Warden rejects claims of Aryan control
BOISE – Altercations with other inmates forced state prison officials to remove all but one of the five death row inmates released into the general maximum-security population in the past year, prison officials said.
But Warden Greg Fisher downplayed claims by advocates for one – Mark Henry Lankford – that he was victimized by members of an increasingly powerful gang of white supremacist inmates that prison authorities are unable to handle.
“In terms of them controlling the institution, we’re in control of the institution,” Fisher said in an interview.
Only condemned killer Randall Lynn McKinney remains among the general population. Three others – George Junior Porter, Maxwell Alton Hoffman and Richard Albert Leavitt – have been returned to death row, prison spokeswoman Teresa Jones said. They were apparently involved in clashes with other inmates, prompting reassessment of their status, she said.
Lankford was placed in administrative segregation after being beaten in his cell on July 14 by two inmates identified by his attorney as members of an Aryan gang. Lankford was condemned for the 1983 slaying of a Texas couple camping on the South Fork of the Clearwater River.
The segregation means Lankford can no longer have personal property, privileges or a job, and attorney Andrew Parnes said that accomplished what the Aryans wanted.
“Mark doesn’t know why they’ve done this to him,” Parnes said. “But this group didn’t want to deal with him. Has this group gotten what they wanted? Yeah. They manipulated the system if they didn’t control it.”
Fisher conceded there is an Aryan presence in the maximum-security prison – along with other inmate gangs, and he acknowledged that the Aryans did not like Lankford, suggesting it was because of his personal views.
But he rejected the claim of Lankford’s brother, Bryan, who is serving life without parole for the same murders, that half the 600 inmates are members of the Aryan gang and control the prison through violence, intimidation and money.
“As a prisoner herein for over 20 years I can guarantee you that the Nazi control of this prison is complete,” Bryan Lankford wrote in a letter to the Associated Press.
“That’s not correct,” Fisher said. “It’s criminal thinking. Many of these people were deceitful before they got to prison. They continue to be deceitful after they get here.”
Jones confirmed that Mark Lankford has been placed in segregation for an indefinite but long-term period. He said the two inmates who allegedly attacked him have been placed in disciplinary detention pending an investigation.