- Assistant Deputy Superintendent Pratt entertained us this session with an overview of the community services provide by the Sheriff’s Department. The Citizens’ Academy is the newest initiative of Sheriff Cousins to reach out to the community and share whatever information they are able to with the public. They work closely with other departments in the county. Since most towns can’t afford to maintain their own K9 units, for example, they frequently deploy theirs to the towns and cities as needed. Each week, they provide the Department of Immigration with a list of undocumented inmates.
- The Sheriff’s Department is also linked with Elder Services and the District Attorney’s office to provide outreach to the seniors. They have coordinated a program in each community called Triad. Participating seniors are given a round yellow sticker for their rear windshield if they own a vehicle to inform responders in the event of an accident that the victim’s medical and emergency information is locate within the glove compartment. The correctional officers also run a series of talks on topics such as understanding teen grandchildren and avoiding contractor scams.
- The pride and joy of the department appeared to be their involvement with Special Olympics. An uncle of participants in the Olympics when he joined the department, Pratt was pleasantly surprised to discover this. He soon became a regular participant in the multitude of related activities. They organize a convoy of police cruisers from all over Massachusetts to arrive at the start of the Olympics. To raise funds, they have a canoe race each year, a road race and a night in area restaurants where you can tip the cop while they assist the waiters and waitresses, all their tips going to the organization.
This session ended fairly early. Unfortunately, I didn't have my car there since my husband and dropped me off nor did I bother to bring my cell phone since they want you to keep them turned off inside. I had about forty five minutes to sit in the waiting room where the visitors wait to get in to see their incarcerated family and friends. The majority of the visitors were Latinos, primarily women and children. Most of them were speaking in Spanish. I enjoy sitting and listening, not letting on that I understand what they are saying. There is a television set up in there and about fifty chairs. A very friendly correctional officer stands guard by the metal detector at the entrance and converses with people, answers questions as needed. I felt as if I was waiting for a train in a station, it was quite comfortable and not the least bit intimidating. At one point, one of the officers came in and called almost everyone in the room by name and they were escorted through the administration building into the prison. About five or six people remained in the lobby with me until my ride finally came.
- Next week, assuming the weather is better, we will meet some of the department’s police dogs and learn more about how the K9 services are used.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Week 3: Classification and Rehabilitation
FROM THE OUTSIDE, LOOKING IN: Middleton House of Correction
Citizens Academy
Week 3: Classification and Rehabilitation
- Attendance at the Citizens Academy continues to drop, down to fifteen tonight. More of us are starting to ask questions at least so the group is getting slightly livelier. Sheriff Cousins has not made an appearance yet, although he was scheduled to welcome us at the first session. I had an impromptu conversation with him at a fundraiser for one of the Newburyport City Councilors earlier in the week. I introduced myself and told him that I’d been participating in the Citizens Academy at the prison. He told me that he hoped to make an appearance there soon and that he was glad that the program is being offered since most people do not know what he does. After three sessions, I still have no idea what he does, but it has been extremely informative learning about what the rest of the employees do within the correctional system. Sheriff Cousins did say that his goal is to reduce recidivism. How that is done was the subject of tonight’s session.
- Captain Kevin French, in charge of transportation and employed at Middleton since its inception spoke to us about the classification of inmates once they are arrested. The purpose of classification is to determine the needs and requirements of each prisoner and to assign housing units and programs accordingly, given the existing resources. It is stated in the Classification System Goals and Objectives 942.06 that “it is to enhance the potential for the inmates’ reintegration to a successful, law abiding and community life.”
- According to Captain French, a prison sentence is a time in the lives of inmates that they will remember because their minds will be clear of substance abuse. The vast majority of the prisoners have drug and alcohol addictions. In his opinion, alcohol abuse has been the most damaging, drugs second. An individual on their OUI with no criminal record is unlikely to do time. He would get out on personal recognizance and spend from five to seven thousand on a court-ordered recovery program. Other individuals without a history of violence or not in need of a rehabilitation program may serve their time in a minimum security unit at the farm in Lawrence, women at the Women in Transition facility in Salisbury. Sex offenders never qualify for the farm and juveniles are transported to other facilities.
