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Deal keeps mentally ill killer in prison for treatment
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Defense attorneys are vowing to appeal the deal struck last week that will keep convicted three-time murderer Kevin Johns at a maximum-security prison while he undergoes treatment for a bevy of psychological issues.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said its staff would travel to the “Supermax” facility in Baltimore and provide treatment for Johns there, rather than keeping him at the Clifton T. Perkins hospital in Jessup, according to a memorandum filed Friday. An amended order by Harford County Circuit Court Judge Emery Plitt Monday allowed the state to make the final determination.
But defense attorneys argued Johns would not be dangerous if he were getting proper treatment in a “therapeutic setting” like Perkins.
“What [prosecutors] fail to realize is that Kevin Johns is dangerous because of his illness,” said Carroll McCabe, one of Johns’ attorneys. “The reason Kevin is dangerous right now is because he’s in a prison where he’s not being treated for his mental illness.”
Johns had been convicted June 9 of strangling Phillip Parker Jr. aboard a prison bus in 2005, but was found not criminally responsible for his behavior due to a long history of mental disorders. He had been serving a life sentence plus 30 years for two other murders when he killed Parker.
In affidavits from the warden at Supermax, and the CEO and chief security officer at Perkins, officials admitted the hospital would only be considered “minimum security” by corrections standards. They agreed they could not guarantee the safety of hospital staff, unarmed guards and other patients, who are encouraged to mingle unrestrained.
McCabe said the law could be interpreted to mean that Johns should be treated at Perkins, and anything less would be an infringement on his rights.
“There’s a whole level of treatment available at a hospital he can’t get at Supermax,” she said.
msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com
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4:28 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 25, 2008 re: "Deal keeps mentally ill killer in prison for treatment"
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Examiner Reader said:
WHY WOULD YOU WAIST MONEY TO TREAT SOMEONE THAT IS DOING LIFE WITHOUT A CHANCE OF PAROLE. How does that make any since? No one could really ever know if treatment would work on Johns because there is no way to tell whats going on inside someones head no matter how much doctors want people to believe it.
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Examiner Reader said:
Johns is a killer, and he will kill again if given the opportunity. Since it was Judge Plitt's erroneous decision not to bestow the penalty of death upon Johns, society must be protected; and the only possible way to do that is to keep him locked in a cage within a maximum security prison. Furthermore, money spent on psychiatric treatment for a person such as Johns is a complete waste of our taxpayers' money. No matter how much psychiatric treatment is rendered on him, he will kill again in an instant.
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Examiner Reader said:
The problem with the DOC prison transport vehicles is that they play rock music loud and clear. We used to know the bus was approaching when it was more than a block away from the courthouse where I worked. Mr. Parker could have screamed loud and clear while being murdered, but the guards on the bus would never have heard his screams for help because of the loud rap music they play.
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