Kansas Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood seems caught up in a wave of rationalization.
After inmates at the Norton facility rioted a week ago, he reasoned mass protests that have unfurled across the nation in recent weeks encouraged inmates to do the same. After all, he noted, they have access to television, and may watch demonstrations the same as everyone else.
The Norton event followed several at El Dorado maximum-security prison.
It is noteworthy that Iolan Tom Bevard recently told the Register he and Freedom Ministries had been asked to do more during prison visits. That is because other programs meant to take inmates’ minds off the rigors of incarceration have been scaled back due to funding cuts.
Bevard’s team feeds inmates snacks and drinks, entertains with music and then has a religious service.
Gov. Sam Brownback recently ordered guard pay increased by 5 percent across the board and 10 percent at El Dorado. That may be helpful, by keeping seasoned personnel on duty, but building decay and crowding still begs an infusion of revenue sufficient to make differences.
As for guards, every job has a learning curve, and having new faces in prisons isn’t advantageous. They aren’t aware of routines and inmates aren’t comfortable with a change of the guards.
Recent pay raises aren’t going to make a whale of a difference. Current annual starting salary for Kansas guards is a tad less than $30,000 annually, or $5,000 less than in Nebraska and $10,000 less than in Colorado. Staff turnover is exceedingly high, 33 percent overall and 46 percent at El Dorado, where 87 of 360 positions are open.
Also surely a contributor to unrest is double-bunking at El Dorado and Norton
We doubt inmates protest offhandedly. “It’s almost always something concrete,” David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, told the Associated Press.
As the saw goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” Put external and internal forces together, and it puts a storm to brewing.
After the riot 100 of Norton’s 856 inmates were transferred elsewhere, which could foment protests in other facilities.
INMATES ARE in prison because they did wrong, and they shouldn’t look forward to lavish country club treatment. However, they should expect to be treated in a humane way, including some conveniences to fill their waking hours, and not be forced into crowded conditions, which make daily functioning more of an ordeal.
Long gone — or at least should be — is the time when going to prison, or local jail, meant being persecuted and living in conditions that harkens to long days of physical and mental woes.
Rehabilitation is the goal, and that can’t be achieved if crowding, extended periods of boredom and frequently having to adjust to new keepers are the rule.
Prison problems surely were exacerbated by the Kansas treasury suffering great losses of revenue from the 2012-13 income tax cuts. With those cuts somewhat restored perhaps we can see more money flowing into the prison system, maybe enough to make improvements to facilities and increase numbers of beds.
Nearly 10,000 adult Kansans are under lock and key in DOC prisons, including 140 “farmed out” to other facilities. Add to that an unknown, but substantial, number awaiting adjudication or being held in county and city jails on local charges or convictions.
Punishment is very much a part of the issue, but finding ways to prevent our citizens from turning — or returning — to crime is another very large piece of the puzzle.
We’re looking at an enigma of immense proportions.
— Bob Johnson
