Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Greg Garland

U.S. PRISONS CALLED RISK TO LIVES

Report Lists Overcrowding, Few Constructive Activities As Conditions 
That Cause Inmate Violence

Overcrowding, cruel conditions and a lack of constructive activities 
for inmates fuel violence in America's prisons and threaten public 
safety because most inmates return to their communities ill-prepared 
for daily life, according to a report to be presented to Congress today.

"Few conditions compromise safety more than idleness," says the 
report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, a 
nonpartisan group that has studied conditions inside the nation's 
correctional facilities for the past year. "But because lawmakers 
have reduced funding for programming, prisoners today are largely 
inactive and unproductive. Highly structured programs are proven to 
reduce misconduct in correctional facilities and also to lower 
recidivism rates after release."

The report highlights issues that have emerged in Maryland as state 
officials struggle to control prison violence that records show has 
turned increasingly deadly in recent years.

"It sort of validates what we've been saying," said Frank C. Sizer 
Jr., the state's prison chief. "You can't continue to lock people up 
and not do anything with them and put them back into society with no 
tools to be able to cope."

Some correctional officers have been critical of Sizer and his boss, 
Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Mary Ann Saar, for 
focusing what they say is too much of their attention on inmate 
rehabilitation. They say it has come at the expense of safety and 
security of prison staff.

"There is a balance between security and treatment," Sizer said. "A 
good treatment program only serves to improve safety and security."

The report being released today is the product of a yearlong study by 
a 20-member commission that held hearings around the country and was 
staffed by the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit 
group that researches criminal justice issues. The commission was 
co-chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas de B. Katzenbach 
and John J. Gibbons, former chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals.

The report says there is far too much violence in America's prisons 
and cites "other serious problems that put lives at risk and cause 
immeasurable suffering."

The problems include "too many facilities that are crowded to the 
breaking point, too little medical and mental health care, 
unnecessary uses of solitary confinement and other forms of 
segregation, a desperate need for the kinds of productive activities 
that discourage violence and make rehabilitation possible, and a 
culture in many prisons and jails that pits staff against prisoners 
and management against staff."

Among other things, the commission recommended that policymakers 
eliminate crowded conditions at prisons and jails, invest in programs 
proven to reduce violence and change behavior in the long term and 
substantially reduce the use of physical force in dealing with the 
inmate population.

"The majority of prisons and many jails hold more people than they 
can deal with safely and effectively, creating a degree of disorder 
and tension almost certain to erupt into violence," the report says.

The country spends about $60 billion a year on corrections, said 
Alexander Busansky of the Vera Institute. He said 2.2 million people 
are in prison or jail. Maryland operates 27 jails and prisons that 
house about 27,000 inmates at any given time, according to state 
corrections officials.

Maryland prisons and jails, like many others around the country, have 
long suffered from overcrowding, state officials say.

The problems are particularly severe at two state-run facilities in 
Baltimore, the Central Booking and Intake Facility and the Baltimore 
City Detention Center. Both have a history of violent incidents.

The report says a variety of factors fuel violence.

Besides overcrowding, unnecessary or excessive use of force can 
provoke broader violence, the report says. And the increasing use of 
high-security segregation at prisons "is counterproductive, often 
causing violence inside facilities and contributing to recidivism 
after release."

An inmate placed in segregation is kept locked in an isolation cell 
for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months at a time and often with 
little human contact, the report notes.

The commission also called for a change in federal rules to shift 
health care costs for eligible prison inmates to Medicaid and 
Medicare programs, which would ease some of the burden on the states.

Maryland Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services 
Mary L. Livers, who testified before the commission, said the report 
should lead to positive discussion about changes that are badly 
needed in the field of corrections.

She said it is "vitally important to staff safety and to inmate 
safety" for inmates to be involved in productive activities while 
they are incarcerated.

Livers said administrators have been trying to move Maryland's 
correctional system more in that direction, calling it "a major 
culture shift" from the way business has been done in the past.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman