"Classification" and "Adjustment" in a Maryland Women's Prison
Toynbee, Polly
MEANWHILE THE REALITIES ‘Classification’ and ‘Adjustment’ in a Maryland Women’s Prison by Polly Toynbee The Maryland Correctional Institution for Women stands on its own in a field in...
...The big front gate is pulled shut, but not locked, all day...
...They are harsh on those who fall foul of the system, but go out of their way to do right by those who want to get along...
...The girl’s face fell even further and she left...
...Traurig said, “You must remember, these people are human beings...
...But you did disobey the officer...
...Whose cord was it...
...Miss Hays was still shaking her head and looking upset...
...Do you have any questions for the witness...
...Traurig, I looked forward to my tour of the campus and the cottages...
...asked Miss Citrenbaum...
...The prison is called a campus,” and the inmates are referred to as “residents,” “ladies,” or “girls...
...DO you wish to make any statemeat...
...Both were charged with the same offenses...
...The doors have large, square holes in them, some covered from the inside with pieces of material to give some semblance of privacy...
...If you ask me, I’d say this was a clear case of a lovers’ quarrel...
...It was plugged into the light socket by an extension cord...
...She’s right that a lot of them do have these cords...
...Joiner in C Cottage...
...What’s more,” said Miss Byrd, “I don’t think she borrowed it from a lifer...
...Standing over people, examining every aspect of their daily lives-when they take showers, what they eat for breakfast, how they address their superiors, what hours they watch television-the staff is reduced to the same petty obsessions and frustrating minutiae as the inmates...
...Royster: “You don’t know what it is to be a woman...
...She was given a life sentence, which in Maryland means she must serve a minimum of 1 1 years and four months before becoming eligible for parole...
...Just inside the gate is the new Administration Building, built a year ago: brick outside, painted cinder block inside...
...The inmates don’t want to settle in...
...I know why he sent you to us...
...Some of the inmates had filled their rooms with possessions...
...I very much doubt whether there are any brutal and sadistic officers, of the kind that are said to work in men’s prisons...
...Traurig avoids using words like “prison” and “jail,” and often refers to the institution as a “structured environment...
...In spite of the strong prison tradition of the old hands passing down prison lore to the newcomers, the inmates were constantly taken by surprise, particularly by the rules governing the movement from one classification to another...
...B) There seems to be some small confusion here about what the situation is with regards to visits to those who are sick...
...He then read the report written by a correction officer who had charged Carol Brown with breaking Rule A. The rules are extremely vague...
...If all has gone well, she will be put into Grade 2 status...
...A counterbalance to his rigid opinions is Miss Hays, a middle-aged black woman who runs the education department...
...You are charged with disrespect...
...She sat in the seat at the end of the table, and Mr...
...My sister was there and they were telling her I was sick...
...Of all these, the women’s institution is said to be the least brutal, allows the most freedom, and has the best and most comfortable facilities...
...This girl hasn’t been reported before...
...Word gets around quickly...
...Must be within 10 months of parole eligibility...
...We want to say a few things about this place...
...Rule A forbids “disobeying of any order of the Warden, Assistant Wardens [in the women’s prison wardens are called superintendents], or any officer of the institution, or any prison rule...
...But no laws define a prisoner’s rights when she appears before the prison’s Classification Team...
...It shows how much care and attention she was receiving that no one noticed what she was doing until the water poured down to the floors below...
...It’s such hard work, and you always begin by being too sympathetic...
...Work Release, top status: Inmates live in own cottage, with no officers...
...All of ‘the women are Polly Toynbee is an editor of The Washington Monthly...
...The girl was told that she had a visitor up at the Administration Building but that she would not be allowed to have her visit, as the prison nurse had instructed her to stay in her room...
...She had disobeyed these instructions and gone up to the Administration Building to see her visitor, but was sent back by the officer in charge of visits...
...If a Council member commits a single breach of the rules, she is removed from the Council automatically...
...They con you...
...asbed Mr...
...In Quarantine - The structure of life in the prison is elaborate, intricate, and obsessive...
...I sensed then that the images of criminals and villainous escaped convicts that appear in children’s books are always with us, just below the surface, ready to jump out at unsuspecting reformers...
...I don’t know what you all are doing standing around here,’’ Mrs...
...When Mary was asked for her plea, she nodded her head and said, “That’s right, like it says in the report...
...There are some things you ought to know...
...I hoped I wouldn’t have to talk with any of the inmates, for fear I might say the wrong thing and be attacked...
...I was from the free world and no one could do anything to me...
...We have to make our demands to Mr...
...This lasts for about two weeks...
...Girls who pass by the room often tap on new girls’ doors, in a friendly way...
...I don’t believe either of the counselors thinks of herself as a jailer, and a harsh one at that...
...Inside the prison the greatest cause for resentment is what the inmates call “different strokes for different folks,” in other words, favoritism, or the arbitrary application of the rules...
...Stop and talk with us...
...You mean take away my TV...
...Traurig had said that it would be dangerous for me to walk around the place unescorted...
...He was well aware of all the new ideas in penal reform...
...The others laughed too, and the girl was brought back in...
...it contained this curious paragraph: It is important that the outsider not be misled by outward appearances...
...They both described how they had graduated from universities and couldn’t find jobs...
...I was looking forward to getting back to the Administration Building, with its bright paint, air conditioning, and normalcy...
...I could imagine this scene being reenacted every month, almost word for word...
...She was young, black, and wore a bandana around her head...
...The hearing I attended took place in the prison’s board room...
...These girls are my assignment...
...The Council members were articulate and coherent...
...By now 1 had been in the prison enough to feel oppressed by having to be escorted everywhere...
...Later in the month she was accused of damaging state property...
...Then we began pushing the yarn about on the floor...
...I wondered if he had only thought of this after all these months because I was there...
...There was more humming and pondering on this, and when they came to a decision the girl was called back...
...She understood that, and said she was, giving the witness’ name...
...The Council meets once or twice a week...
...If it is against the rules, if the nurse left a specific instruction on this before she went home, then the resident should never have been told that she had a visitor...
...I thought then that it wouldn’t take much to make her blood boil...
...Last time we reviewed her we took away all her commissary privileges, as she had not behaved well...
...Another two years were added on...
...Miller...
...In June, she was charged with assault and attempted escape...
