WAYMART, WAYNE COUNTY — Robert James Turner was 27 when he stabbed fellow inmate Joseph Daniels to death inside a Washington, D.C. jail. He was 57 when guards found him unresponsive Friday afternoon in a federal prison 20 miles east of Scranton.

Turner died at USP Canaan on Dec. 19, nine months after his transfer to the high-security facility on Eric J. Williams Memorial Drive—a road named for the corrections officer murdered there in 2013.

The Department of Justice announced the death Saturday morning. Wayne County Coroner Edward Howell, who responded to the scene, said he observed no visible trauma or injury. An autopsy is scheduled for this week.

Turner had been locked up since 1995. That February, inside a D.C. Department of Corrections facility, he fashioned a shank and used it to kill Daniels. A federal jury in Virginia convicted him two years later of first-degree murder and weapons possession. The judge gave him life plus 41 months.

He fought the conviction for decades. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case in 2023.

126 Percent Capacity, Chronic Staffing Gaps

Turner’s death is the second announced at USP Canaan since July, when 30-year-old Brandon Sharpe died under circumstances that remain unclear.

The $141 million facility opened in 2005 with beds for 1,088. It now holds 1,372—126 percent of designed capacity, according to October data. The adjacent minimum-security camp adds another 82.

Staffing has not kept pace. The Bureau of Prisons cut a 10 percent retention bonus for Canaan staff in January 2024, worsening recruitment problems. Guards routinely pull double shifts. In August, families reported going more than 20 days without phone or email contact with inmates—a pattern tied to lockdowns and contraband sweeps.

Earlier this year, a brawl over television access erupted along racial lines between Black and Mexican inmates, one of several violent incidents that prompted extended restrictions.

Six Killings, One Dead Guard

Pennsylvania lawmakers have labeled USP Canaan “one of the most dangerous penitentiaries in the country.” The body count supports that.

Corrections Officer Eric Williams, 34, of Nanticoke, was working a housing unit on Feb. 25, 2013, when inmate Jessie Con-ui attacked him with a shank. Con-ui, already serving life for a gang murder in Arizona, stabbed Williams more than 200 times. The prison road now bears Williams’ name.

Five inmates have been murdered inside the walls:

Joseph O’Kane, April 25, 2010. The Gambino crime family associate, serving life for racketeering and murder, was stabbed 92 times in a cell by fellow inmate Allen Hurley. Hurley, convicted of manslaughter, is now at the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado.

Jose Antonio Perez, Aug. 23, 2010. The Hartford drug kingpin, doing life for trafficking and a murder-for-hire, took a single stab wound to the neck.

Ephraim Goitom, Jan. 11, 2013. Goitom, serving 25 years for shooting a police officer, died at a hospital after a fight. His death came six weeks before Officer Williams was killed.

Ricardo Martinez, July 30, 2019. The 76-year-old, serving life on California racketeering charges, was beaten to death in the special housing unit.

Dominique Spence, Nov. 28, 2021. The 32-year-old North Carolina man was stabbed with a shank during a fight. Coroner Howell ruled it a homicide. In September 2024, a federal grand jury indicted inmate Wilson for voluntary manslaughter, alleging he killed Spence with a seven-inch sharpened piece of metal “upon a sudden quarrel and heat of passion.”

Sharpe was found unresponsive at midnight on July 27—four days after arriving from Michigan on a weapons conviction. He died at a local hospital. The cause of death has not been released.

Whether Turner’s death will be added to that list depends on Howell’s findings.

The FBI was notified, standard protocol for federal prison deaths. A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.