state and nation, we will continue to coddle criminals. Cuz it's bad for their self-esteem if they are treated like criminals. Cuz it's bad for their self-esteem if they are treated like the violent animals they are. And yes, libs, I just referred to people like the guy profiled in this editorial as an animal. Can you come up with a better description? What does it take before you recognize animals for what they are?

It's funny that someone who harms an animal, say a family dog, libs want to string up, penalize for life, make a public spectacle of. But someone like the guy profiled in this editorial, libs want to go easy on, allow tremendous liberty, expect rehabilitation, and get mad at people like me who refer to animals as animals.

It's time our nation got some people in power that have their heads screwed on right. Cuz the libs who've been in power have totally screwed things up! I guess that being lib is like that. I can only judge by what they do and say, not from personal experience.