Early on the morning of April 16, Oscar Martinez, an 18-year-old McCaskey High School junior, traveled with a friend to a house on Old Dorwart Street.

Martinez, who had been charged with various crimes since the age of 14, fired a .380 -caliber pistol through the front door several times, according to a statement he gave police.

Police say those shots killed Diana Spencer, a 33-year-old mother of four, in a brutal, possibly gang-related assault.

Now Martinez is in Lancaster County Prison awaiting trial.

This sequence of events helps explain why assaults by inmates and use of force to restrain them are rising in the prison, according to Warden Vincent Guarini.

"We're getting a much more aggressive inmate into the jail," he says. "We're getting gang members, and these guys don't stop their behavior when they come in the door."

Chronic overcrowding that places inmates and guards in close quarters also contributes to a more violent atmosphere, the warden adds.

But other observers look at reports of an increasing number of assaults by inmates on guards and other inmates as indictments of the county jail and its management.

"Other prisons have dangerous prisoners in them as well. Other prisons are overcrowded," notes state Sen. Mike Brubaker, a Republican who represents northern Lancaster County and who recently has taken an interest in prison problems.

"We ought to have a jail system in the county that has, at worst, an average number of incidents of force [compared to other county jails]," he adds. "Our incidents are elevated, and that should make us uncomfortable."

Guarini and Brubaker are commenting on an Inside Story analysis of "extraordinary occurrence" reports at county jails statewide. The reports were provided by individual jails and compiled by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Extraordinary occurrences include physical assaults by inmates on inmates, inmates on guards and guards on inmates. They also include use of physical force to restrain unruly inmates, as well as suicides and other deaths in prison.

These reports, provided to the state monthly and compiled annually, are incomplete, but they indicate that Lancaster County is among the state's top jails in number of extraordinary occurrences.

'Extraordinarily' bad?
Lancaster County Prison, with about 1,115 inmates this week, ranks about ninth largest in population among 69 county jails. (Some counties don't operate jails; Philadelphia has six jails.)

But the local jail probably ranks higher than ninth in the number of reported incidents of force, even when taking into account incomplete reporting by many county jails, most of them smaller than Lancaster's.

The local jail has ranked among the most physically coercive county prisons in the state in 2009, 2010 and the first months of 2011.

In 2009, Lancaster ranked fifth among all county jails in total number of extraordinary occurrences reported to the state.

In 2010, it ranked fourth.

During the first two months of 2011 — the only reports which the state has released for this year — Lancaster ranked second, well behind the Philadelphia Detention Center.

Specifically, physical assaults by inmates on guards and by inmates on fellow inmates are elevated in the Lancaster jail.

So are reports of guards using physical force and restraints to subdue inmates. Among county jails, Lancaster County Prison is a leading user of electronic immobilizing devices, popularly known as "stun guns."

This analysis of statewide rankings does not take into account incomplete reporting from two-thirds of all county jails, including Lancaster, in 2009 and 2010. Seventeen of the 69 jails did not provide full reports for January and February 2011.

Lancaster's actual rankings probably would be lower, if full reports had been provided.

But while comparisons to other jails are clouded by incomplete reporting, Lancaster County Prison's use-of-force statistics clearly are rising on their own.

The local jail's reports increased in number from 254 in 2009 to 284 in 2010. The jail reported a surprisingly high 109 incidents during just the first two months of this year.

This apples-to-apples comparison of local reports concerns all observers — from the warden to inmate advocates.

But while jail officials worry about more dangerous prisoners requiring a stiffened response from guards, advocates for inmates worry about abuse of inmates by guards.

Though the warden says excessive use of force by guards is rare and often punished, some inmate advocates believe it is common and often covered up.

It's 'two or three guys'
About 99 percent of these incidents are caused by really bad inmates, says Guarini.

"They'll slice your throat in a heartbeat," he explains.

Bob Barley, the jail's correctional officer responsible for holding hearings on all extraordinary incidents, says "two or three guys" are responsible for the excessive numbers for the first two months of this year.

"On several occasions," Barley adds, "it's the same guy on the same day."

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman agrees that more dangerous inmates, particularly gang members, are causing most of the problems in the jail.

"A lot of the newer generation seem to have even less respect for the law," he notes, "and gangs are on the upswing again. Some of these people aren't interested in rehabilitation."

The actual number of crimes committed may be down, Stedman adds, but "the numbers don't necessarily reflect the severity and depravity (of individual crimes and criminals)."

Scott Martin, who chairs the Lancaster County Commissioners as well as the prison board, adds another factor.

"There's definitely a correlation with the closing of state mental hospitals," he says. "We're getting individuals with severe behavior problems."

Guards being charged
But Martin acknowledges that some guards have assaulted or otherwise abused inmates and have been punished.

