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33 Prison J. 2 (1953)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl33 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial WHY PRISON RIOTS ? For the first time since the disastrous riots in New York State and Pennsylvania a generation ago, the American public is becoming aware that something is fundamentally wrong with the state prisons in the country. This Journal is designed to promote public understanding of what is behind prison riots. It is our hope and belief that these papers will also be regarded as significant contributions toward policy formulation and public administration in the correctional field. The community will have learned little of lasting value from the wave of unrest which is sweeping the nation's prisons unless its thinking goes beyond surface grievances and superficial symp- toms which catch the eye of the citizens. It is high time for a fresh look - at prisoners, at prisons, above all at ourselves. Prisoners are people, even when they riot. They react like people - immature people who are volatile and aggressive to an exaggerated degree. They react like people deprived of their free- dom, offered meager opportunity for self-respect and spiritual growth. To be sure, their riotous outbursts are indefensible. Yet we must ask ourselves what has been provided by way of work, correctional training, visiting facilities, or grievance machinery to siphon off constructively the energy which has been turned to wanton destruction? We sentence men, more often than not in the prime of life, to institutions cut off by a wall from the flow of life in the community; cut off by starvation budgets from a cor- rectional training program which might kindle hope and awaken social responsibility. It has been truly said that a prison is a monastery of men who have not chosen to be monks. When the minds and spirits of men are put in a vacuum, desperation rushes in to fill the void. Chaplain A. W. Stremel of the Church of the Good Samaritan, Western State Penitentiary, cuts to the heart of the matter when, as quoted in the press after the destructive riot in Pittsburgh, he says, While prisoners can be rehabilitated, the man on the street also needs rehabilitation in caring for his less fortunate fellow man. These articles say that we have failed. We, the practioners in correctional work, have failed; we have known better than we have practiced. We have known more than we have shared with our fellow citizens. The blunt fact is that, as a result of neglect, our prison plant, program, and personnel are being starved. Con- sequently, we starve the prisoners, diminish their hope, and reduce their opportunity to grow in self-respect and sense of social obligation.

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