YOU OUGHT TO THANK US

750,000 men, women care for inmates, maintain public safety.

Calling the recently released report on prisons and jails a "scathing
indictment of the nation's correctional system" totally misses the
mark and the point of the report. USA TODAY ought to be thanking the
750,000 dedicated professional men and women who work in our
correctional systems for maintaining public safety. It is big news
when a riot, an escape, an injury or death occurs within a facility
- -- because it rarely happens.

Inmates are the only group of Americans with the constitutional right
to adequate health care, while more than 45 million Americans have no
health insurance.

Correctional facilities have more oversight than nearly any other
governmental agency. Our "watchers" include the U.S. Department of
Justice Civil Rights Division, federal and state courts, the American
Civil Liberties Union, fire marshals, health inspectors, ombudsmen,
inspector generals, and thousands of U.S. citizens serving as
volunteers. There is little doubt we are the most transparent system
in the world. Many nations never open their correctional systems to
any visitor.

For more than 40 years, the American Correctional Association has
maintained standards and accreditation of our jails and prisons. The
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons even urged all
facilities to become ACA-accredited. Countries worldwide look to our
standards as a benchmark of professionally administered systems.

Can we do more? Of course we can, but we need county, state and
federal governments to step up to the plate and fund treatment,
education, job skills training for inmates and adequate pay for our
workers. Public health has let this nation down. The 350,000-plus
inmates with serious mental illness were that way when they entered
our systems. Corrections cannot be blamed for a lack of treatment.
Inmates are our brothers and sisters and our sons and daughters, and
nearly every one of them will return to our communities. We need to
treat their diseases, mental and physical, to help them turn the
corner on living a productive, positive life.

Most corrections professionals have known long before this report was
issued that people can change. We, and they, just need the tools to
effect that change.

God forbid that any of us are ever locked up in a jail or prison
cell. But if it ever happens, be very thankful if it's in the USA.

James A. Gondles Jr. is executive director of the American
Correctional Association.