Kenneth J. Houck Jr., an openly gay federal inmate who was brutally assaulted while detained in Philadelphia, last week was released to a halfway house in New York.
Houck’s release to a halfway house comes after a six-year turbulent incarceration in federal prison.
On Nov. 10, 2011, Houck was assaulted at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, while awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of transporting child pornography.
Two inmates entered Houck’s cell, pulled him from his bunk and kicked and punched him. Houck’s right leg was fractured in multiple places; he continues to walk with a limp.
A metal rod was installed in Houck’s leg from ankle to knee for stabilization.
Houck, 42, said he requested increased security prior to the assault, due to homophobic threats from fellow inmates, but prison authorities allegedly denied his request.
Although his assailants were convicted of criminal offenses, they weren’t charged with committing hate crimes. Houck maintained the attack was motivated by anti-LGBT animus, and urged authorities to pursue hate-crimes charges, to no avail.
“I want all involved punished for the hate crime — to give them a reason to not let their homophobic aggression be taken out on anyone else ever again,” Houck said at the time.
Houck also expressed remorse for his own crime — which involved downloading child porn, then sharing it with an undercover federal agent through a computer file-sharing network. Houck’s criminal activity took place between November 2010 and February 2011, according to court records.
Houck was living in South Philadelphia at the time, and the undercover agent was located in Delaware.
Houck said his victimization at the detention center sensitized him to the exploitation and harm caused by the child-porn industry.
“My collecting [porn] was showing my support of the industry,” he said. “I’m sorry for the people that are affected by the child porn I collected when they [children] were used in the making of it.”
Houck said he was reading an LGBT novel when his assailants pulled him from his bunk. He fell about 5 feet onto a cement floor, then his assailants beat him.
“When they pulled me out of my bunk, I landed on the cement floor,” Houck said in a prior interview. “It was about a 5-foot drop. Then they stomped on me, kicked me and beat me with a chair.”
Houck was transported by ambulance to Jefferson University Hospital, where he spent 18 days in its critical-care unit during the initial phase of his recovery.
His parents were denied information about Houck’s location and condition for about two months. A prison spokesperson said information about a detainee’s condition and location after an assault is kept confidential for security purposes.
Houck is suing the federal Bureau of Prisons for more than $1 million in damages. He’s also embroiled in a contentious dispute for access to records that could assist him in his litigation.
Houck alleges he was denied adequate medical care after his injuries, passed over for suitable employment while incarcerated and denied access to LGBT-related reading materials through the prison’s interlibrary-loan program.
Houck’s projected release date is June 23, 2018. Meanwhile, he’ll reside at Syracuse Pavilion, a halfway house in Syracuse that offers multifaceted services to offenders seeking reentry into society.
According to court records, Houck must register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction where he lives, works or goes to school for the remainder of his life.
