Cofounder
 The Pennsylvania Department of Imprisonment operates a scheme to obstruct prisoners from suing in court. The scheme is a very long, complicated and frustrating procedure, an obstacle course.
One must overcome the procedure before he or she can sue.
The prison grievance procedure is so discouraging and burdensome that few prisoners can manage to work their way through it no matter how badly they've been wronged. They'd rather just punch the guards in the face. They may have point. The grievance scheme is not designed to solve problems or address prisoners' complaints. It's aim is to protect the staff while stymieing prisoners efforts to improve their lives. Michael, a prisoner at the infamous Frackville state prison, forced the Department of Imprisonment to reveal statistics of how their grievance scheme works. Michael shared the statistics with us and we share them with our users. The statistics reveal some interesting facts. Firstly, the statistics (like the Department of Imprisonment itself) are full of lies and falsehoods. In addition:
Each prison seems to allow about one prisoner a year to "win" a grievance. In addition, some prisons occasionally negotiate with the complaining prisoner and compromise on some kind of a resolution which gives the prisoner a degree of satisfaction.
The following table summarizes the information which Michael provided to us. For each prison the table shows how many grievances were submitted in one sample year. Since the prisons are not all of the same size, the table lists the number of grievances which were submitted for each 1000 prisoners in the prison. That provides an accurate way of comparing the prisons. The table also lists the total number of grievances which were resolved (the prisoner got a little something) or the prisoner won. The next column of the table lists the same information, but as a percentage of the number of grievances submitted. The rates of resolution vary greatly reflecting the nature of the staffs of the different prisons. The last column in the table reflects how bad the prison is based on its record of dealing with prisoner complaints. The higher the number, the worse the prisoners think the place is.
By dividing the number of prisoners in each prison by the number of grievances that that prison processed, the rate of complaints is easily found. The number is adjusted to reflect how many complaints were received per 1000 prisoners, even if the prison didn't have a thousand prisoners. The statistics reveal that Fayette state prison had 1883 complaints per 1000 prisoners. The Quehanna boot camp (a true medieval disgrace) had only 103 complaints per thousand prisoner. That's a big variation! Such numbers don't really say much about how bad a prison actually is or about how much there is to complain about. Many prisoners are afraid to complain. They rightly fear retaliation. They fear that their prison masters will be angry with them and not give them benefits or recommend them for parole or other programs. Quehanna, for example is a very intimidating, un-American environment.
The next table reflects how well each prison deals with grievances. Some resolve a large percentage of the complaints they receive. Others like Houtzdale and Mahanoy fail to deal seriously with prisoners' complaints. These statistics expose how sincere each prison is in correcting the many problems of the Pennsylvania prison system.
The last table is a bit more abstract. It tries to quantify how bad the prisoners see their particular prison. It looks at the rate at which complaints are filed and how the complaints are handled. By this measure, Houtzdale state prison is by far the worse in the system. When Houtzdale was first opened, it was staffed with trash discarded from other prisons. As a result, it has some of the worst guards and other staff in the system. It's no wonder that there are so many complaints or that they are treated so poorly. Again, it must be realized that grievances are not the only and not even the best guide to how bad a prison is. Grievances are filed because of problems in the prison, but much of the time the grievance system reflects the prisoners as much as their environment. Some prisoners are pure cowards and afraid to complain. Others realize that the system is unavailing so they don't even bother. For all that, the the grievance system gives some insight into how the prisoners view their prisons. Each Prisons Is Based on the Grievance System
The information contained in these tables reflect only a single year. The numbers vary for different years and for changes in prison staff. It would be in the best interests of the public and taxpayers if prisons were staffed with capable and decent people. It would be wise if the prisons operated smoothly. Remember that most prisoners will someday return to the your community. It's better if they're not resentful of the system.
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