A convicted killer serving a life sentence has been on a hunger strike for 10 days protesting reduced prison activities for inmates after authorities took away his drums.
Jonathan Kasper, 39, began the hunger strike with five other inmates at the Limon Correctional Facility on July 14, said Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Kasper is the only Limon inmate continuing his fast, Sanguinetti said.
In a complaint letter Kasper sent to prison officials, he claimed the prison has cut back on organized sports, weight lifting, music and photograph programs and on recreation time.
His mother, Marjorie Kasper, 70, said the prison stopped allowing a prison band to play together. Her son was the drummer.
“They just keep cutting back and cutting back,” Marjorie Kasper said. “I’m very concerned. Jonathan lost 32 pounds in the first week.”
Before the hunger strike, the 6-foot-1 Kasper weighed 225 pounds, according to prison records.
Sanguinetti acknowledged the prison has tightened security and cut back on some prison activities after another convicted killer, Allen Thomas Jr. — who raped and fatally stabbed 71-year-old Leah Mae Bratsch in 1991 — slit correctional officer Pam Kahanic’s throat in September during a sewing workshop.
Kahanic survived the attack.
Limon also is where inmate Jeffrey Heird was fatally stabbed in 2004 by fellow inmates and convicted killer Edward Montour Jr. fatally beat correctional officer Eric Autobee with a large ladle in 2002.
In the past two months, the prison has quelled 10 major fights involving more than two inmates at a time, Sanguinetti said.
The prison also is operating with fewer staff members to provide security. During 2002 budget cuts, Limon lost staff members that still haven’t been replaced, Sanguinetti said.
Kasper was placed in segregation on May 24 after he was a ringleader in a cafeteria “disturbance,” Sanguinetti said. Inmates were “backtalking” to correctional officers and refusing to sit down for lunch, she said.
“He was inciting a disturbance,” she said.
In segregation, Kasper’s privileges have been limited, Sanguinetti said.
“When you are in segregation, you are not allowed to go to music activities,” she said.
But the prison also has reduced how many inmates at a time that can be in the yard, go to the cafeteria or to workshops, which limits the length of activities, Sanguinetti said.
The measures have increased Limon’s security to a level just below maximum security, she said. The prison has a lot of gang members and killers serving life without parole, she added.
Marjorie Kasper said that because prison activities have been curtailed, the inmates don’t have anything to do, and it makes them tense.
“They get upset and get into fights,” she said.
Since 1993, Kasper has been serving life without parole for killing a woman in Aurora to steal money for cocaine, according to prison records and Marjorie Kasper.
He is now being held in the prison infirmary, where authorities have had to change protocols to monitor him and offer regular checks by a doctor.
Kasper’s mother said prison officials told her they may have to force-feed her son if the hunger strike becomes life-threatening.
“I’m absolutely worried,” Marjorie Kasper said. “They are threatening to take him to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City.”
CSP is Colorado’s highest security prison, where inmates are continually in isolation.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
