Former inmate suing prison officials back behind bars on gun charges
PROVIDENCE — A former inmate who sued prison officials this month for allegedly holding him in segregation for 237 days is back behind bars and facing gun charges.
Police officers arrested Joseph Shepard, 29, of Providence, Monday evening after they pulled over the car he was driving and found a Glock pistol with a round in the chamber concealed in the car's center console, said Police Cmdr. Thomas Verdi.
Shepard, described in a police report as a member of a Manton Heights gang, was charged with possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a gun after being convicted of a crime of violence, and being a person prohibited from possessing a firearm.
Shepard was the subject of a Nov. 15 Providence Journal story that outlined a lawsuit he filed against officials at the Adult Correctional Institutions.
More: A Providence man says he was punished for reporting prison misconduct. He's suing RI.
According to the lawsuit, the case dates to January 2019, when Shepard compiled a packet of complaints about the conditions in medium security that he sent to prison administrators and later to prisoner advocacy groups.
Shepard alleges that as retaliation for his complaints, he was placed in “solitary confinement” for nearly eight months, during which he was confined at least 21 hours a day despite administrators’ awareness that those conditions would worsen his physical and mental health.
Shepard is permanently disabled after being shot in the spine and lungs at age 15, leaving his mobility impaired and his bladder and digestive functions vulnerable and in need of constant oversight and care, he said.
J.R. Ventura, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, told The Journal earlier this month that Shepard’s segregation was not solitary confinement.
The department, he said in an email, “is one of the most constitutional correctional agencies in the country and does not practice 'Solitary Confinement,' as we have stated on the record numerous times. Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue."
The charges
Shepard served six years and nine months on a felony assault conviction for hitting a man with his car in a gang confrontation. He was released in May 2020.
Monday evening, police allege, Shepard was driving a Toyota Camry with heavily tinted windows. The car resembled a vehicle involved in a police chase the day before. The pursuit was terminated when it reached the highway.
Shepard was in the car with another man, who police said in their report was also a Manton Heights gang member but who Verdi said was not charged.
The loaded pistol found in the center console was wrapped in a sock, the police report says. Officers also found a plastic bag containing suspected narcotics. It was sent to the state toxicology lab for analysis, Verdi said.
Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Man who sued ACI is back in prison on gun charges
