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A Report of the commission on Confronting safety and abuse in america’s prisons Confinement John J. Gibbons Nicholas de B. Katzenbach commission co-chairs What happens inside jails and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons. It comes home with prisoners after they are released and with corrections officers at the end of each day’s shift. We must create safe and productive conditions of confinement not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it influences the safety, health, and prosperity of us all. commission staff executive director research associate pro bono attorneys Alexander Busansky Andres Rengifo Jason Harman. Arnold & Porter LLP: Stewart D. Aaron, Keri Arnold, Yue-Han Chow, Katrina communications director research assistants Fischer Kuh, Carolina Musalem R, Glynn K. Jennifer Trone Michael Corradini Spelliscy, Bryan Earl Webster, Elizabeth Katherine Kimpel A. Wells. Heller Ehrman LLP: Lisa Cirando, senior counsel Christopher Fowler, Lauren McMillen, Jon Wool website administrator John McCrory Zakiyyah Salim, Jaime Santos. Holland & counsel Knight LLP: Stephen F. Hanlon, Gretchen N. fellows Michela Bowman Rohr. Morrison Foerster LLP: Obrea Annie Ulevitch Cantor, Lisa Yedid Poindexter. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw operations and outreach Hershman, Leanne Kinsella Taylor Pittman LLP: Jennifer Behr, Patrick Hickey. manager Jenni Trovillion interns consultants Chiraag Bains, Gregory Bennett, The Raben Group: Katharine Huffman, Robert senior associate John Cutler, Alexander D’Addio, Raben, Julia Sessoms. TSD Communications: Tina Chiu Robin Dull, Josh Glickman Dwayne Lawler, Ricki Seidman. photographs Andrew Lichtenstein design Point Five Design: Alissa Levin, Karin Wood Confronting Confinement A Report of the commission on safety and abuse in america’s prisons John J. Gibbons Nicholas de B. Katzenbach commission co-chairs June 2006 Copyright © 2006, Vera Institute of Justice Supported in part by grants from the Charles River Fund, Ford Foundation, Fund for New Jersey, JEHT Foundation, Open Society Institute, Overbrook Foundation, and the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust. Electronic copies of this report can be downloaded from the Commission’s website, www.prisoncommission.org. The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons is staffed by and funded through the Vera Institute of Justice. Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 601 Thirteenth Street, N.W. Suite 1150 South Washington, D.C. 20005 Vera Institute of Justice 233 Broadway, 12th Floor New York, NY 10279 www.vera.org ii From the Commission Co-Chairs most americans feel that life in prison and jail does not affect them. it takes an awful event to remind people that the dangers inside can endanger them: a large-scale riot that threatens to spill over into the community; a corrections officer who is killed on the job leaving a family behind; the spread of infectious disease from cell block to neighborhood block. When the emotional reaction to the awful headline fades, however, we are left only with the sinking feeling that prison is a problem with no solution. The temptation is always to look away, hoping the troubles inside the walls will not affect us. Every day judges send thousands of men and women to jail or prison, but the public knows very little about the conditions of confinement and whether they are punishing in ways that no judge or jury ever intended; marked by the experience of rape, gang violence, abuse by officers, infectious disease, and never-ending solitary confinement. Unless the experience of incarceration becomes real through the confinement of a loved one or through a family member who works day-to-day in a correctional facility, jails and prisons and the people inside them are far removed from our daily concerns. Americans share concerns about struggling schools, dangerous hospitals, and corrupt corporations. We now talk openly about domestic violence and child abuse because we know there are terrible consequences for our loved ones, our families, and our communities if we remain silent. Yet there is a shame and a stigma about incarceration that makes it very difficult to have honest, productive conversations about what we are doing and the results. Over the course of a year, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons tried to change that by bringing life behind bars fully, vividly into focus and by connecting what happens inside with the health and safety of our communities. Our inquiry and this report reveal both grave problems and also good work that fills us with hope. A year ago, a group of individuals with little in common promised to recommend strategies for operating correctional facilities that serve our country’s best interests and reflect our highest values. Today, we speak in a single voice about the problems, our nation’s ability to overcome them, and the risks for all of us if we fail to act. Our nation has the talent and know-how to transform all of our correctional facilities into institutions that we can be proud of and rely on to serve the