Pete Damiter, the so-called Assistant to the Superintendent, at the draconian state prison at Frackville in East Central Pennsylvania started off as a fairly reasonable, even a cordial kind of fellow. But Frackville is an insidious infection which corrupts even normal people. It's a kind of contagious psychosis; the Frackville-fever. Over time, poor Pete lost whatever decency his genes endowed him with. His powers of reason seem to have been diminished. Like all prison employees, Pete Damiter has very few duties, but one of them is to process prisoners' grievances. It seems that the poor fellow sometimes has problems figuring them out. I submitted this one. At breakfast time on Monday the local television reported that the temperature was only 18 degrees. While it was less windy than it had been on previous mornings, it was still noticeable breezy. Both exit doors from the prisoners' messhall were propped wide open. The door to the staff dining room did not appear to be propped open. For all the obvious reasons, I go to few meals, but risked the messhall on that morning. It was quite cold and drafty. When I asked the lieutenant [on duty in the messhall] why the doors were wide open, his flippant retort was "because we can!" Because he was bundled up in a jacket, I couldn't read his name (as required by DC-ADM 6.2.4). In responding to this grievance, please provide the lieutenant's name so that I may write about this incident intelligently. Of course, such callous arrogance is not unusual at Frackville. The guards seldom display even the most elementary respect or courtesy for prisoners, but expect to be respected themselves. The messhall is already unpleasent enough without being freezing cold. I'm sure the lieutenant doesn't harass diners in his dining room at home by forcing them to eat with the doors open. The messhall frequently stinks, the food is obnoxious and droves of guards mill around - at least one of whom chews tobacco. It's unreasonable to have the doors standing open to the outdoors when the wind chill is 12 degrees. One thing about Pete Damiter, he knows a grievance he doesn't want to deal with when he sees it. He shot back a notice refusing to accept my grievance because, "[t]he grievance does not indicate that you were personally affected by a Department [capitalization in the original] or Facility [capitalization in the original] action or policy." The Frackville-fever had so badly diminished poor Pete that he couldn't figure out that a 65 year-old man was "affected" by struggling to nibble a dollop of scrambled eggs while enduring 18° winds and/or by being disrespected by a guard lieutenant. I had to appeal to Bobby Shannon, the superintendent who's behind most of the harassment and abuse at the prison. I would have liked to write more about the droll lieutenant. He's a pip! The Frackville-fever makes him think he's clever - he isn't! His name was protected, because they can! It's obvious that prison policy is to stifle grievances and to pretend that things are going well. Such deceit is typical for Frackville-fever. Lie rather than solve a problem. Rebecca's Bargain Antiques Collectible Vintage Photos Fine Prints - Old Maps Sheet Music - Old Books Elegant Antiques and Collectibles "It's good we have marines. Sometimes we need witness cannon-fodder and it's always good to identify the worst crazies" G.G. Stoctay, 2003 You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the Glimpse of Prison Life Menu Return to the Frackville Prison Menu Return to the Main Menu. Go to our site's Search Engine Send us Your Comments or Input.