Kurtis Urey describes the conditions in Pennsylvania prisons, touching on the food, drug use and the mercurial behavior of correctional officers.  

Pennsylvania prisons are not the place for rehabilitation, and it does not help one change for the better. It’s depressing, stressful, and inhuman. The staff and officers are more crooked and corrupt than those incarcerated. Dogs have it better in a pound than we do in prison. The drugs are just as bad and easy to access in prison as they are in the free world. Every day, inmates get in trouble for having drugs or failing drug tests, then the officers trash cells and make our lives hell trying to figure out where the drugs are coming from. But they fail to accept the truth, and the truth is that the drugs are being brought in by their fellow officers and staff members. I’ve personally been in a few Pennsylvania prisons and have seen multiple officers, nurses, and even administration members being fired/walked out for getting caught bringing in drugs, tobacco products, and even cellphones.

See, how it works is a verbally assaultive inmate will be physically assaulted by officers. There’s a grievance system in place that’s supposed to be for us inmates to file complaints about the way the officers and staff members treat us. But the warden always denies the grievance, saying there’s no proof and the inmate is lying. Even if you do attach evidence as proof to support your claim, as an inmate, there’s just no winning. Then when the big bosses come to the prison for an inspection, the officers and staff members treat us like we are actually human and with respect. But as soon as they leave, it goes right back to normal. And a lot of the officers and staff members are former, if not current, gang members out in the free world. Yet we’re the bad guys.

At my prison, we have a dog program, which is nice. But what’s sad is the animals get treated better than we do. I understand a lot of us may be sentenced and convicted repeat felons, but at the end of the day, we are still human beings, and everyone makes mistakes.

These places are so petty. For example, say another inmate asks you for a shot of coffee, or even a snack cake, and the officer sees it. All because you and the other inmate, two grown men, did not ask permission, you’re sent to lock into your cell for the remainder of the day and subject to a misconduct for lending and borrowing. There’s not a thing you can do about it, because it’s their way or no way. It’s not about care, custody, and control. To them, it’s all about power and feeling as though they’re above us. All because we are on different sides of the door. Even when we’re right, we’re wrong. Then if the officers don’t like or trust you, they will plant drugs or weapons in your cell just to get you off their block. They’ll lie and say you threatened them or their family, when the truth is you’ve probably never said so much as hi or how are you to the man or woman.

Then we are supposed to receive three hot meals a day, and to be honest I have been down for quite a few years now, and I don’t think I’ve actually eaten a hot meal yet. By the time they feel like serving it, it’s always cold. These places are jungles. You’ve got people hitting each other with combination padlocks tied to extension cords, and stabbing one another with plastic and self-made weapons. A good portion of what goes on is due to rumors and problems that the officers started to begin with. I know it’s sad, but it’s 100% the honest truth.

We have several educational as well as vocational courses available for us, but we’re lucky if we have more than one class a week, due to the teachers never coming to work.

When new staff and officers first start working in these prisons, they’re respectful, and some may even give the impression that they actually do care. But their attitudes toward us as inmates all truly depend on the officers or other staff that train them. If they see that a new officer is being nice and actually looking to help the men, they’ll remove them from the unit and place them somewhere else. Then they’ll be replaced by someone who’s all-out disrespectful for no reason. I’ve said it time and time again, because I believe it to be true. A lot of these people bring their personal problems to work and take it out on us.

Then you’ll get the ones who don’t care one way or the other, that are just here to collect a paycheck. Truth be told, they may be the worst ones if I’m being honest. Because they simply don’t care, and anything can happen on their watch, and they’ll “turn the other cheek,” so to speak.

Our family and loved ones never really know the true hell we go through on a daily basis. Because when they come to visit us, the same officers that treat us with disrespect are the ones that smile in our faces and show us respect while in the presence of our families. So when they’re not around and you tell your folks about how they treat you, they don’t always want to believe it. They may even say, “That nice young man can’t possibly be that bad.” But again, our families are not here 24/7 like we are, so they wouldn’t know.

It’s like the ones that treat us the worst are the quickest ones to move up in rank, but if they’re nice and respectful, they stay at the bottom. If you were to ask me, I’d say the whole system is backwards. But who am I? In their eyes, I’m nobody, and that’s the hardest part. Because when you see those same officers or staff out in the free world, they talk to you like a human being, like they didn’t just spend years (however long you were incarcerated) treating you worse than the mud on their shoes.

Something has to change. But we inmates can’t do nothing without an outside voice. If those on the outside don’t know what’s going on, then how can they help?

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