A Little Courtroom Feces
Prisoner sentenced after throwing feces
Kaazim Muhammad grinned, laughed and talked loudly in a courtroom Wednesday as a Fayette County judge sentenced him to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison for throwing human feces at corrections officers.
"Your behavior indicates you have no interest in behaving in a civilized manner," Judge Steve Leskinen told Muhammad, adding that Muhammad "likely will never be released from prison."
Muhammad already is serving a 12 1/2- to 25-year sentence for convictions ranging from aggravated assault to kidnapping. His crimes were committed in Philadelphia County in 1999.
The term that Leskinen imposed yesterday will run consecutively with the time that Muhammad now is serving.
After a trial in May, a jury took just 10 minutes to convict Muhammad, 24, of aggravated harassment by a prisoner.
Police said Muhammad threw feces on a corrections officer through the meal slot of his cell door last Aug. 15. The incident occurred at the State Corrections Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township, where Muhammad is in the long-term segregation unit, or LTSU.
Inmates in the LTSU are considered so unruly that they cannot be placed elsewhere in the state corrections system. Placement there is based on inmates' behavior behind bars -- not the crime that landed them in prison.
Muhammad appeared in court yesterday, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, laughing and giggling as he was led to the counsel's table. At one point, he slid his chair close to Assistant Public Defender Krista Martin, but a court bailiff slid it back. The defendant responded by laughing.
"I feel sorry for the people who have to deal with you in prison," Leskinen said.
Muhammad's case highlights the problems that county Sheriff Gary Brownfield and his four deputies have faced in transporting prisoners from SCI-Fayette to the county courthouse for legal proceedings.
"These prisoners are serving so much time, it doesn't matter to them," Brownfield said from his courthouse office, a floor below where Muhammad had just been sentenced. "Some of these guys are never getting out of jail, so they're just playing the system."
Two important changes, Brownfield said, are that state corrections officers -- not sheriff's deputies -- now transport the LTSU prisoners to and from the courthouse, about 15 miles away. Preliminary hearings for prison offenses are conducted inside the state prison so that inmates don't need to be transported.
Brownfield said SCI-Fayette Superintendent Harry Mitchell schedules state corrections officers to transport all LTSU prisoners. District Justice Herb Mitchell of Brownsville conducts preliminary hearings for prisoners at the prison.
"Harry's been fantastic working with us," Brownfield said. "It's one burden we no longer have. And since Herb's been conducting hearings inside the prison, it keeps us from having to transport prisoners outside the prison and through local communities."
Brownfield said transporting defendants to hearings, along with inmates who serve as witnesses, "presents potentially dangerous situations."
Muhammad, meanwhile, was talking and laughing on the way out of the courtroom as he was returned to SCI-Fayette to resume serving his time.
Kaazim Muhammad grinned, laughed and talked loudly in a courtroom Wednesday as a Fayette County judge sentenced him to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison for throwing human feces at corrections officers.
"Your behavior indicates you have no interest in behaving in a civilized manner," Judge Steve Leskinen told Muhammad, adding that Muhammad "likely will never be released from prison."
Muhammad already is serving a 12 1/2- to 25-year sentence for convictions ranging from aggravated assault to kidnapping. His crimes were committed in Philadelphia County in 1999.
The term that Leskinen imposed yesterday will run consecutively with the time that Muhammad now is serving.
After a trial in May, a jury took just 10 minutes to convict Muhammad, 24, of aggravated harassment by a prisoner.
Police said Muhammad threw feces on a corrections officer through the meal slot of his cell door last Aug. 15. The incident occurred at the State Corrections Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township, where Muhammad is in the long-term segregation unit, or LTSU.
Inmates in the LTSU are considered so unruly that they cannot be placed elsewhere in the state corrections system. Placement there is based on inmates' behavior behind bars -- not the crime that landed them in prison.
Muhammad appeared in court yesterday, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, laughing and giggling as he was led to the counsel's table. At one point, he slid his chair close to Assistant Public Defender Krista Martin, but a court bailiff slid it back. The defendant responded by laughing.
"I feel sorry for the people who have to deal with you in prison," Leskinen said.
Muhammad's case highlights the problems that county Sheriff Gary Brownfield and his four deputies have faced in transporting prisoners from SCI-Fayette to the county courthouse for legal proceedings.
"These prisoners are serving so much time, it doesn't matter to them," Brownfield said from his courthouse office, a floor below where Muhammad had just been sentenced. "Some of these guys are never getting out of jail, so they're just playing the system."
Two important changes, Brownfield said, are that state corrections officers -- not sheriff's deputies -- now transport the LTSU prisoners to and from the courthouse, about 15 miles away. Preliminary hearings for prison offenses are conducted inside the state prison so that inmates don't need to be transported.
Brownfield said SCI-Fayette Superintendent Harry Mitchell schedules state corrections officers to transport all LTSU prisoners. District Justice Herb Mitchell of Brownsville conducts preliminary hearings for prisoners at the prison.
"Harry's been fantastic working with us," Brownfield said. "It's one burden we no longer have. And since Herb's been conducting hearings inside the prison, it keeps us from having to transport prisoners outside the prison and through local communities."
Brownfield said transporting defendants to hearings, along with inmates who serve as witnesses, "presents potentially dangerous situations."
Muhammad, meanwhile, was talking and laughing on the way out of the courtroom as he was returned to SCI-Fayette to resume serving his time.
posted by Mr Farnham at
12:02 AM
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