38. Personal correspondence from Daniel Glaser.
39. Erickson, Ragen (see chap. 1, n. 21, above), p. 71.
40. See Glaser’s contrary view, at n. 38 above.
41. In his very perceptive unpublished manuscript “We Send the Wrong Men to Prison” (1954) former inmate R. F. Jahns estimates that “less than 20% of the total inmate population is employed in the several state-operated industries permitted by labor law.” The 20 percent estimate corresponds with estimates provided by several informants.
42. Personal correspondence.
43. Warren (see n. 28 above), p. 130.
44. This is according to “Characteristics of State Prisoners,” (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1962.) While it is exceedingly difficult to find a way to express average time served by an inmate population, there is no doubt that before the new sentencing provisions of 1961 Illinois prisoners were serving very long sentences. The pre-1961 laws provided that an offender sentenced to life must serve twenty calendar years before being eligible for parole. Those inmates sentenced to a definite term of years had to serve one-third before parole eligibility, i.e., an offender sentenced to ninety-nine years had to serve thirty-three calendar years at the minimum.
A letter to the editor in the June 1955 issue of the Joliet-Stateville Time (a prisoner-published newsletter) reported, “Since I’m a resident of Cell House C and celling in 328, I figured out one for Dave. In casually glancing around the cell house, I got a total number of years equal to my cell number: CH 34 yrs., EM 29 yrs., GT 27 yrs., FF 26 yrs., WB 26 yrs., WP 25 yrs., MF 23 yrs., JB 21 yrs., JB 21 yrs., FB 20 yrs., LC 20 yrs., LE 19 yrs., RK 19 yrs., AD 18 yrs. Total: 328 yrs.
45. An interesting fictional account of the influence of John Ditto, a big shot and the editor of an inmate newspaper, based upon a prison experience at Stateville, was presented in J. E. Webb, Four Steps to the Wall (New York: Bantam Books, 1948).
46. Gresham Sykes, The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958). Sheldon Messinger and Gresham Sykes, “The Inmate Social System,” in Cloward et al., Theoretical Studies (see Intro., n. 9, above).
47. Ragen and Finstone, Inside (see n. 6 above), p. 190.
Chapter 3
1. Pappy Dort had come to Stateville in 1933, even before Ragen arrived, and had been an assistant warden since 1950. William Burris began his career at Stateville during World War II and was appointed as assistant warden in the mid-1950s. The third assistant warden, Vernon Revis, entered Stateville in 1951, became the youngest lieutenant in its history, and was appointed assistant warden when Pate became warden.
2. Weber speaks of the “routinization of charisma.” “It is the fate of charisma, whenever it comes into the permanent institutions of a community, to give way to powers of tradition or of rational socialization. This waning of charisma generally indicates the diminishing importance of individual action.” Weber (see chap. 2, n. 5, above), p. 253.
3. John Twomey, Stateville’s warden between 1970 and 1973, recalls that upon assuming his duties he was stunned to learn that the “old boss” with whom he was frequently (and unflatteringly) compared was Joe Ragen and that “there was practically no mention of the man who had been my predecessor for 10 years” (private interview).
4. James D. Thompson speaks of an organization’s ability to neutralize environmental encroachments as the basic principle of organizational action. Thompson, Organizations in Action (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967).
5. Ragen is said to have discouraged his staff from becoming involved in local community affairs. No doubt he saw community involvement as competitive with the absolute identification with and loyalty to the prison which he demanded. In the Southern Illinois prisons, local folkways and the political tradition have never allowed a prison warden to maintain such an aloof and independent position.
6. The very fact that Stampar, a close Ragen protégé in Springfield, was (according to his own report) considered a complete outsider at Stateville is excellent evidence of the complete homogeneity of the staff. Stampar recalls that in his first few years he was constantly fighting to liberalize the old rules which had been in force for decades. Consistent with the whole theme of this chapter is Stampar’s recollection that “in those days they wouldn’t relent at all; they wouldn’t give the inmate anything.”
