The medical departments of most Pennsylvania prisons make at least some effort at sanitation. In most Pennsylvania prisons, the healthcare of the prisoners, while not a high priority, is paid lip service. Regrettably, this is not true at all the prisons. The bullying, self-important arrogance of the guard force at the Frackville prison in Schuylkill County in East Central Pennsylvania is deliberately indifferent to the prisoners' serious medical needs. While the nurses make dedicated efforts caring for the prisoners, the "security" force has exactly the opposite priority. Their goal is to harm, demean and express contempt. The guards make themselves feel powerful and important by debasing the prisoners. Into the supposedly sanitary medical area of the Frackville prison, one of these psychologically impaired guards came accompanied a dog! It was a pretty, black Labrador, but a dog, all the same. The guard angrily justified the contamination by saying that it was only the "treatment" area. And, after all, the intrusion reflected one of the three obsessions of the security mania: drugs. (The other obsessions of the prison system are sex1 and censorship.2 What a disgusting thing to do with an innocent and friendly dog, make her into a drug cop! It's as offensive as making her into lunch. Even without flea and tick3 infected dogs trapsing around, the Frackville medical area is certainly not very sanitary. It's darkly gloomy, frequently inhabited by ants and mice. Dank dampness seeps up through the vast web of cracks in the poorly constructed concrete floor.4 Beyond double doors which habitually stand open to the outdoors,5 gaggles of loudly chattering and idle guards smoke up a smog. The prisoners' waiting room is polluted with their smoke, noise and nonsense. Keeping the area clean is entrusted to two prisoners who are provided with only the most rudimentary equipment and ineffectively weak cleaning supplies. They're not properly trained or directed. Cots and examining tables are covered with filthy linen. Vents, walls and ceilings are dusty and dirty, no doubt infested with disease carriers. Equipment is visibly soiled. Guards skulk around eavesdropping on confidential medical information. And, if you don't watch where you walk, you'll trip over a panting Labrador sniffing for drugs! (In the medical department, do you believe!) But that's okay. The prison obsessions are far more important than a prisoner's health. Of course, the guards only represent the defects of the prison's management. By and large, guards are drones, lazy, unthinking, psychologically and intellectually on the bottom rung. At Frackville, they're also oddly frightened.6 They must recognize their own weaknesses. It's the prison bosses who set the standards for the guards' conduct. Guards who act like jerks do so because the security big-shots have trained them to do so. At the Frackville prison the guards don't use their heads because the bosses worry that if a guard can think for himself, the boss' job would be at risk. We like dogs, especially Labs. We think it would be terrifically rehabilitating to have the prisoners keep and train dogs, say to help the blind or the elderly, but not even in a place as backwards and mismanaged as SCI-Frackville, should a dog be in the medical area. FOOTNOTES 1 At a visit at Frackville, a prisoner can't touch his wife's hair because of its supposedly sexual connotation. 2 See What's Jeffrey Beard Got to Hide? 3 As is well understood, the insects inhabiting dogs frequently carry diseases. 4 The entire prison is badly made, badly maintained and already crumbling after only a few years of operation. 5 The guards require sick prisoners to wait out- of-doors for extended periods of time to receive their medications. Subjecting ill prisoners to the weather is yet another way that contempt is shown to them. 6 See Pussies Running Frackville Prison