...It started with the coffee, something really small...
...She said she was...
...Escaue It was the following Wednesday that the Parole Board came to the prison...
...Some of them seemed to like her and made jokes or urgent requests of one sort or another...
...Extension cords are against the rules...
...None of the names may be of people recently released from jail...
...The Adjustment Team The Adjustment Team holds hearings once a week to evalute reports of infractions of the rules and to hand out punishments to those found guilty...
...She was an English literature major and hated the idea of working in a prison but stuck with it...
...He had said something about not wanting to have me “bopped on the head,” and at the time I had made a mental note that he was trying to censor me...
...So I got ready and had a shower and went over to the Administration Building...
...This could mean anything...
...How could they...
...Look,” said Mr...
...As we walked down the path beside the buildings, the women stared at us with mild curiosity...
...No, it isn’t...
...My father was making payments on a new car for me, as we both were sure I’d be working very soon and be able to pay him back, but as time went on, I kept going to interviews where there were thousands of applicants for very few jobs...
...Of course, all those found guilty lost classification status...
...Let’s let her off...
...She was soon to appear in court on charges of attempted escape...
...She was told to leave the room and wait while the Team discussed the case...
...For the following two reasons we have determined that you shall be reprimanded...
...asked Mr...
...Royster smiled...
...The counselor will work with you and for you in helping you to get into the programs which will best benefit you...
...The last case of the morning, Mr...
...Miss Brown,” said Mr...
...Must pay $2.50 a day room and board and $1 a day for transportation...
...I’m talking about how it started...
...Last year, six babies were born in prison...
...Taking away a week’s TV might sound like a slight sentence-and so it is, compared to others the team could have handed down-but from seven o’clock on, watching television is virtually the only thing to do in prison...
...Some become so hysterical and desperate in those first few days, locked in a tiny, airless room, wearing only a paper gown, that they get into trouble and are “written up” for smashing furnishings, swearing at an officer, or attempting an escape, before ever having a chance to be unlocked...
...At first I thought she was a man...
...They have a job to do, and they do it...
...No one listens to us...
...The girl didn’t seem to grasp the fact that her witness had essentially testified against her...
...She had a sunshade on her forehead and was wearing an old tee shirt and men’s trousers...
...When I asked the other two Team members why they had reached such different decisions, they weren’t able to give a very good explanation...
...The lovers were only caught last night...
...There is also a whole range of privileges granted for good behavior...
...Well, I think it’s a serious matter and she should do some Grade 4 as well,” said Miss Citrenbaum...
...Miller, leaning back in his chair and laughing...
...The prison had hounded Carolyn and driven her to a point of complete desperation...
...Miss Byrd did not look alarmed, and she told the girl to let go, saying that she had no time to waste talking...
...Miss Hays looked as if she couldn’t contain herself any longer and her words came out in a rapid burst...
...The Team members were looking at the girl, and she looked from one to another of them...
...They’re always complaining that they’re sick to get out of work...
...The witness was called in...
...Joiner and I walked to the Administration Building, she held me firmly by the arm, as if she thought 1 might break and run for it...
...In addition, there is Jackie Byrd or one of the three other counselors, who sit on the Team when one of their cases is being evaluated...
...all are separated from families and loved ones...
...They all laughed...
...In a curious way, the distinction between the officers and the inmates becomes blurred...
...After she has had her physical and X-ray, she is allowed reading material and confined to her room...
...She explained that I was a journalist...
...You don’t want to stop and talk to them...
...While still restricted to Lane Cottage, she is no longer locked in her room...
...A new officer found one of them on top of the other with her pants down...
...The inmate’s daily life depends entirely on the Team’s decisions...
...Both girls had claimed that they had only been playing and that there had been no fight...
...The Counselors I had a long talk over lunch with two of the counselors, Miss Citrenbaum and Miss Byrd...
...Even if all the other prisoners were treated humanely, the simple fact of Carolyn Richardson’s imprisonment up there behind her heavy meshed screen window, out of sight and out of contact, would entirely alter the quality of everyone’s life in that place...
...Miss Byrd’s story was much the same...
...Royster over the case...
...She was almost at the door before she stopped, turning around and asking, “Does that mean it’s going to take me more time to qualify for Grade l?” “Yes,” said Miss Citrenbaum...
...The officer said she found Mary using her fists on the other girl, Wanda, who was attempting to defend herself...
...I think loss of TV privileges for one week,” said Miss Citrenbaum, who always seemed to be first with the sentences...
...Until now she had seemed indifferent to the whole procedure...
...You softhearted ladies...
...When he burst in on her, she said that she wanted to get her clothes from the bed...
...After all, the resident is the one who complained, and if she’s too sick to work, she’s too sick for a visit,” said Miss Citrenbaum...
...She took a cup of coffee out of the dining room, which is against the rules even though inmates are allowed to make coffee in the cottages...
...Miller read her the officer’s report, which said she had been in another girl’s room, crocheting, when there was the sound of an argument, then loud scufflings, before the officer finally burst in...
...I have to charge my TV 16 hours to watch four hours...
...The next inmate to appear before the Adjustment Team was a big, heavy black girl, young, with a droopy, sad-looking face...
...After all, you don’t know that her clothes aren’t dirty and disease-carrying...
...He is young and black, and was elegantly dressed in a pale blue denim jacket with white stitching, matching blue-check trousers, shiny shoes, and tinted glasses...
...If I wasn’t allowed no visit she wouldn’t of come and told me, would she...
...The whole place is very green...
...She will ask things like, What can I wear...
...Should give her plenty of time to get her TV charged up good...
...At least, that’s the implication...
...Most of the crimes they have committed are property crimes, larceny of one sort or another...
...He couldn’t be said to be very independent of the prison system, but at least he is not in the employ of the prison’s superintendent...
...Now there is a system installed whereby Carolyn’s toilet can be flushed only from outside the room by an officer...
...She will be asked if she has any problems...
...They were both locked up for a while after the incident...
...Royster read over Carolyn’s record, perhaps for my benefit, perhaps because he always read the record, even when everyone was familiar with it...
...If at the end of two weeks she has committed no infraction, the new inmate appears before the Classification Team...
...Traurig...
...These conferences were like fishing trips to him and not really connected to his actual work...
...Everyone agrees that the first week is the worst...
