Prison system is rotten

We refer to the department that runs our prison system as the Department of Corrections.

That word, “corrections,” is chosen deliberately. It is meant to signify that the intention of locking away residents who have broken our laws is to correct their behavior. “Correction” implies rehabilitation. “Prison” implies simply punishment.

And that’s why we thought it was a big deal that the company that supplies prisoners with telephone service was attempting to obtain permission from state legislators to charge for local calls made from behind bars. Part of rehabilitation includes maintaining ties with your family, including your children. Making that harder seems to run contrary to the mission of “corrections.”

An interest in rehabilitation is also why we reported in today’s paper that the Palmer Correctional Center received a major slap late last year from the State Ombudsman’s Office, which found that officers there had violated an inmate’s constitutional rights in the way they handled a disciplinary case. If correction is the goal, shouldn’t we make sure we respect inmates’ rights as we expect them to respect the rights of others?

It’s sad to see a state department accused of, among other things:

• Being lax enough to let an officer go home with seized heroin in the pocket of his or her uniform

• Being cavalier about human rights abuses

• Lacking a good understanding of state law for prison discipline

That’s sad but really the most tragic part of the whole thing is that we weren’t really surprised by these revelations. The department as a whole and the Palmer Correctional Center in particular has shown itself time and again to be a scandal factory.

In January 2014, we reported about an incident in which the president of the union representing correctional officers was pepper sprayed in what appeared to be retaliation for his union activities. The department never, to our mind, adequately explained itself and settled short of a trial with the union declaring victory.

In April, Palmer Correctional Center was embroiled in scandal after an officer there was found to have been smuggling drugs and cellphones to inmates.

That summer — just a few months later — saw the department feuding with the Alaska Dispatch News over records it didn’t seem to want to turn loose regarding inmate deaths. The newspaper wouldn’t have been asking for the records if it hadn’t been for a shocking and inadequately explained rash of inmates who died in custody.

The stated mission of our prisons is to correct criminal behavior. But, in our view, Alaska prisons actually serve a much different purpose. They are a place where we lock people away and forget about them. We have done such a good job forgetting about these inmates that we don’t even bother to scrutinize the institution we charge with their care.

As a purely economic matter, we should care since we spend about three times more annually to warehouse a prisoner than to educate a child.

Clearly, the department has been allowed to rot. A new governor has been installed in Juneau. The corrections commissioner was one cabinet-level official he chose not to retain from the previous administration. We hope this is a signal he intends to excise that rot.

Let’s hope in this time of tight budgets he is up to the task.