Fairness for Prisoners' Families |
Fairness for Prisoners' Families
Prisons open door to family criticisms
Wardens answer questions at meetings
Carlos Campos - Staff
Friday, August 8, 2003
http://www.ajc.com/friday/content/epaper/editions/friday/metro_f333735eb44ec18c0078.htmlMilledgeville --- The meeting Thursday morning in a state office building had the feel of a school open house --- room-to-room visits, greetings, handshakes, introductions and concerned loved ones asking questions.
But instead of teachers talking about grades, 41 prison wardens were talking about their inmates.
The state Department of Corrections on Thursday held its third quarterly meeting this year with inmate families.
Officials invited the friends and relatives of the 47,000 people incarcerated in Georgia to ask questions or make comments about its operations.
About 80 people attended, to inquire about issues that included access to medical care, visitation policies and the treatment of inmates by corrections officers.
"They will hear what you have to say, look into it and try to give you an intelligent answer," said James Doctor, director of facilities for the Department of Corrections.
After an hour-long question-and-answer session with the department's top executives, the meeting broke up into small groups.
The wardens and their supervisors from the department's four geographical regions met in individual conferences with the relatives of inmates. Wardens milled around outside office doors, waiting for questions.
People from around the state, including Atlanta, Augusta, Statesboro and Vidalia, traveled to the meeting for the opportunity to speak face to face with prisons officials.
Anne Stinson of Monroe, whose husband is serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated sodomy, met with Wendy Thompson, warden of Rutledge State Prison in Columbus, and her boss, Herman Johnson, a regional director.
Stinson was upset because prison officers have prohibited her husband from holding the couple's 3-year-old daughter during visits.
Thompson and Johnson explained to Stinson that rules prohibit prolonged contact with visitors, including infants and small children who potentially could be used to bring contraband, such as drugs, into the prison. But Thompson promised to talk to corrections officers at the prison, to allow for two minutes "to touch and briefly hold a small child."
Stinson, who was also upset because prison officials have refused to provide her with her own copy of the visitation rules, complimented the "professionalism" of the warden and her supervisor. But she was still frustrated by the answers she got.
"Two minutes is better than nothing," said Stinson, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. "But I'm not over it. It's not right."
Stanton Lore, a retiree of the Disabled American Veterans, woke up at 3 a.m. to drive from Columbia for the 9 a.m. meeting. Lore has a friend serving a life term for murder, in Georgia's Washington State Prison in Davisboro. Lore was frustrated because many of his questions to Department of Corrections officials were deflected to lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and others who put people in prison. Lore suggested bringing some of those people into the meetings to help answer questions.
"Something like that would be a huge undertaking," Lore said. "But it would create a whole lot of better understanding."
Corrections officials seem pleased with the quarterly meetings, started last year after a small group of inmate relatives complained about prison policies.
Inmate advocates have since formed a group, Fairness to Prisoners' Families, to help the friends and relatives of loved ones lobby for improved prison policies.
Doctor said that the agency had planned to hold just four such public meetings and that he sees value in them and wants to continue them.
"What we wanted to do was create an opportunity for dialogue, so you could get some information," Doctor told the crowd. "I really enjoy talking to you. I've always said the best thing an inmate can have is someone who is concerned about him. When he gets out, they're going to need you to be there for them to get their lives back together."
