- 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.
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