...One woman grabbed Miss Byrd by the arm, saying, “Come and talk to me, come on, sit down and talk...
...Throughout the proceedings she looked as if she understood very little of what was going on...
...She panicked and locked them in the room and ran screaming down the corridor for help, as if they were going to stay in that position while she went to get witnesses...
...They voiced complaints of injuries, unequal treatment, lack of training or recreation facilities, the prison system itself...
...She said that Mary had only pushed her, just as the officer came in, and that they had merely been playing around, arguing jokingly about the color of the yarn...
...The Classification Team is a powerful authority in the prison...
...Groups of inmates were huddled together, talking, some of them loud and angry, one or two in tears, both of joy and despair...
...They all agreed-guilty as charged...
...I saw one room in B Cottage inhabited by a lifer who had already served a few years of her sentence...
...A field with woods behind it stretches away from the high fence...
...Instead of using force, armed guards, locked doors, electric fences, and high watch towers, the prison pressures the women into obedience by offering petty rcwards...
...You are charged with violations of Rule A and Rule F.” Rule F reads: “Leaving of cell or place of assignment or other appointed place without permission .” “Are you representing yourself...
...That’s right...
...She said it was...
...Miller, recovering himself, “I think the officer was right and someone seems to have lost her temper in this incident...
...The Adjustment Team keeps statistics of all the hearings...
...I didn’t disobey, with no penalties hanging over my head...
...Miller...
...All the outside adjustment hearing officer has to go on is the information provided by the officers of the prison, the previous reports on the inmate, including the prison’s estimation of her character and adjustment...
...There was an enormous gap between his descriptions and the reality, as if he were blind to what was really going on inside...
...Of these, only 20 were found not guilty...
...Royster as if he was bored with going through this same discussion with Miss Hays, “we’ve given her every chance...
...Is there anything else you would like to say...
...The girl stopped Miss Byrd and asked when she might be allowed out of restriction and placed in Grade 2 status, the most common classification...
...She never told me I couldn’t go...
...It decides who will receive what status...
...Not guilty,” said the girl...
...We’ve told her that she can have a month off lock-up for every month that she’s good...
...Joiner, the supervisor of C Cottage...
...How did it all start...
...There were one or two other women standing around, watching...
...The heat in these tiny cells was appalling...
...He sat back in his chair, laughing and throwing his hands in the air in an expansive gesture, “Oh, you ladies...
...When it was explained what this meant, it was ascertained that she was...
...What are they going to say about giving one girl some Grade 4 and some Grade 3 and the other nothing...
...You will be assigned to a classification counselor who is a member of the Team...
...The officers of the Adjustment Team discussed the case...
...The rules are hard to understand and the system takes a lot of studying before it can be fully grasped...
...I think I know about this,” said Miss Byrd...
...If you object to our decision, you have three days in which to appeal to Mr...
...I gave her a push to stop her stepping on them, and then the officer came in and said we was fighting, but we wasn’t...
...She said it was...
...I’d never thought of working in a prison...
...I didn’t get to typing her General Report,” Miss Byrd said, apologetically...
...It was simply necessary for them to behave that way in order to survive in the institution...
...From the gate, and from the Administration Building, the buildings where the inmates live are not clearly visible...
...Yes, sir,” she answered...
...The officer is not called unless an inmate requests it, a rare occurrence...
...She should be taken to the gym for some rec,” Mr...
...She told the same story...
...After being hauled off to Maximum Security, Carolyn threw a glass of water at an officer...
...She is taken out once a day for a shower...
...In women’s institutions of all kinds, sadism is channeled into more subtle and insidious outlets -fanatically enforcing the rules, promising carrots that always remain just out of reach, a hundred Catch22s, petty persecution, the constant process of watching, reporting, evaluating, prodding people out of any sense of peace or dignity...
...Each cottage elects two Council members, and all inmates vote for the president and secretary...
...Although she hasn’t been in trouble before, I feel she may have a nasty temper and should do some Grade 3 for this,” said Miss Byrd...
...Oh,” she said, suddenly understanding...
...Carolyn Richardson’s case had been taken up by the Baltimore Legal Aid Bureau, which has a prisons project...
...Then, on June 21, Carolyn was charged with disrespect and was given another year...
...Miller asked...
...I went to see the nurse because my stomach was hurting, that was all...
...During the week I was there, the numbers in each grade were as follows: Maximum Security: 8 Grade 4: 2 Grade 3: 8 Grade 2: 93 Grade 1: 19 Minimum Security: 3 1 Work Release: 9 The classification system is supposed to give the inmates incentives...
...After my first week I didn’t think I’d last...
...sometimes someone would stop us and talk with her...
...Nor, for that matter, would the classification system work if everyone were moved to Grade 1 or Minimum Security...
...serving sentences of 90 days or more-those with shorter terms are kept in city or county jails...
...I was allowed to peer through a hole in the door to the Maximum Security corridor, where Carolyn Richardson and others were kept...
...There are 70 correctional officers: 62 female, eight male...
...Grade 1 inmates live in B Cottage, the best in the place...
...Everyone must be treated the same...
...Still,” said Mr...
...As in other prisons, when inmates break the rules, they come before a hearing officer who “adjusts,” not punishes, them...
...I’d say it was Mary...
...The report said that as soon as the officer entered the room, the two girls stopped fighting and that no intervention had been necessary...
...The fact that the hearing officer comes from outside the institution makes very little difference when the only evidence available on which to judge the case is a badly written report...
...She was a small, thin, pretty black girl, with a handkerchief around her head and a pair of glasses...
...The prisoners say that quarantine dan be the worst part of a prison sentence...
...As Mrs...
...She said that Delia had been told she couldn’t have her visit and had gone out of the cottage without permission...
...The superintendent refers to the main “employers” in the prison as the “sewing shop,” “dietary services,” and “custodial work” (“I hate to use the word janitor...
...The small, highly privileged group of women on work release is always there as a goal...
...We have determined that you should have all TV privileges removed for the period of one week...
...That is what Carolyn is rebelling against...
...The Adjustment Team gave her a staggering sentence of one year of lock-up in the Maximum Security corridor...
...A lifer isn’t about to lend it out, especially at television time...
...Seven years in a tiny, empty cell, where the air doesn’t get in...
...Royster said...
...But I understood then how completely impossible it was for them to resist the pressure of prison authority...
