By Jean L. Dell’ Aquila & Moniem A. El-Ganayni
The contents of this article were presented in a letter to the Secretary of Corrections and the Governor of Pennsylvania.  The authors received the expected reply from the Secretary’s office that they are “entitled to their opinions.”  Notwithstanding, because of the importance of this issue to a large segment of the society who are affected directly by the correction system, the article is presented here. It is our hope that it will initiate an open and honest debate about the state of Correctional systems around the country.  Everyone in the nation (the public, prison administrations, government, and even inmates and their families) agree that the prison system, despite billions of dollars in funding, is failing.  The prison budget in some states exceeds that of the education budget, nevertheless the system is failing.  Great computerized, clean facilities exist with health care, cable TV, libraries, three meals per day, and educational programs, yet the system is failing.  Why? 
It is simply because the prison system is designed to be a one-dimensional system that deals with all aspects of the material/mechanical operation of prisons but fails to deal with human beings.  The staff, prison workers, and security forces are able to deal with every conceivable type of routine or emergency operations including the use of deadly weapons when necessary, but they fail in any situation involving the simplest human interaction.  This is reinforced daily in the minds of Department of Correction (DOC) workers since inmates are reduced from their first day in the system to subhuman beings, and their families, by extension, are also reduced to subhuman status (after all, criminals must be coming from criminal families).  Man struggles to keep his soul in Western society, yet he completely loses his soul in prison.  He/she is “a number” who receives all of what is needed to exist, and perhaps continues to exist for a long time, yet the person is reduced immediately to a worthless sub-human being without hope of rehabilitation. 
The correctional system has become a monstrous body that transformed itself into a welfare system for hundreds of thousands of people who work in the nation’s prisons while losing the ability to fulfill the purpose of its mission. The system is increasingly non-responsive to the needs of the inmates, their families, and to the society. But how could anyone be surprised?  In the same week this article was written an inmate at SCI-Muncy hanged herself in her cell after being turned down several times by mental health personnel [1].  This was after she complained to prison authorities that she was hearing voices, and needed treatment.  Of course it was her fault, for no voices are heard in the DOC.  Indeed, no voice is heard whether it is from mentally ill prisoners, tough-minded criminals, their families, or from the public which pays for the most expensive prison system in the world.    
The Larger Issues:
What is wrong with the nation’s prison system where billions of dollars are spent every year, sometimes exceeding the educational budget, but with the highest incarcerated population (2.5 millions) in the world, highest recidivism rate, highest number of people under the control of the system (about 8 million in jails, prisons, and parole)? One could immediately point to some of the fundamental problems in the design of the prison system:

1. The immediate loss of dignity for everyone who comes under the control of this system, or even in contact with it such as inmate families. It starts with the strip searches at arrival, which soon turn into part of prison routine; strip searches before and after inmate visits with their families, and strip searches before taking a shower for inmates in restricted housing units. Security concerns are cited all the time for such unacceptable practices. How many years did DOCs across the nation engage in this practice without significantly affecting drug trafficking into and inside prisons?  Could not the people who are given billions of dollars to manage the system find any alternative to ensure security that preserves the dignity of people? Has the Secretary of Correction ever watched one of these strip searches where the inmate (male or a female) stands naked in front of an officer (of opposite sex if necessary), spreads his hands, opens his mouth, coughs, lifts his private parts (if a man) or opens body cavities (if female), then turns around spreading their legs and bending over?

