Vicious, feared attack leaves Pa. inmate comatose

On at least one occasion, Pinto and several dangerous inmates were released into a common area from their cells, and a guard got on the PA system and urged: “Go get ‘em, boys,” according to the former inmate.

“I watched numerous attacks on him,” he said.

Binsack, a former building contractor who recently pleaded no contest to writing bad checks, said he, too, was mistreated at the prison — assaulted by guards and denied appropriate medical treatment for torn retinas and a serious fungal infection in his face and body. Binsack has sued the prison, collecting affidavits from inmates who likewise claim abuse.

He said Pinto lived “in great fear” of certain guards and other inmates.

“I saw him daily get harassed by specific officers. I saw him be spit on,” he said.

Shanley, who has worked at the prison for nearly 20 years, said his officers do the best they can but are overloaded and outmanned. He denied that guards are intentionally abusive, saying they are far more likely to be assaulted by an inmate than the other way around.

“Do I think there are officers here, in malice, trying to do something to harm somebody? No, I don’t. Is there physical abuse where an officer is bringing a guy down, or kicking him, or allowing one inmate to sexually assault another inmate? No, that’s not happening.”

Pinto’s diary, though, tells a different story.

He wrote that he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an inmate he dubbed “the silverback.”

“First night is bleeding but no penetration,” wrote Pinto, who also referred to his rapist by name. “The next night (and never again, he lies) is full-on jailhouse Bubba.”

He reported the rape to authorities, but no investigation was conducted, said the Rev. William Pickard, a Catholic priest and the prison’s longtime chaplain.

Pickard wrote a letter to the Lackawanna County commissioners on March 30 of this year complaining that prosecutors had failed to look into Pinto’s allegations, “resulting in additional sexual assaults and continued denial of medical treatment.”

Pickard also warned that Pinto’s outspokenness about his prison experience made him “a likely target of severe institutional retaliation,” and suggested that he be transferred to another lockup.

District Attorney Andy Jarbola did not return messages left by The Associated Press.

In an interview, Pickard said he doesn’t believe the Aug. 8 attack on Pinto was simply a mix-up or a lapse in protocol.

“I don’t think it was just a mistake. I think there was something more going on here,” he said.

The chaplain, who has been ministering to inmates at the prison for a quarter-century, was banned from the prison earlier this month after being accused of pushing a guard who had refused to let him near Pinto in the hospital. Pickard said he was angry, but denies he got physical with the guard.

Pinto, who had pleaded guilty to a federal count of production of child pornography and was due to be sentenced in October, was recently moved from a Scranton hospital to a long-term acute-care facility.

Though he pleaded guilty to a reprehensible crime, Rogan, the attorney preparing to sue, said Pinto’s punishment should have been meted out in a courtroom, not a prison.

“We are a humane society. You don’t get to kick somebody’s brain in,” he said. “Or you shouldn’t get to.”