"If there's illegal stuff that's done, correctional officers are going to be charged," he says. "I don't know of a case where something has happened and an officer hasn't been charged."

Guarini says that about four guards a month appear at one of Barley's disciplinary hearings for major or minor violations of rules.

Some guards are found guilty, some not guilty, he says. Some officers have been suspended within the past year. Others have been terminated.

The warden will not discuss individual cases.

Most disciplinary actions involve minor violations, Guarini explains. He says incidents of physical assault on prisoners are uncommon.

"What an individual may state is an assault in his mind may be their depiction of an event during which staff may have had to place them under control ... and where they were resistive of the directives given," Guarini says.

But other observers view excessive force reports differently. They see the Lancaster jail's increasing reports and its relatively high position among all jails in the state as indicative of potentially serious problems.

Sen. Brubaker admits he is no expert on prisons. But he says issues at the local jail and other prisons statewide "unexpectedly grabbed my attention" and now he wants to see substantial changes in the system.

Brubaker attended the prison board's May meeting and told members that while he appreciates the work the board and prison staff are doing, it's time for concrete action.

"The status quo is not a viable option," he told the board.

Brubaker was talking about long-standing proposals to build additional prison space to replace or augment the overcrowded jail on East King Street.

But he believes change must extend beyond bricks and mortar.

"We need a call to action because our incident level (of extraordinary occurrences) per capita is higher than other jails," he says. "And we need to investigate the legitimacy of complaints and make a course correction to produce a dramatic drop in adverse incidents in the jail."

Brubaker believes many of the people who work at the prison are doing an "excellent" job, but "if we have prison workers who are in violation of appropriate conduct, I would like to see a speedy investigation."

Aggressive guards must be restrained, he says, because their actions may threaten the community's long-term security.

"The people that are in our county jail system are going to come out eventually," he explains. "If the conditions are adverse, there is a direct parallel to recidivism."

A 'top down' culture
Sadie Pounder, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church and a licensed professional counselor who has worked with inmates in several prisons, says she regularly hears from current and former prisoners about inhumane treatment in the local jail.

"There's a pattern of increased incidents," she notes. "A high school principal would take note of such a negative pattern and try to change it. I hope the warden and prison board would do the same."

The atmosphere in a prison, like anywhere else, is created from the top down, she notes.

"If I were in the warden's position, " she says, "these statistics would show me I need to have more staff training, including cross-training, so the professionals can learn from each other's specialties."

She says this is particularly important in the area of mental health.

Lancaster County Prison's reputation should not be as one of the most coercive and assault-prone prisons in the state, Pounder says.

"The goal would be to find constructive and humane ways to affirm those in prison and decrease the number of negative incidents, not rationalize them away," she adds.

The high numbers of extraordinary incidents here "demonstrate the fact that Lancaster County Prison does not have proper management if these things actually are only getting worse," says Jean Bickmire, who represents the prison advocacy group Justice & Mercy.

"The prison board is trying to do the right thing," she adds, "but they need to be more proactive."

Bickmire notes that while the reports indicate that no local guards ever assault inmates, several lawsuits have been filed alleging such assaults. And her office receives about five to 10 complaints a month of physical or verbal abuse by guards.

She says those complaints are down from several years ago, which may indicate that the prison has dismissed some aggressive guards.

Still, she suggests, the prison board has not done enough to improve conditions at the jail that contribute to violent behavior.

"Everything's blasé (at prison board meetings)," she says. "They just kind of sit there and don't want to do anything. They're all afraid of lawsuits."

Nelson Martin, director of Support for Prison Ministries, likes to put a positive spin on what goes on in the jail. He says chaplains look for signs of hope.

But the elevated extraordinary occurrence numbers concern him, he adds.

"I'm sure some violence goes on in there," he says. "We often talk about the overcrowding, and I'm sure that in the summertime the lack of air conditioning would be part of that."

Kent Kroehler, recently retired pastor of First United Methodist Church, is coordinating work on a "white paper" for Have a Heart, a new organization dedicated to improving conditions in the jail. The paper should be completed by the end of the summer.

Kroehler says the group is focusing on a high rate of suicides (eight since 1998), overpopulation, possible lack of compliance with state codes and other deficiencies.

He says that ideally, in a highly controlled environment, there should be "no suicides ever." And all use of force should be reduced, he adds.

"Lancaster County Prison is the ninth-largest county prison in Pennsylvania," he observes, "yet its extraordinary occurrence reports place it much higher than we'd expect."

He acknowledges that "good people" oversee the jail, but still, "it has far too many problems that, as they are known, are contrary to our Lancaster values and an embarrassment to our county."

jbrubaker@lnpnews.com