Pete Damiter Is Your Enemy
Know Your Enemy
By: Sandra Feigley
Publisher

Peter Damiter who prefers to be call himself "Pete," is a flunky on the staff at the Frackville state prison in East-Central Pennsylvania. Among other pompously self-important titles, he's sometimes call the Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent. In that capacity his duty is to shield the prison warden, an inept and dishonest mis-manager, Robert Shannon, from having to answer for some of his malfeasance. "Pete" deals with you and me, the bothersome public which employs these "public servants."

Apparently Pete is expected to lie, manipulate and mislead the public. It's all about the protection of the prison boss's butt. The principle is simple, pretend that there's never anything wrong at the prison, pretend that the prison staff is always doing everything right, pretend that all problems are caused by the prisoners, pretend that the fault for any complaint rests with the citizen who's complaining. Above all, pretend that prisoners can't be believed. The first defense of the prison administrator is "inmates lie." It's mythology which deceives much of the public. Sorry, virtually everyone lies from time to time. Prisoners don't lie more than you do.

Persons who must deal with the Frackville prison staff should be aware of some of their devious tactics. Frackville is by far the worst managed prison in Pennsylvania, but it's an example of how other prisons may sometimes be. The staff at Frackville is truly evil, among the worst in the country. Their mission is to harm not just the prisoners, but also prisoners' families, loved ones and visitors. Being warned about what to expect from them may assist in dealing with their strategies of abuse, manipulation and dishonesty.

Unfortunately, I'v had to deal with various members of the Frackville prison staff including Peter Damiter. I should remark that one counselor at Frackville is the exception to the rule. He's actually helpful, respectful and responsive. Were I to identify him, however, his colleagues would attack him. It's their way.

Peter Damiter is one of the other type of Frackville staff members - Jerkus humongus! If you must contact him or any other member of the Frackville prison staff expect to be manipulated, deceived, mislead and abused. Use the example of my little incident as an example to educate you.

The prison visiting room is kept very cold and drafty. I suppose the aim is to discourage visiting and to make people miserable. Visitors must wear extra clothing just to stay warm. Many prisoners spend their visits with runny noses and shivering because they can't dress warmly enough.

Instead of contacting Central Office about the problem or raising a public row, I phoned Pete Damiter. I deceived myself into thinking that a member of the Frackville prison staff might act in good faith. It was a dumb mistake on my part.

Mister Damiter didn't thank me for the information and indicate that he's correct the problem. Mister Damiter's first, knee-jerk ploy was to trivialize my complaint. Since I'd experienced the condition for myself, he couldn't very well use the stock "inmates lie," ploy.

Pete's response was "nobody else complained." It's a typical bureaucratic strategy. He wanted to put me on the defensive. He wanted to suggest that I was wrong, or lying or exaggerating. That's usually one of the first tactics of the guilty prison administrator, shift the guilt to you. I think we taxpayers pay to train the bureaucrats how to manipulate us.

When I followed up with a letter to good, old Pete, I tried to indicate that I hadn't been deceived by his tactic.

  • "Instead of thanking me for my helpful information and resolving the problem, you endeavored to trivialize my complaint. My grievance was NOT trivial. Your inane response was that 'nobody else complained.' Who cares who else complained? How is that germane? It's part of the Frackville defensiveness strategy of never admitting any error or problem. A better strategy would have been to remember that the Frackville prison staff are public servants, albeit arrogant and overbearing ones."

If you must deal with Pete or other prison flunkies, don't allow yourself to be put on the defensive. Don't allow yourself to be manipulated. These people work for you, for us, the citizens of the state. Demand action. Demand that they be responsive. Demand respect. It's never wrong to express a complaint. It's a Constitutional right and duty. If it's important to you, it's not trivial.

One last suggestion, if and when a prison bureaucrat tries to put you off by saying that "inmates lie," respond, "so do you."

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