The conditions at the Frackville state prison in Schuylkill County in Eastcentral Pennsylvania are so bad because of the low caliber of the guard force. The majority have profound personality, psychological and ego problems. They are only trained to be bullies and to cause problems. While the guards in some of the prisons make an effort to conduct themselves in a rational, professional manner, the Frackville guards are motivated to use prisoners to inflate their own threatened egos. A prisoner at SCI-Frackville who recently had a serious problem with some guards, realized that the prison grievance system is a joke. Instead, he wrote to the "shift commander" supposedly in charge of the guards. He sent copies to the Superintendent, the Secretary of Correction and even to the Attorney General's office since the guards' conduct was criminal. Below we reproduce an edited version of his complaint. 6AM-2PM Shift Commander SCI-Frackville Sir: While coming out of the messhall at about 11:30 AM on Saturday, I was stopped for what I supposed was a routine pat search. At the conclusion of the search I asked the guard what his name was.1 His jacket covered his name badge and I didn't know him. He flippantly replied, "sir."2 As I departed and my back was turned the sergeant who was supervising the pat down or the guard who conducted it, neither of whom I know and neither of whom I recall ever speaking with, hollered after me in the presence of a large number of prisoners. "At least you didn't have any pictures of little kids in your pocket - pedophile!" Because my back was turned while they were yelling, I can't precisely aver exactly who said what. This conduct is not only unwarranted, unprofessional and assaultive, it appears to violate Pennsylvania law related to harassment, sexual assault and hate crimes. I've been imprisoned since 1975 and no member of the staff has ever assailed me in such a crude, aggressive way. Such conduct could easily precipitate my physical injury3 as well as my mental anguish.4 I assume that that was the guard's intention. Apparently that's the way the staff is trained to behave. Please take steps to assure that I'm not subjected to a repeat of this treatment. Footnotes 1 We are obtaining the name for legal action. 2 Even more than at other Pennsylvania prisons, the guards at SCI-Frackville have an exaggerated sense of their own importance. They need to feel powerful. One way they get that delusion is to be called "sir." 3 The guard no doubt intended to incite the prisoners who were there to attack or ridicule the man. Child molesters are at risk in prison and the guard obviously wanted to get the prisoners injured. 4 No one likes to be called names. That's especially true where the insult is not true. Guards at SCI-Frackvill do it in an effort to provoke a prisoner to react so that they can pretend to be justified to punish him. The guards are very poor quality and very poorly trained.