Saturday morning musings

I'm technically on vacation but felt moved to post with a few things in the news. Plus, I just miss my good friends at Speaking Freely, like anonymous, anonymous, and anonymous.

• With emergency contraception now available over the counter, sales for 2007 will likely be twice what they were in 2006. And this has groups like the Family Research Council aghast. "This is very concerning," said Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council, which is among several groups suing the FDA to reverse the decision. "We think this is putting women's health at risk." Right. The FRC would rather these women get pregnant and have an abortion than prevent the pregnancy in the first place. That makes no sense.
• On Thursday night, more than 150 people attended a public hearing on prisoner abuse at Dauphin County Prison, which was sponsored by the Harrisburg branch of the NAACP. All participants who gave testimony took an oath to tell the truth, and the stories were compelling. At times, you could hear a pin drop. One woman witnessed another woman being held over a railing on one of the upper tiers of the prison. Several men told of being attacked while handcuffed and laying on the ground face first. Based on the evening's testimony, common practices at DCP include banging an inmate's head against the wall, walking on an inmate's achilles heels, legs, and back, and punching and macing an inmate while he/she is incapacitated in some way, e.g. handcuffed, shackled, strapped to a chair. The Breaking News Blog of The Patriot News is usually pretty quiet, but it has attracted an outpouring of comments on this issue, here and here.

Andy in Harrisburg

What is going on in Pennsylvania's prisons and jails?

Something is rotten in the state of corrections. In the last three days, the following news story have hit the streets:

Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Study: Drugs, sex in Beaver County jail

A private investigation firm says the Beaver County Jail is tainted by sex, drugs and violence and that guards are involved in all three.

The findings range from a female guard having sex with a male inmate inside the jail, to a guard providing OxyContin to an accused killer, to an inmate being doused with water and left out in the cold for 45 minutes.

The Patriot News: Jury finds inmate not guilty of assault

Somehow, an inmate was acquitted in a case in which he allegedly assaulted a guard, which caught a lot of us by surprise. Then again, the crime "victim" strapped the "perpetrator" into a chair and maced him while four of his buddies stood nearby. That's not exactly a sympathetic victim.

This follows on the heels of an increase in allegations of abuse of inmates by guards at Dauphin County Prison. The ACLU of PA has joined a coalition called County Prison Watch to address these issues.

AP: Judge lets prison rape suit advance

"Plaintiff paints a disturbing picture," U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin found. "She alleges during the time period at issue, SCI-Cambridge Springs was a virtual haven of sexual activity between Department of Corrections employees and inmates."

McLaughlin found enough credible evidence in depositions and documents collected to order June 25 that the prison case should continue and be heard by a jury.

Many people will respond that lawbreakers deserve what they get in prison. That lack of vision fails to see that an overwhelming majority of inmates will one day be back in our communities. What kind of people do we want re-entering society? Do we want them to be prepared for life on the outside? Or do we want people who have been further exposed to the cycle of violence and degradation, which makes it all the more likely that the cycle will continue spinning downward and land them back in jail?

Corrections is one of the Commonwealth's biggest budget items. What other services are neglected because of our leaders' lack of vision in dealing with our prisons and jails?

Andy in Harrisburg