7. So often has the story of the insurance agent who volunteered to teach at Stateville been brought to my attention that it would be an oversight to neglect its mention. Several staff informants explain that in 1967 or 1968 an ambitious young insurance salesman obtained government funding to teach a course on investments to inmates at Stateville. The staff say that he rarely showed up for the course and used it merely as a publicity gimmick for his own aggrandizement. It was experiences like this that led Warden Pate frequently to reiterate that “Stateville is one of the most over-programmed institutions in the world.”
8. Because this statement might seem self-serving had it come from union organizers, I should point out that the information comes from one of the staff people who participated in the monitoring of union activities.
9. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1961 ch. 38 par. 801 states “every person sentenced to the penitentiary regardless of the length of such sentence shall be eligible for parole at the end of twenty years.”
10. Kubala v. Kinney, 25 Ill. 2d 491, 185 N.E. 2d 337 (1963) held that the 1961 section on parole eligibility for those serving determinate sentences of life must be interpreted to apply retroactively to those sentenced before 1 January 1962, the effective date of the act.
11. In a 1962 letter to the Illinois attorney general, Pate stated that there were forty-four inmates at Stateville/Joliet who at the time had already served more than twenty years.
12. The amount of money sent to Stateville/Joliet prisoners between 1 July 1964 and 30 June 1965 was $731,407 for an average population of 3,169. Eight years later a prisoner population which was only 60 percent as large received $822,986 from outside sources.
13. The Black Muslims are undoubtedly the largest and most organized group ever to reside in American prisons. Their impact upon American prisons, particularly on prisoners’ rights litigation, has yet to be adequately assessed. Under the direction of Elijah Muhammad, the Black Muslims throughout the 1950s and 1960s strove to become a broad-based mass movement in the United States. Prisoners, alcoholics, dope addicts, and prostitutes were not excluded. On the contrary, they were from the beginning seen as particularly embittered and frustrated and therefore a potentially important source of recruitment. When C. Eric Lincoln published The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press) in 1961, there were three temples behind prison walls. For discussions of some of the early confrontations between the Muslims and prison authorities see: “Black Muslims in Prison: Of Muslim Rights and Constitutional Rights,” Columbia Law Review 62 (1962): 1488; Brown, “Black Muslim Prisoners and Religious Discrimination: the Developing Criteria for Judicial Review,” George Washington Law Review 32, 1124 (1964. See also James B. Jacobs, “Stratification and Conflict among Prison Inmates,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 66, no. 4 December 1975.
14. The prison had arrived at a cozy accommodation with the traditional religions and their ministers. The Catholic chaplain since 1947 had been both formally (since he sat on committees) and informally, a member of the administration. The traditional religions, like latter-day group psychotherapy, urged upon prisoners a definition of themselves as morally tainted. The chaplains would carry out favors for inmates but only within very limited bounds.
15. For similar occurrences at other prisons see Fulwood v. Clemmer 206 F. Supp. 370 (1962); Pierce v. LaVallee 212 F. Supp. 865 (1962).
16. Cooper v. Pate 324 F. 2d 165 (1963). Speaking for the Court of Appeals, Judge Duffy said: “A prisoner may not approve of prison rules and regulations, but under all ordinary circumstances that is no basis for coming into a federal court seeking relief even though he may claim that the restri
ctions placed on his activities are in violation of his constitutional rights.”
17. Cooper v. Pate 378 U.S. 546 (1964). Cooper was represented before the Supreme Court by Alex Elson and Bernard Weisberg.
18. Cooper v. Pate 382 F. 2d 518 (7th circuit) 1967.
19. Depending upon whose estimates one accepts, between 33 and 50 percent of the segregation inmates were Muslims. In a 9 March 1965 memorandum from the disciplinary captain to Pate (obviously written with an eye toward building a record for litigation), each inmate in segregation was identified as “White,” “Colored Muslim,” or “Colored, not known to be a Muslim.” There were nine listed in each category. At the trial, Cooper claimed that twelve of the segregation inmates were Muslims.
20. The disciplinary captain documented the Muslim challenge to the social order of the prison in the following memorandum to the warden on 23 July 1966, which was passed along to the Attorney General: “. . . of an approximate population of 3,000 inmates, we have knowledge of approximately 100 self professed followers of the black Muslim Sect which roundly speaking, is 3% of the total population of the institution. During the past eleven months, there has been 134 disciplinary cases, a total of 57 were inmates claiming to be Muslims. This amounts to approximately 42%. . . . A review of disciplinary reports regarding disrespect to and disobedience of officers and officials has revealed the fact that approximately 80% of these reports can be attributed to this same 3%.”
Also worth mentioning is the fact that due to the converting efforts of these Muslims, which includes agitating, preaching of race hatred, and in some cases physical force, has led to several incidents where other inmates, who did not want to be converted to the Muslim doctrine, have had to be transferred from their assignments and cell houses for their own safety.”
21. Consider the following administrative reply (dated 8 September 1972) to Cooper’s request to maintain possession of a medallion: “Regarding your grievance and our follow-up interview, I have been able to discuss this situation with Warden John J. Twomey. I showed him the paper work that we had on this issue of returning to you the Islamic medallions that you had fashioned in the institution and which were now being kept by Captain M. B. Hall. I showed him the court case and the number that you had sent to me dated August 31,1972. Mr. Twomey does not feel that he can change the basic policy of the Adult Division of the Department of Corrections. Religious medals are allowed to the men if they are presented to them by the Chaplains who in turn receive these from interested friends and relatives. If a medallion is not received by the resident from the Chaplain, then it is considered contraband and contrary to the rules of the institution. Warden Twomey considers then that the medallions in question in the possession of Captain Hall are to be considered contraband unless the department changes its basic rules. Therefore, I am afraid that I cannot help you with your grievance in this matter insofar as my assistance would be contrary to the departmental regulations.”
22. In spring 1975, 147 Stateville inmates listed themselves as Muslims. I counted 127 subscriptions to Mohammad Speaks, but the card list of journal subscriptions is not kept up to date.
23. This practice persisted until Judge Will ordered it discontinued in 1966. By that time, however, the inmates maneuvered to segregate themselves.
24. Several inmates, black and white, have told me about a small number of Klan. The long and bloody history of the KKK in Southern Illinois lends some credence to these reports. See Paul M. Angle, Bloody Williamson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952).
Chapter 4
1. The 1965 figure includes the entire central office of the Department of Public Safety which also had responsibility for other state agencies like the state police. Thus, the actual increase in the size of the central office is even greater.
2. Perhaps the height of Bensinger’s success with the media came in the October 1972 issue of Reader’s Digest in an article entitled “Prison Reform: Illinois Shows the Way.” The introductory blurb stated: “In three years, one of the worst correctional systems has been transformed into a national showcase by an imaginative businessman who wanted to serve his state.” The article was condensed from Earl and Minan Selby, “Prison Reform: Illinois Shows the Way,” Christian Herald, October 1972.
3. In 1975 Bensinger was defeated in his campaign for the office of Cook County sheriff. In early 1976 he was appointed by the president to head the Federal Drug Administration.
4. Illinois Revised Statutes, chap. 38 §§ 1001–8.
5. Ibid., § 1003-2-6.
6. Ibid., § 1003-5-2.
7. Bensinger expressed shock when I informed him that the mail room employees were continuing to read (and return) outgoing mail despite clear directives and regulations to the contrary.
8. “Ragenite” is a term with which many of the long-term employees identify positively.
9. Revis recalls that during the middle sixties dozens of warden positions around the country were offered him, but that none were tendered after 1969. The process of professionalization had caught up with Corrections.
10. Fogel studied under the noted criminologist Leslie Wilkens.
11. Sielaff holds degrees both in law and in social work. In August 1976 he left Illinois to become director of the Wisconsin prison system.
12. I have been told by reliable sources that at the time Sielaff took over the department there was a memorandum on file from the demoralized Twomey to Acting Director Coughlin, recommending that Stateville be left on “continual lock-up” inasmuch as “there was no way to ensure the safety and security of the institution.”