...She is allowed to go out as far as the dining room for meals, to have a visitor once a week, and use the cottage recreation room, where there is a television...
...The welders were large, with mostly close-cropped hair...
...I just don’t know what to say to you ladies...
...Yes,” she said, and thought a moment, then shrugged and said, “Oh, never mind...
...You disobeyed the officer...
...Let’s try and explain something about it to Mary,” said Miss Citrenbaum...
...But Miss Byrd went on, “You know, at her first adjustment I just got this feeling about her...
...It’s automatic in a place like this...
...Miller asked the other two...
...I was croAnswers to JulylAugust puzzle: cheting a halter top for Wanda and we was arguing about the colors...
...Both these women are ordinary, decent people, with no particular axes to grind...
...There are elections every six months, and to qualify for the Council inmates must have gone for 60 days without an infraction...
...She told me she’d had orders from Mr...
...I didn’t think I’d have any trouble finding work...
...They agreed on that, and told the girl she was found not guilty...
...The Superintendent Harry Traurig had been away for a few days at a conference in Nevada...
...Or a baby that needs looking after...
...All that the prisoners could conclude was that the Team liked the looks of Delia Montroy and decided to let her off...
...She has the Maryland prison rule book, but it applies more to men’s institutions than women’s, is hard to follow, and only outlines the system in the vaguest way...
...By now the prisoners must have known who I was...
...She didn’t seem able to produce a total criticism of the system that had locked Carolyn Richardson in, so she took an easy way out and spat at Mr...
...She may revise the list later if she wishes...
...I suppose they might have wondered why I didn’t insist on doing what I wanted to do...
...The Team members looked at each other...
...Joseph Miller is the adjustment counselor currently assigned to the women’s prison...
...Are you going to call any witnesses...
...If absolutely necessary she is allowed to make a phone call...
...Wanda stepped forwards and she was going to step on my glasses on the floor...
...It looked like the Old Curiosity Shop, not a spare corner of wall or a surface uncovered-clothes hung all around, a mountain of possessions crammed into a space scarcely bigger than a broom closet...
...Some of them were sitting on benches, a few were listening to radios...
...But she is equally likely to get the sticks, which are as follows: Grade 3: Normal life during the day, locked in room after evening meal...
...he asked...
...If, upon watching them through the door, they seem to have bad mental problems, we call for the psychiatrist...
...I can see no reason why her story should not be known and remembered: “Now we come to Carolyn Richardson...
...What do you think...
...However, we feel we should point out to you that it is your duty at all times to obey an officer...
...Does she have a cat at home that needs to be fed...
...More than 70 per cent are black...
...Miss Byrd was young and pretty, thin as rhubarb, with arms like pencils...
...problems of which drug addiction, alcoholism, and feelings of guilt and insignificance are a few examples...
...We wouldn’t be fighting...
...Then she refused to go to her room and had to be physically taken there...
...I asked if it was normal for someone to get a year’s lock-up for swearing and showing disrespect to an officer...
...When the women saw me, they came towards me, noisy, but friendly, and began calling out, “Tell it like it is...
...Well,” said one of the counselors, laughing...
...Less than 15 per cent of those who appear before the Adjustment Team ever appeal, and then they have to provide new evidence in order to have their appeal heard...
...If you have questions about a rule, or if you feel you are not being treated fairly, you can discuss this with the officer, but you must at all times obey...
...Isn’t this going to cause some trouble...
...But, she pointed out, there was no rule that said that you forfeited your visit if you were sick...
...I didn’t disobey no one,” she said in her slow voice that neither rose nor fell...
...They find it hard to understand why anyone should not obey, why anyone should not see that it is in her best interest to obey and get ahead in thc system...
...She looked extremely surprised and left the room, as if she expected them to change their minds and call her back any minute...
...She has no television or radio or reading materials,” said Miss Hays...
...But you wise up pretty quick and get to learn what’s really going on...
...As we came to the campus, I was disappointed to find only a large, square piece of grass surrounded on all four sides by massive institutional blocks-the cottages -grim, red-brick structures with bars on the windows and concrete steps leading up to locked wire doors...
...You mean you plead guilty?’’ asked Mr...
...Miss Byrd went out to try to explain it to the girl who was to be punished...
...We’re just ordinary inmates, and please don’t call us ‘residents,’ ” said the Council president...
...The stupider the inmate seems, the easier it is for an officer to feel she can help...
...Although the counselors and officers probably don’t think of it in such a Machiavellian way, the prison system requires that a large number of people be constantly found guilty of small offenses and be put down in status from time to time...
...Snowball in Hell Mr...
...The counselor shook her head and said it wouldn’t be for some time...
...Yes, like it says...
...She flooded the floor until it was six inches deep, and then she just laughed and wouldn’t mop it up,” Mr...
...Traurig, and he takes at least three months to answer our requests, and the answer is nearly always ‘no,’ or ‘that’s not for you to discuss...
...Miller...
...I think it’s hers...
...I guess we don’t have anything else to take from her,” Miss Byrd said...
...The girls looked back at us as we went into the Administration Building, and I suppose they thought I was on the side of the officers and didn’t want to talk to them...
...Sixty per cent are drug users of some kind, though not necessarily addicts...
...Miss Byrd then said, “But, of course, you always get trouble if you start fooling about with their visits...
...And I can’t watch it in the rec room...
...The Team does not hand out what is officially recognized as punishment, and yet the whole prisonisrun through the classification system...
...It isn’t a question of rules...
...She’s been raising hell to a progressive extent ever since that first infraction,” he said...
...Do you have any objection to that decision...
...Well, she got caught and that’s just the breaks,” said Mr...
...I didn’t want her going home and getting my family worried, thinking I was on my deathbed or something...
...An inmate can discover what they are only by trial and error, and by relying on the often-misleading word of another prisoner...
...Do you understand...
...It is the arbitrary aspect of the classification system rather than the incentives it falsely offers that has the greatest effect on the women...
...None of the persons incarcerated here enjoys it or likes being here...
...Miller...
...So, however good all the inmates were, there would never be a situation in which more of the inmates were allowed on work release...
...Ain’t no rule says you can’t have no visit when you’re sick...
...From time to time rumors would come back about who had and hadn’t made parole...
...She argued with the officer who reported her and was locked up for swearing...
...We’ve given you a reprimand...
