Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jan 2006
Source: Centre Daily Times (PA)
Copyright: 2006 Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact:  http://www.centredaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/74
Author: Rosemary L. Gido
Note: Rosemary L. Gido, of Boalsburg, is professor of criminology at 
Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is a board member of the 
Pennsylvania Prison Society, editor of The Prison Journal and former 
director of policy of the New York State Commission of Correction.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

MORE ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID TO COUNTY PRISONS

The recent Associated Press series on Pennsylvania's county prisons 
documented again the low status jails have occupied historically in 
the hierarchy of correctional solutions to public safety at the local level.

The "gaol," transplanted to the American soil from an English model, 
has been shown throughout history to be characterized by acute and 
chronic overcrowding, understaffing, unhealthy and unsanitary 
conditions and, most importantly, underfunding.

That the articles illustrated great variation in these attributes in 
Pennsylvania county prisons is no surprise given the low priority 
county tax revenues, local politicians and the general public have 
traditionally given to supporting prisons.

My research on county jails in New York state from 1920 to 1960, 
utilizing New York State Commission of Correction inspection records 
and statistics for that period, showed that communities enlarged 
their jails only when there were extreme overcrowding pressures 
(immigrant population swells or federal prisoners from the Volstead 
Act) or (rarely for this time period) court interventions.

The typical "Band-Aid" solution was to use outside cell space such as 
hallways, gymnasiums and even chapels to address chronic overcrowding 
situations. Because of the lack of local county funding, jails were 
often expanded in the short term by building annexes or dormitories.

Rarely did local county governments respond to the New York State 
Commission of Correction's threats (as the state's regulatory agency 
from 1922) to close down local facilities.

In fact, one large urban county jail continued to ignore the 
commission's calls for improvements for a period of 65 years -- until 
the old jail burned and a new one had to be built.

Across all states, new jails have been built and old jails enlarged 
through the infusion of state funding from bonding initiatives. Yet, 
in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States, it is 
criminal-justice policies that have placed the most pressure on 
county jails and their administrators and staff.

The war on drugs and accompanying mandatory minimum-sentencing laws, 
fueled by media and political "lock 'em up and throw away the key" 
campaigns of the past 25 years, have filled our county jails and 
state prison systems with substance abusers and parole violators and 
more women than ever in the history of our country.

As 2006 begins, prisons large and small, rural and urban, struggle to 
house and separate, feed and clothe, program and habilitate pretrial 
and sentenced, local, state and federal detainees and inmates, while 
balancing public safety and inmate and staff security and safety, 
using a model that has largely never worked.

Yet the failure of many of Pennsylvania's county prisons to meet 
inspection standards is not the real story.

Here in Pennsylvania, the birthplace of national model institutions 
of freedom, the struggle to establish legitimate federal, state and 
local government order and authority resulted in the creation of 
penal institutions that were, by 18th century standards, benign and 
reformative.

The Walnut Street Jail and the Eastern State Penitentiary came to 
exemplify a new nation's efforts to punish under the protection of law.

Unfortunately, over time, these well-intentioned institutions were 
stripped of their reformative intent. Over time, punishment as the 
denial of individual liberty has come to focus primarily on the most 
marginal of Americans -- the under-educated, the under-employed, 
minorities and immigrants, the mentally ill, homeless and the addicted.

Indeed, the United States leads all other democratic nations in its 
rate of incarcerating marginal people.

Building more high-tech prisons in Pennsylvania will not address the 
critical issues of who is in our jails, the high rate of jail 
recidivism, and what resources our communities can offer to prisoners 
who return to their home communities each day.

This is Pennsylvania's real "brain drain."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake