Excerpt: "Leonard Strickland was a prisoner with schizophrenia who got into an argument with guards, and ended up dead."
The high-profile escape of two murderers from Clinton Correctional Facility in June attracted extraordinary attention to the maximum-security prison. (photo: Jacob Hannah/NYT)
14 December 15
nmates who have served time at the Clinton Correctional Facility here tell of being taken aside by a sergeant soon after they arrive and given a warning: Cross the guards, and bad things can happen.
And they do. Inmates describe being ambushed by guards and beaten, taunted with racial slurs, and kept out of sight, in solitary confinement, until the injuries inflicted on them have healed enough to avoid arousing suspicion.
One story in particular has been passed along over the last few years as a kind of parable of brutality and injustice on the cellblocks. Leonard Strickland was a prisoner with schizophrenia who got into an argument with guards, and ended up dead.