...You get taken in so many times by the inmates...
...As with anyone who has a long period under lock, her case will be automatically reviewed once every 30 days...
...Royster said...
...Except for lifers, inmates can only use battery-operated televisions...
...Miss Montroy, the Team has found you guilty as charged...
...Miss Citrenbaum explained that the reason for the rule against extension cords was that they are a fire hazard...
...As we got near the Administration Building there was a curious atmosphere in the air...
...He had written a small handbook, to be issued to visitors and volunteers...
...Carolyn Richardson’s first infraction had been on April 23, after she had been in prison for a few months without gettingainto any trouble...
...Lying becomes a form of self-preservation for the inmates...
...The new “resident” has no way of knowing what sort of life she is about to be thrown into...
...Other rooms were bare, and no attempt had been made to make them like home...
...The ,policeman who found the girl after she escaped was almost shot...
...and several thousand others-are not written down...
...Some of them looked transformed, wearing their best dresses, their hair neat and faces made up, instead of the usual shorts and tee shirts...
...The Team heard a great many cases that day, most of them fairly routine...
...At the trial, the girl’s twinsister testified against her, and it was thought that if she got out again she would try to kill her sister...
...I think,” said Miss Byrd, “that there is some confusion as to what the rule is about people who are sick getting their visits...
...It would be hard to conclude that the entire prison population was schizophrenic...
...I guess we should try and put some rationality into this...
...You have been found guilty of an infraction...
...She never disobeys, Wanda...
...The first class from the new cosmetology department graduated this summer, and there have already been one or two courses completed in welding...
...Joiner said...
...Sitting at one end of a long table in the board room, the officers talked and laughed between themselves while they waited...
...The windows were small, and the rooms were not light...
...Nearby are Maryland’s other main prisons-the Men’s Correctional Institute, the Detention Camp, and the Patuxent, an institution for “deficient delinquents...
...he asked...
...They thought they might have been a little harsh, but reassured themselves with Miss Byrd’s remark that Mary had a nasty temper, although it hadn’t led to any other incident as yet...
...Meals will be brought to her on a disposable tray, to avoid contagion...
...After reasonable behavior, a good chance of moving out of Lane, into C Cottage...
...They don’t have strong views, either about the prison or about the society that created it...
...Minimum Security: Qualify only after 60 infraction-free days in Grade 1. Unlimited visits and phone calls, allowed to cook own food in the cottage...
...It was a very hot day, and at this time in the afternoon the inmates were allowed recreation outside...
...It is a purely internal administrative body...
...Royster, wanting to bring the discussion to an end quickly...
...a male officer accused her of having taken some piping out of the wall, and attempting to attack him...
...Mary was accused of violating Rules A and D. Rule D forbids swearing, cursing, or using any other vulgar, abusive, insolent, threatening or any other improper language toward any other inmate or officer, or indecency in language, action, or gesture at any time...
...The same offense usually warrants several weeks of lock-up...
...MEANWHILE THE REALITIES ‘Classification’ and ‘Adjustment’ in a Maryland Women’s Prison by Polly Toynbee The Maryland Correctional Institution for Women stands on its own in a field in Jessup, where it has been for more than 40 years...
...Let’s say, then, that if she can be good for two weeks we’ll let her have a gym rec,” Mr...
...Don’t ask us what we do to help this place because we don’t do nothing...
...Miller, “the board has determined that you are guilty as charged...
...The girl was edging away from the table...
...She explained, “On admission a girl is given a classification counselor and is brought here to this department...
...I don’t agree with that at all...
...Only a very small number of the inmates were violent, compared to a much larger number among the men...
...The heat in the building was dreadful, and it was dark in the long corridors with their somber, red linoleum floors...
...Now I was expecting to be hit, and I wished I had someone other than this tiny counselor with me...
...He was appalled by her situation, but not optimistic about getting anything done: “I don’t think anyone in that institution has stopped and asked themselves whether locking her up has made her better or worse...
...She was sitting on a bench by the door of Lane Cottage, the house reserved for Maximum Security inmates and new arrivals...
...Miller asked Delia...
...The rest of the grade system works as follows: Grade 2, the most common status: One visit, one phone call a week...
...Do you have anything else to say...
...It’s just the same thing on the street, isn’t it?’’ Mr...
...If an officer is allowed to feel that she is helping a girl, doing some good, that the job is worthwhile, things are likely to go better for that prisoner...
...She will then fill out a visiting card on which she is allowed to write 15 names...
...She is much liked by the inmates who know her...
...By all the evidence anyway she wasn’t the hammer, she was the anvil, on the receiving end...
...Do you understand what we have said...
...She took me around the building...
...However, the outside hearing counselors don’t come from very far outside...
...A young lawyer named Luther Blakiston had just visited Carolyn for the first time when I spoke with him...
...The two girls were asked to leave the room...
...She has already escaped from prison once, and as a result is “restricted”-locked in her room all day, except for two hours in the afternoon when she is allowed to sit on this bench by the door...
...She said a whole lot of other girls in the cottage had come to the door and told the officer that Wanda and Mary were fighting, and that they were lovers, so the officer just wrote it down...
...Other people who were sick had been permitted visits...
...This was brought about partly because of pressure on the state prison system from the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore...
...If she could behave herself in there she would be allowed out for recreation...
...Last year they heard 225 cases...
...As we were marching briskly along, a group of women from the welding shop came towards us, all talkmg at once...
...She has been at the prison for 15 years...
...How do you plead...
...A woman is a social being, needs society and people...
...The women I first encountered in interviews with Miss Byrd, in the company of another counselor or officer, or at the classification and adjustment hearings had appeared to me depressingly dumb and devoid of initiative...
...You are brought“ before the Adjustment Team, charged with a violation of Rule A. Are you going to represent yourself...
...There are no rules or laws regarding this process...
...Is your name Carol Brown...
...I didn’t like the idea and neither did my family, but I was desperate and thought I’d try it...
...Well, some people get caught and some don’t...
...The day was hot and they had taken off the top halves of their overalls and tied them around their waists...
...As far as I could see in both the classification and adjustment hearings, a good many of the inmates didn’t entirely understand the system...
...We have no power, none at all...
...Gone for the moment were my thoughts of opening the jails and letting the prisoners all go free...
...She could have brought another inmate or an officer to represent her if she wanted, but few do...
...There really isn’t much point in you talking to us...
...Delia Montroy got off with a reprimand for openly defying the order of an officer...
...This is her first adjustment...
...She will then be escorted to Lane Cottage, where she will be put in quarantine for a minimum of five days...
...I was glad they were in there...
...In a court of law one of the basic rights of the accused is to hear her accuser and all the facts and testimony that is brought against her...
...Well, I’m afraid I can’t say anything about her adjustment, except that it isn’t getting better,” Mr...
...She said she didn’t, and was sent out of the room...
...A new system has been adopted recently, and an outside adjustment counselor now presides over the meetings...
...He was about to allow her to do so, when on second thought he went to pick them up himself and found a gun under them...
...and most have brought massive problems to the institution...
...Traurig to escort me from place to place and to avoid just this sort of si tu at ion...
...Lights out at 11 o’clock...
...Miller asked...
...It was an affair in which the inmate concerned would take no part...
...What action do you suggest...
...Traurig also arranged for me to meet with the Residents’ Council...
...The Council members’ criticisms were serious ones, but as a Council they were reduced to making requests for permission to sell “snowballs” on July 4th on the campus...
...He only remembers we exist when there’s someone watching...
...The others nodded...
...What action do you suggest we take...
...The hearing started at nine on Monday morning...
...I was not allowed into the hearing and spent the morning with Mrs...
...The state prison rule book has this to say about the classification system: The Classification Team of the institution where you are assigned will be one of the most important factors in preparing you and helping you to return back to the community...
...After talking to Mr...
...She will wear a paper hospital gown during this time to discourage contagious disease...
...Home Furlough: After 30 infractionfree days on Minimum Security...
...I remembered that Mr...
...Heavy wooden doors with locks on the outside line the walls...
...Royster said nothing...
...That was all that was said about Carolyn Richardson...
...If the other inmates attempt to wave to her, they are punished...
...None of the women I talked with thought she was in any way dangerous...
...So many of them take coffee out, and she feels she was just picked on...
...We continued on our rounds...
...Royster said...
...She’s guilty as charged...
...They assumed I had come to find out about lesbianism, violence, drugs, and contraband...
...Inside the superintendent’s office the yellow curtains were partially drawn to keep out the sun...
...Do you think we should find out if the nurse left orders for her to have no visit...
...Later, she will be given a dress to wear and be taken over to the nurse’s office for a blood test and an X-ray...
...There is an elected Residents’ Council which communicates directly with the superintendent...
...not being allowed to take a cup of coffee out of the dining room...
...But her testimony contradicted what Delia had said...
...Meals .on a tray...
...Traurig used all the liberal words and phrases-the inmates were people with problems, not criminalsyet he obviously hadn’t looked very closely at his prison if he thought I would be misled by its alluring appearance...
...the girl asked, reasonably...
...But the young counselor had not been in the least upset by the incident...
...He said all she needs is for him to put her across his knee and he’d sock it to her...
...Allowed home every 30 days...
...One or two called out to Miss Byrd...
...It was felt that an inmate was unlikely to receive fair treatment within his own prison, with only the staff and officers to act as judge, jury, prosecutor, and witness...
...In fact, to her it wasn’t an incident at all...
...Is your name Delia Montroy...
...I’m just one...
...The doors of some of the “rooms” were standing open, and we looked inside...
...The others on the Team were all clearly familiar with this case, and Miss Hays could be seen preparing herself for battle with Mr...
...When they first come in we have no way of knowing their mental condition or their behavior pattern...
...The rule book says that Maximum Security “provides for constant and structured confinement and supervision of anyone considered to be a high escape risk or a danger or threat to themselves or any other persons in the institution, or anyone deemed to be a threat to the safety or security or well-being of the institution as a whole...
...In spite of the green, the place is indefinably blank and drear...
...The reports are badly worded, sometimes contradictory, sometimes verging on illiteracy...
...A) This is your first infraction...
...Ninety-one people were locked up-a very harsh punishment-but the three major offenses committed by those locked up were “insolence,” “refusal to obey orders,” and “violation of cottage rules...
...Miss Byrd replied, “Doctor Guily (the prison psychiatrist) said Richardson is just a spoiled brat...
...They left, and five minutes later the girl returned to the club and shot the man...
...Lovers’ Quarrel The Team now turned to the next cases...
...The officers always do that if there’s any question of a fight...
...Through the wired glass all I could see was an even darker corridor...
...If they’re a fire hazard why are the lifers allowed them...
...The windows have two layers of thick, metal mesh screens, which is about the same as having no windows at all...
...The women have an average of three children each...
...The sound of his voice, as it echoed through the microphones, telling of his work release programs and his cottages was to him something closer to reality than what he could have seen at the end of his nose...
...When it is extremely hot, the doors of all inmates locked in may be opened at the‘ discretion of the officer...
...They don’t have to wear uniforms...
...He treated these ideas as if they have an intellectual diversion, like reading poetry at night...
...And half the institution has extension cords...
...A Maximum Security inmate is taken out of her room once a day for a shower and meals are passed through a slot in the locked metal door to her room...
...By this time I was really afraid...
...Don’t you feel you should pay for your own television and not use state electricity...
...They thought, with hindsight, that it might have been better if they’d heard both girls’ stories first, before sentencing either of them...
...The girl said she’d borrowed it from a lifer...
...Forty to fifty per cent of the inmates have drinking or drug problems...
...She come to me and say I have a visit...
...Inmates with long sentences usually take more than 60 days to get to Grade 1, presumably to give them something to work for, for a longer time...
...Many inmates are a good deal brighter than the officers-but it is important not to let it show...
...The trouble is,” said Miss Byrd, shaking her head, “it’s hard to understand what goes on in her mind...
...But Mrs...
...Joiner had me gripped in her arm and she tugged me along when I tried to stop, saying, “Come on now...
...She thinks she was unfairly treated...
...Grade 4, the most common punishment: Total lock-up, either in own room or, for a more serious offense, in the Maximum Security corridor on the top floor of Lane Cottage...
...How she got to be this desperate...
...Their average age, according to Superintendent Harry Traurig, is somewhere around 25, although many look a lot older...
...To qualify for Grade 1 you need 60 infraction-free days...
...I felt I had been “adjusted...
...The doors of women in quarantine must remain locked for the first few days, until the officer feels absolutely safe about them...
