Cutting prison program staff seen as step backward

By SHERRY HALBROOK
In April, the state Department of Correctional Services announced plans to further reduce program staff in state medium- and minimum-security prisons, by a total of 213 positions through attrition.

PEF leaders see the plan as a major step — in the wrong direction. “If New Yorkers want to reduce crime and increase

public safety, then the state should add, not cut, program staff in state prisons,” says PEF President Roger Benson, who has led the union’s efforts to improve prison programs and staffing.

“Sooner or later, the vast majority of convicted felons in the state are released back into society. Basically, we have only two ways to influence how well they do after they get out — prison programs and parole supervision. Unfortunately, the state is understaffing both of these, a situation we want corrected.

“Currently, about half of the inmates who are released from prison commit new crimes and have to go back,” Benson says. “If we want them to become self-supporting, law-abiding taxpayers, we must help them make good use of their time in prison to acquire the skills and habits they need to earn an honest living. And we must give them the parole supervision and assistance they need as they make the transition back into society.”

Attica sparked programs
Ever since staff and inmates died in the quelling of the Attica uprising decades ago, the state has acknowledged the need to rehabilitate inmates and has offered academic and vocational programs, as well as counseling for drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and predatory behavior.

But staffing for these programs failed to keep up with ballooning inmate populations in the 1980s and ’90s. Instead, staffing fell drastically behind.

While the number of inmates has jumped by nearly 15,700 since 1990 and more of them are incarcerated for violent crimes, the state has added only seven program staff positions and now wants to reduce them by 213.

DOCS projects the overall population will drop 9 percent from 69,406 this April to 64,800 by April 1, 2002.

These shifts are based on state programs to release non-violent offenders earlier and violent offenders later than under previous sentencing and release policies.

“Now that changes in state laws and sentencing practices are creating shifts within the inmate population, the state should use this opportunity to finally catch up by adding enough staff,” says PEF Region 4 Coordinator David Stallone, PEF chair of the Joint Labor-Management Committee at DOCS and an education supervisor at Auburn Correctional Facility. “Instead, it is cutting staff and undercutting future public safety with them.”

How much is enough?
The official standard for how many staff are enough keeps changing, says PEF Executive Board Member Tom Donahue, who has been a vocational instructor at Altona Correctional Facility since 1984.

“This prison had about 500 inmates when I came to work here,” Donahue says. “That number went up to about 750 and then began to decline. Now, were back at 500. We have gone through ‘Right Sizing’ and they say we’re where we should be, but we have fewer program staff than when I started.

“The standard for class sizes used to be one vocational instructor for approximately 12 inmates, applying the standard for students with ‘special’ educational needs, which was correct because many of them have lots of learning problems,” Donahue says.

“But as the inmate population grew and the state budget varied, the state changed the standard to one instructor for 15 inmates, and now it is up to 20 inmates for each vocational instructor. The current standard is at 25 inmates per (academic) teacher,” Donahue continues. “The standard changes as the budget dictates.”

Real challenge to teach
You can’t compare teaching in a conventional high school classroom with prison teaching, Donahue says.

DOCS keeps moving inmates from one prison to another for security reasons. But that mobility wreaks havoc with instruction.

“I teach drafting, and you can’t learn that in just a few weeks. It takes time. It has to be one-on-one instruction. I can’t stand up in front of a class and lecture, because every inmate in there is at a different level, since they all started at different times. I get someone new almost every week. One student has been in my class two years and someone else just two days. So, I spend a lot of time teaching the first half of the course, because many students are moved before they can go beyond that.”

Programs few, far between
Because there aren’t enough program staff, when an inmate moves on to another prison, he may not be able to pick up where he left off in his previous instructional program, Prison programs are in short supply.

“DOCS has only 14 vocational computer-technology shops in its entire system,” Stallone says.

The waiting list to get into programs is very long. An inmate may request drafting and be assigned to custodial maintenance, instead, because that is where there is an opening. But once the inmate enters that program he can’t switch to drafting later when an opening comes up there.

Hard facts on ‘hard time’
- Inmates who earn a high school diploma or successfully complete a substance-abuse program in prison are significantly less likely to return to prison after release than inmates who do not complete these programs.
- 4,800 NYS inmates are on active waiting lists for academic programs.
- 9,300 NYS inmates are on active waiting lists for vocational programs.
- 11,300 NYS inmates are on active waiting lists for substance-abuse treatment.

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 100 more prison teachers would be needed
Bill would boost educational requirements for parole

By SHERRY HALBROOK
Imagine trying to get an honest job that would pay enough to support you and your family if you didn’t have at least a high school diploma. What if you also had a criminal record as a convicted felon?

Recognizing just how daunting that challenge is for thousands of inmates released from state correctional facilities every year, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio has introduced legislation that would require state prison inmates to earn a general-equivalency diploma (GED) or take months of classes to qualify for parole.

“This bill (S4524) does a lot to meet one of our legislative goals,” says PEF Region 4 Coordinator David Stallone, PEF chair of the joint labor-management committee at the state Department of Correctional Services.

“We have been pressing the state to adopt the educational standard required for inmates in federal prisons,” says Stallone, an education supervisor at Auburn Correctional Facility near Syracuse. “Federal inmates who lack either a GED or a high school diploma must attend an adult literacy class for at least 120 days, or until they achieve a GED.”

If New York adopted this standard, he says, it would have to hire 100 more prison teachers.

In announcing his bill, Nozzolio said approximately 3,100 state inmates earned their GEDs last year. That was up 10 percent over 1995, but is far from meeting the need.

“More than 35,000 state prison inmates have not completed high school,” Stallone says. “And 18,000 read below the fifth-grade level.”

“We heartily commend Sen. Nozzolio for introducing this legislation. We have worked closely with him as chair of the Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction, to improve programs to reduce the numbers of inmates coming back into the prison system after release.”

Jeffrion Aubry, who chairs the Correction Committee in the state Assembly, also is considering submitting legislation to promote state prison educational programs.

PEF estimates that it would cost the state $4 million to hire the additional teachers.

“That seems like a lot of money until you realize that every time a parolee makes a successful transition to a law-abiding life in the community, it saves the state at least $30,000 per year,” Stallone says.

“That’s why we keep reminding lawmakers that just filling the existing vacancies in prison program staff could cut the number of inmates returning to prison by 1,400 per year and save the state $42 million annually,” he says.

“You don’t have to be a Wall Street wizard to see what a great investment that is.”