There's a certain amount of dishonesty in almost every enterprise. Perhaps human beings can't operate without some shades of truth. Few organizations, however, even the most criminal such as Enron, Worldcom or Congress, can compete with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (their very name is a lie). From the very top down, it's founded on deceit, dishonesty and deception. The executives and lawyers at the top of the prison system have a lifestyle of dishonesty. In a word, they're liars. It's so ingrained, so much a second nature, that they lie automatically, habitually, like suffering from a disease. Still, the trickle-down of falsehood to the many prisons isn't universal. The staffs in a few of the prisons, especially the treatment staffs, have some self-respect. In many places prison personnel don't. They lie as a matter of habit and when they do lie, they're ashamed of themselves. That's not the case at the state prison at Frackville in Schuylkill County in northeastern Pennsylvania. As bad as the people are at DOC's Central Office, the minions at Frackville are that much worse. Many members of the Frackville prison staff (but certainly not all of them) are liars. They follow the example of the executives. In every prison, the atmosphere and the conduct of the guards reflects the personalities of the prison executives. At Frackville they're bullies and liars. The staff knows that it's okay to be bullies because that's what the higher-ups are. The staff lies because the executives want them to lie. It's a lifestyle! We could enumerate a hundred examples, but that would unfairly single out a few drops in a torrent of deceit. Perhaps the guys in the front office should amend their ways. The example they teach to their staff and to the prisoners that they are supposedly rehabilitating is that lying is desirable and that it's good to badger, bully and taunt.

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