...No contact with the prison community...
...But there are facilities for only a very few to be in the program at a time...
...I said I wanted to stop and talk, but she pulled me on, and I didn’t dare say anything to them, except to try and make it plain I would have stopped if I could...
...Those are the carrots confronting the regular Grade 2 inmate...
...Carol Brown shifted in her chair, thought about it for a moment, and said, “Guilty...
...Yet when I met them later, sitting around in the education department or in the cottages, or in some more casual context, they were not ingratiating, they were just passive...
...Miller...
...Their cells are called “rooms,” and the buildings they live in are “cottages...
...She’d be out of segregation in 1977...
...What will my schedule be...
...The stereo was playing quietly, and the air conditioning was silent...
...He was a frequent speaker at conferences, and probably a very good one...
...Do you take her out of her room at all?’’ “No, not at the moment,” said Miss Byrd...
...When she was gone they relaxed and leaned back in their chairs...
...As we walked on, Miss Byrd told me the girl had murdered a man...
...She will be allowed out once a day to wash and shower, and she will clean her room...
...They can only appeal to the superintendent, who by the nature of things is not likely to overturn the original decision...
...The report went on to describe the incident in vague terms...
...We give her as much of a chance to ask questions as we can...
...When can I have a visitor...
...She’ll say we wasn’t fighting...
...Mr...
...A minimum of 60 days from today...
...In all, her sentence in lock-up amounts to a total of seven years...
...Miller asked...
...They knew as well, or better than anyone, which inmates were dangerous...
...It seemed to me that anything could happen, that these were frightening people-many of them looked so strong, and quite a few looked so male...
...I majored in psych and minored in soc,” said Miss Citrenbaum, who is young and pretty, with long, red hair...
...When an inmate is brought before the Adjustment Team, there are a few laws governing the inmate’s rights and there is an outside hearing officer...
...A few days earlier, Carolyn had blocked up the toilet in her room and continually flushed it until the water was six inches deep...
...Finally, I saw there was a job here...
...But they have the right to at least a day between being served with an infraction notice and the hearing, so I don’t think they’ll decide to come up here today.’’ Mary Guiss, the first of the fighters was brought in instead...
...This is a small institution with only a few people...
...The work is called a “job,” for which the inmates are paid somewhere between 40 cents and a dollar a day, and in theory, only those who want to work need do so...
...The Council members were suspicious of me...
...She spoke with an educated voice, quiet and coherent...
...That’s right,” said Miss Byrd...
...This seemed to be a peculiar way of proceeding...
...The officer on duty may talk to her sometimes...
...You talk to Wanda...
...Miller...
...Receive regular pay from outside jobs (mostly working in kitchens of local motels...
...For a moment she had me convinced...
...The rules that govern every aspect of daily life-which door to come in or go out of...
...he asked...
...Cornelius Royster, the prison’s deputy superintendent, chairs the Classification Team...
...She stopped before adding, “We’re friends, Wanda and me...
...Do you object to your sentence...
...Traurig is a large man with dark hair pushed back from his forehead...
...It took too long just typing out her Adjustment Reports...
...Come on girls...
...They obviously enjoyed, or were amused by, examples of homosexuality that they came across...
...This is not permitted, but we turn a blind eye...
...She didn’t say I couldn’t have no visits...
...Well, I think you should...
...Miller...
...Her counselor will chat with her...
...She was told to stay there until the doctor saw her...
...Miller was tapping his pen on the table top, and there was a pause...
...Handing me over to Jackie Byrd, a young black counselor, Mr...
...She didn’t say nothing about me not having my visit, not until I come back from the Administration Building, when they said the nurse said no visit . ” “So you say the officer never told you to stay in your room...
...All but a handful of the inmates, I am quite prepared to believe, are pathological liars, with an uncanny ability to sense what you want them to say, see how just a few of these people could turn a new young counselor sour...
...Her name was Carolyn Richardson, and in writing this article, hers is the only real name I have used...
...I don’t agree with that at all...
...The woman turned to me and asked Miss Byrd who I was...
...There are 170 inmates...
...asked Mr...
...Must be within 10 months of parole and have 30 infraction-free days of Minimum Security...
...Miller suddenly...
...She said no...
...Traurig didn’t try especially hard to deceive outsiders or to lie in his conference speeches-he simply let himself believe what he said...
...Outside one cottage was a young white girl wearing denim shorts and a top that exposed her midriff...
...I gather that this incident caused quite a fuss in the cottage that night...
...The report stated that Carol Brown had been found asleep in her room one night with her television on...
...With them were one or two people who, to judge by their make-up and clothes, had just appeared before the Board...
...Are you calling a witness...
...She was a well-spoken girl, much brighter than the accused...
...The Team decides what job an inmate will do, which extracurricular activities she may participate in, and where she will live...
...Since there is no inmate on the Adjustment Team to listen to the deliberations, there is no way that the rest of the inmates can make any sense at all of the punishments handed out...
...She was a very large girl, tall, black, with a hooked nose...
...How’d I know I had a visit, if she hadn’t of come and told me...
...Miss Bartram, the chief counselor, described the admission system for me in great detail...
...She cast a gloom over the whole place...
...They were talking angrily, and some of them were making loud jokes...
...Miller assumed a suitably official manner...
...He enjoyed discussing them, as if they were fascinating and abstract concepts that had nothing to do with him...
...It is supposed to make them feel that they have something to work towards, that they can earn their way out of prison rather than just sit out their time...
...She and a friend had gone to a club one night and her friend had been refused admittance by the bouncer...
...Miss Citrenbaum persisted...
...After about a week, if she has behaved well, the new inmate will be transferred to “Admission” status...
...They are told that a certain list of rules has to be obeyed and that certain punishments are to be handed out for certain offenses...
...asked Mr...
...She is not allowed outside counsel or a lawyer even if her offense is serious enough to receive a severe penalty, such as being locked up for a long time...
...The girl was called back and told she would receive a week on Grade 4 (total lock-up), and a week of Grade 3 (lock-up after evening meal...
...There is no watch tower and only one guard is on duty...
...being allowed only to wear ladies’, not men’s, tennis shoes...
...My first panic had long ago subsided, and I disliked having to greet the inmates I knew, while being led along on the arm of an officer...
