Editor:
Proposed legislation to eliminate or scale back the use of restricted housing units in Pennsylvania stems from a Disability Rights Network PA lawsuit.
DRN states that prisoners in solitary confinement are subjected to extreme isolation, danger, and grossly inadequate mental health care. A previous state corrections chief admitted to mistakes and said the practice of solitary confinement would end. The Department of Corrections isn’t following the Americans with Disabilities Act. Social workers are accountable to the DOC, and this is a conflict of interest.
Author Lauren Kessler, an Oregon prison volunteer, writes in “A Grip of Time” that “the prison system itself had a vested interest in keeping the world behind bars hidden from us. Our ignorance meant we were less likely to interfere with operations, suggest new policies, scrutinize budgets, and make a fuss.
“It also served to hide everything from outright abuses to casual cruelties to daily boredom. And it was easy to do. All it took was tight control of the flow of information by communications and public relations staff and creating barriers to media access. The murkier and more unknowable that world was (prison) the easier it was for us not to care, the easier it was for us to feel no connection to the people inside.”
Dawn Koffke Houser
Hamburg