Following Captain French’s presentation, Gale Brunault, the program director of Alternative to Violence Prevention gave a talk on the various rehabilitation programs offered. Prior to working with the correctional facility, Gail worked for fifteen years at eh Women’s Crisis Center in Newburyport. The rehabilitative programs are far more effective today since they are evidence-based. We would be meeting three inmates that have been participants in three different programs later in the evening.
The most popular program is the Treatment and Recovery for Addictions in Correction program (TRAC) where the basic philosophy is to establish a positive, caring community environment where the men can focus on recovery and behavioral change. Most inmates have never experienced a sense of community, the feeling it is to walk down a street and know people to talk to. The program lasts four to six months and 80 participants are all housed together for the duration. They learn to identify with each other in a supportive, shared therapeutic setting.
- A second program, Alternative to Violence is thirty five hour cognitive behavioral approach where the participants learn to take responsibility for their own behavior. They learn how their behavior cycles, if not corrected, will continue to result in negative consequences such as going to jail, losing a job and destroying relationships with family members and friends.
- The treatment of inmates with HIV offers educational counseling and medical care management. About 45 offenders each week participate in Adult Basic Education or GED classes. Life skills and other vocational trainings are also an integral part of Middleton’s correctional services. All of the same programming opportunities are available to female offenders at the WIT facility in Salisbury.
= Finally, Captain French and Gail Brunault escorted our group from the training room of the administrative building into the prison where three inmates were allowed time out of their blocks to share their rehabilitation experience with us. All three had achieved a level of leadership within their programs and valued the opportunity to share with the outside what the program had done for them after years of repeat visits to Middleton. All three were in their 30’s and shared a similar history of drug and alcohol abuse. One individual wore a dark brown jumpsuit. Having been a member of a white supremacist gang he was housed on a separate block where those inmates were not allowed any contact with rival gangs. He spoke of the family tragedies he’s endured including the death of his father by suicide off the Salem/Beverly Bridge. Playing hearts with the other inmates was preferable to striving for reintegration with the outside world. Having become a dad recently, the GED program was successful in motivating him to pursue his studies and finally shoot for his release date in several months, with more tools in his pocket to worth with. Another who classified his charge as “criminal thinking” referring to the constant temptation he was faced with the easy money to be made in drug trafficking and the difficulty there is to resist that. The youngest of twelve, a father of five, he felt he had made great strides towards breaking the cycle of his behavior. The third man had been getting high since he was a young child. He described his sentence as the only time in his life he’s had some mental clarity. He had become a mentor for new prisoners in the TRAC program and could not say enough about it. I was not able to take notes since we were not allowed to take anything with us out of the training room. Captain French showed us a collection of weapons fashioned by common household items. The prisoners are exceedingly creative with objects they manage to get a hold of. Weapons have been made out of torn off wall paper. Bars have been cut with dental floss.
- While we listened to the inmates tell their stories, correctional officers stood guard in the room with us. At one point one left the room and was replaced with another and I noticed two of the inmates whispering to each other. I wondered what they were discussing. I am sure there is a quite a culture of relationships with different Correctional Officers, each one having a reputation as either good or bad, not much different than students discussing their teachers in a middle school. Even though the men were in their thirties, I couldn’t help but think they were trapped in the middle school stage of development. Gail even referred to one of them as a good kid and I didn’t notice any obvious discomfort on his part. It would certainly be interesting to be a fly on a wall and listen to some of their conversations. I’m sure their family members and regular visitors get quite an earful about the goings from the inside. These carefully orchestrated encounters are the closest I’m ever going to get there, at least I hope!
Next week, we will be entertained by the canine units.
Citizens Academy
Week 3: Classification and Rehabilitation
- Attendance at the Citizens Academy continues to drop, down to fifteen tonight. More of us are starting to ask questions at least so the group is getting slightly livelier. Sheriff Cousins has not made an appearance yet, although he was scheduled to welcome us at the first session. I had an impromptu conversation with him at a fundraiser for one of the Newburyport City Councilors earlier in the week. I introduced myself and told him that I’d been participating in the Citizens Academy at the prison. He told me that he hoped to make an appearance there soon and that he was glad that the program is being offered since most people do not know what he does. After three sessions, I still have no idea what he does, but it has been extremely informative learning about what the rest of the employees do within the correctional system. Sheriff Cousins did say that his goal is to reduce recidivism. How that is done was the subject of tonight’s session.
