Prisoner John Steckley looks like he might have been mouthing off as he walked out of the visitors’ room at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, but he appeared to be posing no physical threat to the guard standing at the door. Even so, the corrections officer coldcocked Steckley in the face and then, along with another guard, proceeded to beat him.
A prison security camera video obtained by City Paper shows Steckley’s hands were relaxed at his side when corrections officer Tyrone Glover slammed his fist into the left side of the inmate’s face. Then, after Steckley hit the ground, Glover and another officer struck him multiple times, including several blows to his torso. Steckley tried to defend himself, including attempting to throw at least one punch of his own, in the Jan. 9 incident. The video does not include audio, so it is impossible to know what words Steckley and Glover exchanged before the first punch.
Steckley isn’t the first inmate that Glover appears to have beaten this year. In September, City Paper reported that multiple visitors from city social-service agencies say they watched in horror as a guard severely beat inmate Marcellus Temple in the Curran-Fromhold gym on Sept. 25.
Last week, Philadelphia Prison System spokesperson Shawn Hawes confirmed that Glover was the guard involved in both incidents at the city-run facility on State Road. She says the prison had investigated both incidents, but declined to provide any information about the findings, or say whether Glover was subject to any discipline.
“Both investigations are complete,” Hawes wrote in an email. “I have nothing additional to add regarding the officer’s history.”
Inmate Steckley has been charged with assault on a corrections officer.