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| D.C. jail inmates threaten life of student, mother says |
| By Washington Post |
| Published: 03/15/2004 |
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The 18-year-old Ballou Senior High School student charged with killing a schoolmate has been threatened by other inmates at the D.C. jail and he fears he will be killed there, his mother said last week. Despite his status as a high-risk inmate meriting extra protection, Thomas J. Boykin has been confronted by prisoners who have threatened to kill him, his mother, Pearl Boykin, said in a telephone interview. "When he called, he was crying," she said. "He was like, 'Ma, I'm not going to make it out.' " In the most recent incident, at least two dozen inmates surrounded the recreation cage during Boykin's hour of solitary exercise and told him they were going to kill him, his mother said. The D.C. Department of Corrections does not comment on security measures for individual inmates. In recent days, however, Boykin's attorney, Gladys Joseph of the D.C. Public Defender Service, and prosecutors have conveyed their concern for Boykin's safety to jail officials, the U.S. attorney's office said. Channing Phillips, spokesman for the U.S. attorney, said the Department of Corrections has assured prosecutors that the jail warden will take appropriate precautions. Ordinarily, that would entail a shift into protective custody for Boykin, but that term describes a range of precautionary or punitive security measures. Exactly what has been done to protect Boykin is unclear. Boykin, charged with second-degree murder, is accused of shooting James Richardson, 17, on Feb. 2 during a melee that erupted outside the cafeteria of the Southeast Washington school. A long-running rivalry between the two D.C. communities -- the Barry Farm Dwellings area and the Condon Terrace area -- was at the root of the brawl. At the preliminary hearing for Boykin two weeks ago, the tensions were apparent. Now, Boykin's family fears those tensions have found their way into the jail, fueled by the publicity of the case. |
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