- Captain Kevin French, in charge of transportation and employed at Middleton since its inception spoke to us about the classification of inmates once they are arrested. The purpose of classification is to determine the needs and requirements of each prisoner and to assign housing units and programs accordingly, given the existing resources. It is stated in the Classification System Goals and Objectives 942.06 that “it is to enhance the potential for the inmates’ reintegration to a successful, law abiding and community life.”
- According to Captain French, a prison sentence is a time in the lives of inmates that they will remember because their minds will be clear of substance abuse. The vast majority of the prisoners have drug and alcohol addictions. In his opinion, alcohol abuse has been the most damaging, drugs second. An individual on their OUI with no criminal record is unlikely to do time. He would get out on personal recognizance and spend from five to seven thousand on a court-ordered recovery program. Other individuals without a history of violence or not in need of a rehabilitation program may serve their time in a minimum security unit at the farm in Lawrence, women at the Women in Transition facility in Salisbury. Sex offenders never qualify for the farm and juveniles are transported to other facilities.
Following Captain French’s presentation, Gale Brunault, the program director of Alternative to Violence Prevention gave a talk on the various rehabilitation programs offered. Prior to working with the correctional facility, Gail worked for fifteen years at eh Women’s Crisis Center in Newburyport. The rehabilitative programs are far more effective today since they are evidence-based. We would be meeting three inmates that have been participants in three different programs later in the evening.
The most popular program is the Treatment and Recovery for Addictions in Correction program (TRAC) where the basic philosophy is to establish a positive, caring community environment where the men can focus on recovery and behavioral change. Most inmates have never experienced a sense of community, the feeling it is to walk down a street and know people to talk to. The program lasts four to six months and 80 participants are all housed together for the duration. They learn to identify with each other in a supportive, shared therapeutic setting.
- A second program, Alternative to Violence is thirty five hour cognitive behavioral approach where the participants learn to take responsibility for their own behavior. They learn how their behavior cycles, if not corrected, will continue to result in negative consequences such as going to jail, losing a job and destroying relationships with family members and friends.
- The treatment of inmates with HIV offers educational counseling and medical care management. About 45 offenders each week participate in Adult Basic Education or GED classes. Life skills and other vocational trainings are also an integral part of Middleton’s correctional services. All of the same programming opportunities are available to female offenders at the WIT facility in Salisbury.
= Finally, Captain French and Gail Brunault escorted our group from the training room of the administrative building into the prison where three inmates were allowed time out of their blocks to share their rehabilitation experience with us. All three had achieved a level of leadership within their programs and valued the opportunity to share with the outside what the program had done for them after years of repeat visits to Middleton. All three were in their 30’s and shared a similar history of drug and alcohol abuse. One individual wore a dark brown jumpsuit. Having been a member of a white supremacist gang he was housed on a separate block where those inmates were not allowed any contact with rival gangs. He spoke of the family tragedies he’s endured including the death of his father by suicide off the Salem/Beverly Bridge. Playing hearts with the other inmates was preferable to striving for reintegration with the outside world. Having become a dad recently, the GED program was successful in motivating him to pursue his studies and finally shoot for his release date in several months, with more tools in his pocket to worth with. Another who classified his charge as “criminal thinking” referring to the constant temptation he was faced with the easy money to be made in drug trafficking and the difficulty there is to resist that. The youngest of twelve, a father of five, he felt he had made great strides towards breaking the cycle of his behavior. The third man had been getting high since he was a young child. He described his sentence as the only time in his life he’s had some mental clarity. He had become a mentor for new prisoners in the TRAC program and could not say enough about it. I was not able to take notes since we were not allowed to take anything with us out of the training room. Captain French showed us a collection of weapons fashioned by common household items. The prisoners are exceedingly creative with objects they manage to get a hold of. Weapons have been made out of torn off wall paper. Bars have been cut with dental floss.
