U.S. PRISONS CALLED RISK TO LIVES

Report Lists Overcrowding, Few Constructive Activities As Conditions
That Cause Inmate Violence

Overcrowding, cruel conditions and a lack of constructive activities
for inmates fuel violence in America's prisons and threaten public
safety because most inmates return to their communities ill-prepared
for daily life, according to a report to be presented to Congress today.

"Few conditions compromise safety more than idleness," says the
report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, a
nonpartisan group that has studied conditions inside the nation's
correctional facilities for the past year. "But because lawmakers
have reduced funding for programming, prisoners today are largely
inactive and unproductive. Highly structured programs are proven to
reduce misconduct in correctional facilities and also to lower
recidivism rates after release."

The report highlights issues that have emerged in Maryland as state
officials struggle to control prison violence that records show has
turned increasingly deadly in recent years.

"It sort of validates what we've been saying," said Frank C. Sizer
Jr., the state's prison chief. "You can't continue to lock people up
and not do anything with them and put them back into society with no
tools to be able to cope."

Some correctional officers have been critical of Sizer and his boss,
Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Mary Ann Saar, for
focusing what they say is too much of their attention on inmate
rehabilitation. They say it has come at the expense of safety and
security of prison staff.

"There is a balance between security and treatment," Sizer said. "A
good treatment program only serves to improve safety and security."

The report being released today is the product of a yearlong study by
a 20-member commission that held hearings around the country and was
staffed by the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit
group that researches criminal justice issues. The commission was
co-chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas de B. Katzenbach
and John J. Gibbons, former chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals.

The report says there is far too much violence in America's prisons
and cites "other serious problems that put lives at risk and cause
immeasurable suffering."

The problems include "too many facilities that are crowded to the
breaking point, too little medical and mental health care,
unnecessary uses of solitary confinement and other forms of
segregation, a desperate need for the kinds of productive activities
that discourage violence and make rehabilitation possible, and a
culture in many prisons and jails that pits staff against prisoners
and management against staff."

Among other things, the commission recommended that policymakers
eliminate crowded conditions at prisons and jails, invest in programs
proven to reduce violence and change behavior in the long term and
substantially reduce the use of physical force in dealing with the
inmate population.

"The majority of prisons and many jails hold more people than they
can deal with safely and effectively, creating a degree of disorder
and tension almost certain to erupt into violence," the report says.

The country spends about $60 billion a year on corrections, said
Alexander Busansky of the Vera Institute. He said 2.2 million people
are in prison or jail. Maryland operates 27 jails and prisons that
house about 27,000 inmates at any given time, according to state
corrections officials.

Maryland prisons and jails, like many others around the country, have
long suffered from overcrowding, state officials say.

The problems are particularly severe at two state-run facilities in
Baltimore, the Central Booking and Intake Facility and the Baltimore
City Detention Center. Both have a history of violent incidents.

The report says a variety of factors fuel violence.

Besides overcrowding, unnecessary or excessive use of force can
provoke broader violence, the report says. And the increasing use of
high-security segregation at prisons "is counterproductive, often
causing violence inside facilities and contributing to recidivism
after release."

An inmate placed in segregation is kept locked in an isolation cell
for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months at a time and often with
little human contact, the report notes.

The commission also called for a change in federal rules to shift
health care costs for eligible prison inmates to Medicaid and
Medicare programs, which would ease some of the burden on the states.

Maryland Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services
Mary L. Livers, who testified before the commission, said the report
should lead to positive discussion about changes that are badly
needed in the field of corrections.

She said it is "vitally important to staff safety and to inmate
safety" for inmates to be involved in productive activities while
they are incarcerated.

Livers said administrators have been trying to move Maryland's
correctional system more in that direction, calling it "a major
culture shift" from the way business has been done in the past.