• Has the Secretary seen kitchen workers, for example, lined up and patted down after they finish their work shift?  What are the officers looking for?  To be sure, it is not knives or kitchen tools, for every prison has an elaborate system to count and secure these tools before anyone leaves the kitchen.  So what are the officers looking for when they search every inmate, every day, after every shift?  It is the cheese, the chicken legs, and other similar precious items.  And herein lies the problem.  The system fails, with all the money poured into it, to devise methods preventing most stealing or immoral behavior while at the same time instilling self-respect and moral values into the minds of the inmates.  One may not be able to stop all the theft in a good system, but the benefit to the society is worth much more than all the cheese that will be lost from kitchens in a system that restores human dignity.  The DOC, however, opts for the easy solution and searches every inmate at each and every opportunity.
• Contrary to the philosophy of the Correction Department, dignity is not earned by meritorious conduct; it is an expression of the grace of God upon man. It should not be permissible to violate the personal dignity of anyone regardless of whether this person is pious or wicked.  Even a criminal is entitled to dignified treatment--for punishment is meant to mete out retribution and reform not indignity and humiliation.  There is not an affront to the human dignity of any single person without it being an affront to the dignity of all – including the dignity of the perpetrator of the humiliation [1].
• Is the chaining of inmates in restricted housing units (with a dog-like leash) on their way to the daily shower a security measure or a form of punishment, especially since many of the inmates are released from the restricted units to the population units after 30, 60, or 90 days?
• What moral standards of our society does the DOC represent when the crime of the inmate pales in comparison to the punishment meted by the DOC? Without a doubt, escape or attempted escape is a very serious matter and should never be tolerated.  But after a judge sentences the person to 3, 5, or 7 additional years for his attempt, is it not cruel and unusual punishment to keep the inmate in restricted units, locked up 23 hours a day, for 10 to 20 years or even permanently? We will discuss this issue in future articles about the judicial system. For now, the question is simple: is it right to deny an individual, even if he or she is a criminal, an end to their prolonged misery? Why not just kill him?  Everything should come to an end sometime, including harsh punishment such as solitary confinement for heinous crimes. One would think that when the constitution forbade cruel and unusual punishment, that psychological torture such as solitary confinement would be deemed unconstitutional.

2. Lying is becoming part of the normal operating procedure in the prison system.  It is true that many inmates have serious behavioral problems that make the rehabilitation process extremely difficult.  But large numbers of inmates are trying to serve their times and go back to their families.  Some are mentally ill and their behavior is not completely under their control.  In exploiting this complex situation, it is routine for officers, security personnel, workers, and even top administrators to lie and shift the blame to the inmate. This serious problem not only fosters a culture of lying amongst inmates, it has turned many superintendents, deputies, and prison workers into plain jailers managing very expensive human warehouses with the most despicable human attribute: lying.

3. Financial exploitation of inmate families is one of the primary causes for the failure of this system as both the inmates and their families view it as immoral/amoral and oppressive. As a result of this exploitation, many inmates justify their immoral violations.

• While every American pays an average of ¢5 per minute for phone calls, hundreds of millions of dollars are channeled from impoverished and unemployed families (mainly women) of incarcerated black men to phone companies through exclusive contracts that pay extravagant commissions to the prison system.  This money is not collected from the people who committed the crimes, but coerced from helpless families who naturally love their children.
• Price gouging in every prison commissary is a well-established fact. While the average American could buy a 15” color TV for $60 or $70, the prison will charge inmates about $150 for the TV.  The same practice applies for the sugar, tuna fish, tea, clothes, or any other item.  Again this money is coming from families who have nothing to do with the crime but are trying to provide emotional support for their children or relatives in prison.

4. Absence of discipline among officers and workers is another source of failure.  Anyone who walks the corridors or gathering areas inside prisons will wonder who has the foulest mouths: the officers or the inmates?  How could anyone expect any rehabilitation or discipline among the inmates while the workers and officers fail the simplest and easiest form of discipline?  If foul language is a necessity for the officers’ survival in prisons, then, certainly, it is desperately needed by the inmates although they are the only ones who may be punished for the indiscriminate use of it.  Unfortunately, foul language has become part of American life at all levels, even amongst cabinet members of the US government.

5. The prison system has become the embodiment of racism in America.
• A quick look at the prison population and their ethnic composition speaks for itself. This is the product of the whole justice system in America.  Needlessly, DOCs across the nation have more than their fair share by failing to affect any change, except perhaps to the worse, on the prison population.
• In a nation that builds one prison every week, the distribution of prisons on the country’s landscape is a clear manifestation of racism. While large numbers of inmates are coming from black and minority neighborhoods, with devastating economic and social impact, prisons are built in rural America where the economically depressed white communities are revived by this disguised welfare system by providing prison security, food services, clothing, construction, and transportation.  One could walk into a prison where 80% of the population is black and Hispanic, but 90% are white officers and workers. Wouldn’t it make more sense to construct some institutions in areas that are devastated by crime and poverty in hopes that it would reverse or slow down the destruction of said communities?
• Is it really fair to the families that inmates are commonly housed in prisons across the state?  Many of the inmates, especially blacks, are coming from poor segments in the society, and the families without means of transportation must travel hundreds of miles. Has any one in the DOC taken a closer look at the condition of the debilitated buses that bring families in cheap trips to visit incarcerated relatives, especially in severe winter conditions?
• It is ironic that the nation strived to end slavery, where the black man worked for the prosperity of the slave owners, to unwillingly replace it with a new form of slavery where the black man is locked up while providing work for the descendants of slave owners.
• Would it be fair for the DOC to plan the distribution of their facilities so that most of the inmates will be housed within a 50-mile radius of their communities? Or, perhaps, one could assume that the distance is meant to discourage family visits and have a different selection of employees than what is available in “those crime ridden communities.”