public’s interests, institutions that we would trust to ensure the safety of someone we love, places of opportunity as well as punishment. We hope you will join us in this important work. —John J. Gibbons Nicholas de B. Katzenbach iii “The culture of our prisons virtually dictates the level of violence that you will have in them. And if you change that culture, you will reduce the violence.” Donald Specter, director of the iv Prison Law Office Contents Preface 6 Commissioners 9 Summary of Findings and Recommendations 11 i. conditions of confinement 8 “People are 1. Prevent Violence 21 sentenced to prison 2. Provide Health Care that Protects Everyone 38 as punishment, not 3. Limit Segregation 52 for punishment . Corrections ii. labor and leadership 62 staff should be 1. Change the Culture and Enhance the Profession 65 the very best people prisoners iii. oversight and accountability 76 encounter.” 1. Invest in External Oversight 79 2. Strengthen Accountability Within the Profession 88 Kathleen Dennehy, Massachusetts 3. Educate and Involve the Public 95 corrections iv. knowledge and data 00 commissioner 1. Measure Safety and Effectiveness 103 Commission Witnesses 112 Works Cited 114 Acknowledgments 118 v Preface A little more than one year ago, a diverse the kinds of productive activities that discour- group of individuals—respected civic leaders, age violence and make rehabilitation possible, experienced corrections administrators, scholars, and a culture in many prisons and jails that pits advocates for the rights of prisoners, law en- staff against prisoners and management against forcement professionals, members of the reli- staff. There is too little help and hope for the gious community, and former prisoners—joined individuals we incarcerate and too little respect together as a national commission to examine and support for the men and women who work the safety of America’s prisons and jails. What in our prisons and jails. And notwithstanding we discovered over months of holding pub- these conclusions, we know less about safety lic hearings, talking individually and in small and abuse in America’s prisons and jails than groups with a wide range of experts, and review- we should. It is simply not enough to be bet- ing the available research and data is that the ter than we were. We must confront and solve people who think and care most about safety today’s problems. and abuse in America’s correctional facilities are concerned about many of the same problems At the commission’s public hearings in cities and point to many of the same solutions. This around the country, witnesses testified about the report is the Commission’s attempt to reflect realities of life behind bars in America—both that common ground. good and bad. Lou West recalled a long career America’s correctional facilities are less turbu- in Missouri as a corrections officer trying to do lent and deadly violent than they were decades what his job title suggests—“to make right,” as ago. Many corrections administrators have done he put it. Arthur Wallenstein and Michael Ashe an admirable job, but steady decreases nationally talked about how providing high quality health in riots and homicides do not tell us about the care in the jails they run benefits the surround- much larger universe of less-than-deadly vio- ing communities. Former gang member Pernell lence. And beyond physical violence, there are Brown described his return to prison as a coun- other serious problems that put lives at risk and selor, helping to guide young prisoners away cause immeasurable suffering. from gangs and violence. Corrections Secretary For all of the hard work and achievements of Theodis Beck portrayed an officer corps in North corrections professionals—most of which the Carolina that is more diverse, better trained, and public does not hear about—there is still too more professional than ever before. much violence in America’s prisons and jails, too Other people who testified before the Com- many facilities that are crowded to the breaking mission described devastating events that re- point, too little medical and mental health care, main with them far beyond the walls of any jail unnecessary uses of solitary confinement and or prison. Through tears, Pearl Beale told us her other forms of segregation, a desperate need for son Givon was stabbed nine times by another preface prisoner in a crowded Washington, D.C., jail. Drawing on that consensus, this report out- Garrett Cunningham recounted being raped by lines four broad areas where change can and a Texas corrections officer twice his size and then must occur: conditions of confinement that di- disbelieved and left unprotected by the prison rectly affect the safety, health, and well-being of authorities in whom he confided. And Victo- prisoners and staff, the quality of and support for ria Wright’s world collapsed, she said, when her labor and leadership, oversight of and account- husband of 33 years died in a California prison, ability for what happens behind bars, and the never receiving the heart medication he needed state of our knowledge and data.

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