13. Sielaff and Brierton appointed a separate warden for the Joliet prison, a reform suggested in the 1966 Galvin report and also pressed unsuccessfully on Peter Bensinger by Norval Morris. The Galvin report was a more or less routine survey of the Illinois prisons in the mid-1960s. See John J. Galvin, “Correctional Services (Preliminary and Confidential Draft for Commission consideration—May 2, 1966),” Commission on State Government—Illinois; Staff Memorandum no. 14, 1966. Here as elsewhere I am indebted to Professor Hans W. Mattick for bringing obscure documents to my attention.
14. Cannon had studied at Ohio State under noted criminologist Walter Reckless.
15. During this period, I spent four months (September–December, 1974) of daily observation at Stateville, attending staff meetings, interviewing, and observing the Cannon administration.
16. The two assistant wardens were illustrative of the trend toward professionalization of correctional administration. Robert Kapture (age thirty), assistant warden of programs, had completed all requirements except the dissertation for his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Illinois, where he had studied under Daniel Glaser. Kapture had for several years worked as an administrator at the Reception and Diagnostic Unit in Joliet, and viewed himself as a correctional professional. Daniel Bosse, assistant warden of operations, was also young (twenty-eight) and college-educated. He was a graduate of Michigan State University (in law enforcement) and was studying for his master’s at Chicago State University (where Kapture was a part-time instructor). Bosse had been a schoolteacher at Stateville, then administrative assistant to Pate (who drafted him as an aide to the Bensinger task force) and to Twomey, then warden of the Minimum Security Unit, before becoming assistant warden of operations.
17. Brierton seems to attract high praise from all who come in contact with him, further suggesting that Stateville may be entering a period of restoration. The Reader’s Digest article (see n. 2 above) gave praise to Brierton for his successes in the juvenile division equal to that given Bensinger. Brierton has also received favorable comment from Patrick J. Murphy, formerly chief attorney of Chicago’s Juvenile Legal Aid Society and a man with few kind words for institutional administrators. See Murphy, Our Kindly Parent, the State (New York: Viking Press, 1974), p. 72.
18. Ibid., chap. 5.
19. One of the more important changes is the appointment of Arthur Wallenstein as clinical services d
irector. Wallenstein had completed all but the dissertation toward his Ph.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania—another example of the new young professionals.
20. The chief guard left Stateville in the spring to become assistant warden of the Psychiatric Division at Menard.
21. Consider the fact that in 1958 there were sixty-seven prisoners assigned to the administration building. The largest number worked in the mail and censor’s offices (16) and as porters (15).
22. Much of this material on the Stateville counselors had been separately reported in James B. Jacobs, “The Stateville Counsellors: Symbol of Reform in Search of a Role,” Social Service Review 50, no. 1 (March 1976).
23. Perhaps the prison is one of the last communities where one can witness at first hand the transition from a Gemeinschaft to a Gesellschaft.
24. It is interesting to note that this has become a somewhat generalized phenomenon in American society. The tremendous increase in the percentage of appellate cases has been a frequent subject of comment by lawyers and judges.
25. For the last seven months of 1974, there were 259 appeals to the Inquiry Board from a Stateville inmate population of approximately 1,450. In other words, for that period approximately 30 percent of all grievances were appealed to the second stage. Inmates also did better in getting relief at the second stage. Roughly 23 percent of the appeals to the Inquiry Board for this period were successful as compared with about 10 percent success on first-level grievances.
26. Ma Houston, long-time prison reform crusader and currently affiliated with Operation PUSH, often sits on the Administrative Review Board—to the horror of the Stateville staff.
27. Between 6 September 1973 and 31 December 1974, the Administrative Review Board heard 240 third-step appeals from Stateville, Of these, 123 were resolved “totally favorable” to the inmate. Of the remaining, 85 were resolved “totally unfavorable” to the inmate and 32 with mixed results.
Stateville- the Penitentiary in Mass Society Page 30