- While we listened to the inmates tell their stories, correctional officers stood guard in the room with us. At one point one left the room and was replaced with another and I noticed two of the inmates whispering to each other. I wondered what they were discussing. I am sure there is a quite a culture of relationships with different Correctional Officers, each one having a reputation as either good or bad, not much different than students discussing their teachers in a middle school. Even though the men were in their thirties, I couldn’t help but think they were trapped in the middle school stage of development. Gail even referred to one of them as a good kid and I didn’t notice any obvious discomfort on his part. It would certainly be interesting to be a fly on a wall and listen to some of their conversations. I’m sure their family members and regular visitors get quite an earful about the goings from the inside. These carefully orchestrated encounters are the closest I’m ever going to get there, at least I hope!
Next week, we will be entertained by the canine units.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Week Two: A History of the Salem and Lawrence Jails
- We were down to seventeen participants from twenty-one last night at the second session of the Citizens Academy, including one new person. I could sense some disappointment on behalf of the Correctional Officers and Administrators that have put a lot of time into preparing this. Their work is exciting and interesting and I'm sure they'd looked forward to sharing what they do with an enthusiastic crowd of twenty-five chosen participants. Possibly they might consider screening out applicants based on their general interest rather than the first-come, first serve approach that corralled many who saw the program as an employment opportunity. But again, it is a sign of the times. And their efforts will certainly not be lost on any of us no matter what the original goal of the program was.
- Last night, Sergeant Stephen Wilkins presented a very interesting slideshow and lecture on the history of the prison system in Essex County since 1646. He has worked at the Middleton House of Correction for seventeen years and has listened to many stories from the old timers that worked in the Salem and Lawrence jails. Sgt. Wilkins is currently assigned to a yearlong shift as a direct supervisor. He lives on one of the cellblocks with the inmates for every eight hour shift carrying no weapons, only a radio. He shared his opinion on the current state of our prison system. Incarceration today is a far cry from the inhumane conditions as recently as 1991 when the Salem jail at its closure still did not have plumbing. It wasn't until the 1980's that the Lawrence jail finally go water and toilets, forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit. Prior to that, all inmates used five gallon buckets that they emptied into a community swill.
- According to Sgt. Wilkins, what seriously adds to the difficulty of running a prison today is the large population of inmates with mental health disorders. With the closure of the state mental hospitals, we have no other place for the mentally ill and now 60 per cent of those incarcerated have some degree of mental illness. Correctional Officers must be trained to de-escalate situations with skills like verbal judo. An inmate must be redirected verbally three times or prompted back to his cell with gentle physical contact such as a hand on a shoulder before any physical force is used. Although we now offer a toilet per cell for the shared use of two inmates with no privacy, we have a long way to go to address the needs of our mentally ill population. In 1836, a law was passed to have "lunatics' as they were called be housed in prison as long as they were provided separate quarters. In 1881, the Ipswich jail was slated to be for the insane only. Four years later the state recommended tis closure, but Ipswich did not close until 1918.
- Segregation of inmates has been an area of concern in Essex County correctional facilities throughout history. From a time when all criminals were housed together, whether they were in debt or had committed murder, male or female, your or old, insane or not, inmates are now segregated according to the type of crime. Violent offenders are not housed with non-violent offenders. Pretrial inmates are held separate from convicted inmates. In 1748, you could no longer have debtors in with murderers. In 1817, the courts ruled that minors and first offenders could not be with more serious and notorious offenders. Another law was passed in 1884 to provide a special program for juvenile offenders. It wasn't until 1877 when a separate facility was built for female offenders. All women prisoners are now either housed in Framingham or at the Women in Transition program located in Salisbury.
- Sergeant Wilkins clarified for us the use of the term “correctional facility.” The term jail is used for a temporary holding place for pre-trial criminals. Prison refers to a state facility for convicted criminals and a house of correction is what is offered by law in each county. The Middleton House of Correction is currently about 50/50 pretrial and sentenced prisoners. One of the most notorious criminals, Dr. Sharp, a cross dresser from Gloucester who murdered his wife was held there for 19 months until he was adjudicated. When the Newburyport jail was in operation in the 1800s it mostly housed drunks and anyone awaiting trial in superior court that only held session once per year. He had a slide that showed an 1842 newspaper from the Newburyport Jail titled “A Voice from the Jail.”
