I'm an inmate at the state prison at Frackville in East Central Pennsylvania. The Department of Corrections which operates the prisons has a very large budget to fund prison treatment programs such as the so-called therapeutic communities ("TC"). These programs are supposed to treat drug dependency. The more inmates enrolled in the program, the more money the program's director gets. Inmates are forced to attend the program even if they don't need it. Inmates are also forced to take programs that they've already completed. Where a man is transferred from another prison into Frackville, everything he's done elsewhere must be repeated. Taxpayers aren't told what's going on because if they knew how their money was being wasted, they would be appalled. Compelling prisoners to take pointless drug abuse programs causes overcrowding and creates staff shortages. The people who honestly need the help don't get it. For the TC program to work, some participants should graduate each month, but they aren't. TC directors keep their numbers up and thus their funding high, by holding back inmates who have completed the program. It justifies their jobs. The TC drug treatment program is geared to last from 6 to 9 months. Again, it doesn't. If the staff doesn't feel like graduating anybody, they don't. That forces prisoners to stay in prison longer because graduation from the program is required for parole. The Parole Board often tells an inmate that he will be paroled upon completion of the program. If he don't graduate, he won't be released. The therapeutic community program causes problems within the prison and dangerous conflicts between the inmates because participants are required to "snitch" on one another. The rules actually require men to look for faults, errors and infractions by their peers and report them. The reported man is then savagely humiliated, taunted and demeaned. Not infrequently, this mandatory ratting results in a man being expelled from the program and thereby lose his parole. Obviously, such a person may hold a grudge. An inmate who gets kicked out of the program may have a friend who's serving life or 20 years, often the man expelled from the program may be doing life or long sentence. The man who snitched on him may easily be in physical danger of being stabbed or assaulted. The program used in the prisons is not really geared for that environment. It was intended for rehabilitation in a hospital. There is a realistic probability for success only in a hospital setting. For example, participants are supposed to be segregated, but at Frackville prison, they aren't. They live with other prisoners, go to recreation with them, to commissary, school and chow. The most important rule in the exercise of the program in prison is "no breaking of confidentiality," that is a person is not supposed to giveaway what someone says or does in the program. How can secrecy be respected where general prisoners live and mingle with the TC participants? They are labeled as "TC inmates" by the other prisoners. They are thought of as rats, snitches "CIs" (confidential informants) or "cops." The TC program also has the "ego rule." A member of the staff may not be challenged for his/her errors or inappropriate conduct. Even if a member of the staff is flat wrong, the inmate is censored from bring it to his or her attention. A participant can be expelled from the program for simply disagreeing with the opinion or a member of the staff. No prison program should be mandatory. Men who are forced to attend programs just go through the motions. They don't benefit or learn well. The program, or a more effective one, can be taken "on the street" after release at the man's own expense.

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