PRISON DISTURBANCE CREATES A WAKE-UP CALL

The troubles at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution in recent days should
come as no surprise to anyone who has followed recent developments in
Wisconsin correctional policy. The latest moves by the state Department of
Corrections to transfer Wisconsin inmates out of state represent the worst
sort of stop-gap policy-making and it is no wonder that the prisoners whose
lives will be most affected by those moves would react negatively.

This may not justify the decision Sunday night of several hundred angry
prisoners at Fox Lake to refuse to report for an evening head count. But it
does explain their action.

As many as 300 inmates joined in the protest against the state's expanding
use of transfers. As crowding in Wisconsin prisons has reached a critical
stage, the transfers have become an integral part of state corrections policy.

But they are not good policy.

The transfer scheme has already placed roughly 1,400 inmates in jails in
Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, and those numbers are slated to increase
dramatically in the months ahead. Wisconsin officials acknowledge that
there is widespread anxiety among prisoners regarding the transfers, and
for good reason.

The moves place Wisconsin inmates in jails in states that are notorious for
their substandard conditions and their lack of adequate rehabilitation
programs. They also place inmates far from families and friends whose
support is vital to ensuring they can successfully return to their
communities.

Worst of all, the transfers appear to have taken on a political character.
Among the Fox Lake inmates slated for transfer to Tennessee soon is Adrian
Lomax, who has exposed a number of flaws in the state corrections system.

Wisconsinites need not sympathize with Lomax or other inmates to recognize
that the transfer policy is wrong-minded. If pursued, it will cost
taxpayers dearly in the form of failed rehabilitation, an increase in
repeat offenses, expensive lawsuits and, as Sunday's developments
illustrated, tensions within the prison

Checked-by: Richard Lake