...He talks enthusiastically to visitors about the rehabilitation programs, the vocational training, the educational and extracurricular facilities at the prison...
...We weren’t fighting...
...Royster announced in a matter of fact way, was to be heard in absentia...
...Traurig is pleased with the prison and says with some confidence, “I can sleep at night...
...She was told she should put her objection in writing in the next three days...
...Carolyn’s name came up again and again when I talked with other inmates...
...Well, in fact, Miss Guiss, you are not charged with fighting...
...The landscape inside the wall is featureless and empty, as if the high fence cast a long shadow in all directions...
...The new prisoner is left to her own thoughts and imaginings, without anyone to tell her anything...
...They have no way of hearing how the decisions have been reached, what the evidence and the mitigating circumstances are...
...He had previously been a classification officer in the Men’s House of Correction, a hundred yards down the road from the women’s prison...
...While this means that they tolerate it to some extent, and don’t very actively prosecute, it also shows the patronizing attitude towards it that all the members of the staff seem to have...
...This was considered a serious physical assault, and Carolyn was given another year’s lock-up...
...He is particularly proud of the volunteers who come to the prison to run classes in the evenings, to lecture, and to organize discussion groups...
...Grade 1, an “honor status”: Must be in Grade 2 for a minimum of 60 days with no infractions before qualifying...
...We have only the lovers and the fighters left,” said Miss Citrenbaum...
...Miller read the charge against her: “Delia was put in her room all day by the nurse, as she was complaining of stomach pains...
...Now wait a minute,” said Mr...
...I was scared...
...Most of the inmates are not locked into their rooms at night and are allowed their own televisions, if they can afford to buy special, batteryoperated ones...
...The second girl was called in...
...After she left the room the Team seemed to lose interest in the case...
...How do you plead...
...Linda Citrenbaum, acting supervisor of the counselors, and Jackie Byrd, the counselor who happened to be dealing with the cases of those inmates to appear, were both present...
...He gave me a copy...
...Allowed home for a weekend once every 60 days...
...Whenever a visitor comes he calls us out, and in front of them says, very nicely, ‘This is our Residents’ Council,’ as if we amounted to anything, which we don’t...
...Miller said finally, when Delia just sat there...
...He is black and full of official jargon, a man strenuously aspiring to the position he holds...
...She paused for a while and said, “Batteries are very expensive...
...The same thing might happen to any of them at any moment...
...There was knitting yarn all over the floor, and the rug was rolled up by the door...
...The girl had a small, sweet face, an aura of innocence...
...Miss Byrd led me from the Administration Building...
...No one who is not on that list may visit...
...She always does, if someone says they’re sick...
...The Team would proceed in much the same way if he weren’t there...
...Particularly important is the Team’s power to restore good-behavior time that the prison’s other supervisory board, the Adjustment Team, may take away when it finds the inmate guilty of breaking prison rules...
...said Mr...
...She shook her head numbly...
...They see you’re new and you’re soft, and they lie to you...
...Miller...
...Two visits, two phone calls a week, and allowed to keep light on in room until two o’clock...
...The inmates become something to laugh at, like the way people enjoy laughing at the sexual activities of monkeys in a zoo...
...She realized that the meeting was for some reason at an end and got slowly to her feet...
...Still, she shouldn’t have left that cottage without permission,” said Mr...
...He thinks we’re tame...
...He has only the prison counselors to tell him what the rules of the institution are, and how to interpret them in each case...
...These lovers’ quarrels,” said Miss Byrd, “I’d just like to give them a good spanking, swat, swat, swat,” she said, batting the air with her hand as the others laughed...
...Here the ID work is done...
...Royster reminded us...
...Somehow it didn’t seem to have been much of an incident...
...There are four adjustment counselors in Maryland, and they rotate every three months...
...the girl asked, looking suddenly uncomprehending...
...For this she got another year added to her lock-up time...
...It sounds brutal, but in order to survive as a counselor, you have to be pretty tough...
...The first girl came in...
...It was her word against the official’s report...
...The nurses do it to teach them a lesson...
...I spent a morning with Mrs...
...Miss Hays said, “Ask him,” nodding her head toward Royster...
...Royster said, shaking his head...
...She just doesn’t seem able to see that far ahead .” “Well,” said Mr...
...Considering the infractions involved, the sentencing seems exceptionally severe...
...The girl said nothing...
...Miss Byrd laughed and said, “That’s right...
...Well, what’s the truth of this case...
...They decided to pass judgment on the first girl before they heard the other’s case...
...Around the perimeter of the prison is a 14-foot wire fence with coiled barbed wire on top...
...This case will be held in absentia on account of her being possibly too disruptive to come here...
...All you see from the outside is the bright, new Administration Building and an old, red-brick chapel, surrounded by trees...
...Miller had spoken very fast, rattling off the words, and she didn’t seem to understand what was expected of her...
...The tone of the prison is set by the treatment prisoners receive when they first arrive...
...Don’t you go trying to tell lies...
...By enforcing such a detailed and petty system of rules, the jailers are almost as bound by them as are the prisoners...
...She was abrupt and firm with them but knew each by name...
...She put her face right into Miss Byrd’s and talked caressingly, stroking the counselor~s arm while keeping it firmly in a half nelson...
...The girl stared at them and then left the room...
...Oh, you didn’t have to tell me that much of the truth,” said Mr...
...It was easy to see which of them had come before the Parole Board...
...They are not nasty, mean, vicious, or brutal, but just natural obeyers of rules...
...Traurig, personally, who supervised everything that went on in the prison, from the installation of a new drainpipe to the decision about whether inmates should be forced to wear bras...
...Takes part in recreational activities...
...But then women are not often violent...
...I thought perhaps we were going to have to find out a bit more about this case, but her own witness confirms the officer’s report...
...Of the 205 found guilty, only 11 were given no punishment, 24 a reprimand, nine were put on probation, four lost good behavior credit, 91 were put in Grade 4 (lock-up), and 58 in Grade 3 (night lock-up...
...We was playing...
...I had to remind myself as I spoke with him that it was Mr...
...It isn’t for them to question the system...
...The rooms were very small indeed, containing a metal bed, a desk, and a chest of drawers, leaving only about four square feet to move around in...
...You don’t know what being locked up does to a woman...
...Harry Traurig has been superintendent for three years...
Vol. 5 • September 1973 • No. 7
