Pubdate: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 Source: Oklahoman, The (OK) Copyright: 2004 The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.oklahoman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318 Author: Michael Baker Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) PRISON STRUGGLES TO BALANCE PUNISHMENT, REHABILITATION El RENO -- It's not Club Fed. But it's not the harsh forced labor of the Soviet Gulag, either. Officials at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, say they try to strike a balance at the medium-security prison. The institution, which houses nearly 1,600 men, offers programs to educate and prepare inmates for release that are at the forefront of corrections. Foremost, though, it's a prison. "We keep them behind the fence. That's our job," Warden T.C. "Charlie" Peterson said. But, "You can't throw inmates in a place like this, throw them to the wolves, and think they'll make it," he said. "You have to provide viable programs." A prison dairy sells products, including nearly 10,000 gallons of milk a week, to 23 other federal institutions. A farm handles 1,300 acres of wheat, alfalfa and sorghum and 443 head of cattle for beef production. The compound also has one of the largest metal-fabrication operations within the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and supplies steel desks, beds and other products to prisons and federal agencies, including the military. In September, about 4 million pounds of steel made its way through the factory, said J.W. Campbell, associate warden of industries. Earnings last year were $530,000. Last year, beef and dairy sales brought in about $2.7 million. The industries are self-sustaining. "It saves the taxpayers dollars" because otherwise the federal prison system would have to contract out to private companies, Peterson said. Inmates can make between 12 cents and 40 cents an hour. In many cases, half of that goes to pay fines and restitution. Last year, inmates paid $221,622 toward fines and restitution, prison spokesman Barry Edwards said. Educational opportunities run from the remedial: English as a second language, high school; to the vocational: welding, building maintenance and even denture making. There are recreational activities: weightlifting, softball, television and other things. "It's a safer place for inmates and staff to work, and if we're doing our jobs right they're going to be better prepared when they go to the streets," Peterson said. But, again, it's not Club Fed. In each 8-foot-by-12-foot cell, three inmates live. A pair of bunks line one wall and a single bed the other. There's one open toilet in each cell. One window faces outside, usually with a view of a high fence topped with razor wire. A smaller window allows guards to scrutinize the inside of a cell from the hallway. All inmates must work and all follow guards' orders or end up in special housing, privileges revoked. Groups of prisoners waiting in line for lunch part as officials walk through. In the lunch hall, there's self-inflicted segregation whites on one side, Hispanics in the middle and blacks on the other side. There's occasional violence. Last year, there was just over one inmate-on-inmate assault each month, three of which included a weapon. "Those are indicators that we're running a safe institution," Peterson said. But just a month ago, an inmate was found dead with a head wound. The death is being investigated as a homicide. "We will eventually get the perpetrator," Peterson said. The prison officially opened in 1934 as the Southwestern Reformatory, housing inmates ages 18 to 26. The first escapes happened before the official opening, as did the first inmate homicide. The farm began in 1934, and today is one of only two such federal prison programs. UNICOR, the industrial program, followed shortly after and really got rolling with the production of brooms in the 1940s. The early 1970s were marked with riots and a climax in violence with the murder of correctional officer Donald Reis at the prison chapel Feb. 28, 1975. From 1985 to 1995, just about every type of prisoner mafiosi, killers and thieves passed through El Reno as the prison served as a center for transfer inmates within the federal prison system. The year before the operation was transferred to a center in Oklahoma City, the El Reno institution processed 56,000 inmates. The current population is primarily people who committed drug crimes or other crimes to support a drug habit, Peterson said. "I haven't seen a good car thief in 10 years," he said. "The impact of the drug culture has just had a huge impact." The prison still takes some of the more difficult cases, Peterson said, because it is known in the industry as a "can-do facility." "The general public has no clue what goes on out here at an institution this large," Peterson said. "This operation is one of the more complex and dynamic in the Bureau of Prisons." - ---