6. The imbalance in the structure of the prison system is another factor contributing to the failure of the Department(s) of Corrections.  The system is heavily tilted towards security at a great expense to the mission of the Correction Department(s). The Department(s) of Correction, with billions of dollars of tax payer money is responsible for providing a safe and secure environment for people who committed offenses as well as providing rehabilitation and correctional programs for the benefit of the society as whole.  Today’s prisons are fully controlled by security personnel who have very little to offer to the real mission of the Department and who successfully turned prisons into human warehouses. The programs offered at many prisons are serving as necessary “vents” rather than credible programs. The security in prisons is not only an oppressive apparatus, it is an immensely intimidating force to other workers and staff of the prison system.

A good prison system is designed around programs that serve the mission, and the role of security is to provide a safe and secure environment to implement these programs.  More importantly, departments must develop the policy and philosophy of operation; it is then the responsibility of security to implement a security plan within this framework. In today’s prisons, it is the other way around.
  

7.  Excessive control of every minute detail by the central office and by security has paralyzed prison programs and deprived the system of the flexibility needed to achieve success.  In the maze of regulations, rules, and departmental policies that cover every fine detail of everyday operation, the system is completely dysfunctional because workers and administrators are only following the rules.  Therefore, they are not accountable to any extent for the success or failure of their institutions or their personal jobs.

8. Politics. Political correctness and mass appeal contribute to the failure of correctional departments. In many instances, good decisions are rejected for fear of how they will be perceived; on the other hand, many useless or even foolish decisions are adopted just to be part of the newest societal trends.

• A few months ago the DOC superintendents and their assistants gathered with other law enforcement agencies for a conference on terrorism and prisons (the title is mine) held in Pittsburgh, where self-acclaimed awards were given.  Could anyone who attended such a conference at the tax payers’ expense assure the public, with all honesty, that this was a critical issue for the department?  Instead, one could easily observe a matter of critical importance to this nation by walking the housing and the segregation units and counting the young black men in their late teens and early twenties who are serving life or long-term sentences; or count the number of people who have been in the prison for the third, fifth, or the tenth time; or perhaps reflect on how the cost of healthcare for the aging inmate population may bring the system into collapse. These are only a few examples.  In light of these serious problems, the DOC is instead busy developing lists of Islamic books to ban from entering prisons.

First Steps for Change:
The first step towards real change in the prison system is the formation of outside national and state boards to oversee the DOC and the prison system.  These boards should be composed of national leaders, professional practitioners, civic and social reformers, and academics.  These boards should not be directly involved in the operational or day-to-day affairs of any institution.  However they would provide great insight, shape the policy, and indirectly ensure the successful achievement of national goals.  In addition, 

• They should have the authority to visit, inspect, and observe the operations of prisons without interference from or showcasing by the local or departmental administrators. 
• They should have the authority to review prison budgets, including expenditures on security, overtime, food services, and other programs. 
• They should not be limited to reviewing only statistical data, but have first-hand access to the prison population to ensure humanitarian conditions.
• They should have the authority to review the distribution of prisons in different communities as well as their hiring practices.

 
The second step involves establishing an operational oversight of prisons. It is worth noting that in some countries the district attorneys and judges have the power to inspect prisons within their districts. In fact, it is sometimes part of their official assignment to perform regular and irregular inspection of prisons. 
These two steps are necessary for any serious attempt to reform state and federal departments of corrections. They will ensure that these monstrous, closed, and dysfunctional bodies, where problems are solved either by lies or by phony statistics, are on a path to fulfill their mission.  It is the responsibility of the American people to question the prison system, the elected officials who are overseeing the system, and the administrators who design and run this system.  In a future article we will address the deeper roots of the problem: the judicial system of the nation.