- Sgt. Wilkins recommended a good read on the history of the Essex County jails written by a former sheriff, Robert Cahill; “Crime and Punishment in Colonial America.” It provides detailed accounts of the hangings that the sheriffs were responsible for, some hung for crimes like debt or infidelity. He also wrote about the witch trials in Salem in another book. The philosophy at Middleton House of Correction is less geared towards punishment and more towards rehabilitation. The goal is to provide rehabilitation and academic training to offenders while they are incarcerated so that they are less likely to repeat their mistakes once released. Next week we will learn more about the services provided at Middleton for drug addicts, alcoholics and batterers.
- Last night, Sergeant Stephen Wilkins presented a very interesting slideshow and lecture on the history of the prison system in Essex County since 1646. He has worked at the Middleton House of Correction for seventeen years and has listened to many stories from the old timers that worked in the Salem and Lawrence jails. Sgt. Wilkins is currently assigned to a yearlong shift as a direct supervisor. He lives on one of the cellblocks with the inmates for every eight hour shift carrying no weapons, only a radio. He shared his opinion on the current state of our prison system. Incarceration today is a far cry from the inhumane conditions as recently as 1991 when the Salem jail at its closure still did not have plumbing. It wasn't until the 1980's that the Lawrence jail finally go water and toilets, forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit. Prior to that, all inmates used five gallon buckets that they emptied into a community swill.
- According to Sgt. Wilkins, what seriously adds to the difficulty of running a prison today is the large population of inmates with mental health disorders. With the closure of the state mental hospitals, we have no other place for the mentally ill and now 60 per cent of those incarcerated have some degree of mental illness. Correctional Officers must be trained to de-escalate situations with skills like verbal judo. An inmate must be redirected verbally three times or prompted back to his cell with gentle physical contact such as a hand on a shoulder before any physical force is used. Although we now offer a toilet per cell for the shared use of two inmates with no privacy, we have a long way to go to address the needs of our mentally ill population. In 1836, a law was passed to have "lunatics' as they were called be housed in prison as long as they were provided separate quarters. In 1881, the Ipswich jail was slated to be for the insane only. Four years later the state recommended tis closure, but Ipswich did not close until 1918.
- Segregation of inmates has been an area of concern in Essex County correctional facilities throughout history. From a time when all criminals were housed together, whether they were in debt or had committed murder, male or female, your or old, insane or not, inmates are now segregated according to the type of crime. Violent offenders are not housed with non-violent offenders. Pretrial inmates are held separate from convicted inmates. In 1748, you could no longer have debtors in with murderers. In 1817, the courts ruled that minors and first offenders could not be with more serious and notorious offenders. Another law was passed in 1884 to provide a special program for juvenile offenders. It wasn't until 1877 when a separate facility was built for female offenders. All women prisoners are now either housed in Framingham or at the Women in Transition program located in Salisbury.
- Sergeant Wilkins clarified for us the use of the term “correctional facility.” The term jail is used for a temporary holding place for pre-trial criminals. Prison refers to a state facility for convicted criminals and a house of correction is what is offered by law in each county. The Middleton House of Correction is currently about 50/50 pretrial and sentenced prisoners. One of the most notorious criminals, Dr. Sharp, a cross dresser from Gloucester who murdered his wife was held there for 19 months until he was adjudicated. When the Newburyport jail was in operation in the 1800s it mostly housed drunks and anyone awaiting trial in superior court that only held session once per year. He had a slide that showed an 1842 newspaper from the Newburyport Jail titled “A Voice from the Jail.”
- Sgt. Wilkins recommended a good read on the history of the Essex County jails written by a former sheriff, Robert Cahill; “Crime and Punishment in Colonial America.” It provides detailed accounts of the hangings that the sheriffs were responsible for, some hung for crimes like debt or infidelity. He also wrote about the witch trials in Salem in another book. The philosophy at Middleton House of Correction is less geared towards punishment and more towards rehabilitation. The goal is to provide rehabilitation and academic training to offenders while they are incarcerated so that they are less likely to repeat their mistakes once released. Next week we will learn more about the services provided at Middleton for drug addicts, alcoholics and batterers.
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