Most prisoners seem to feel that the staff at their prison is the worst there is. Obviously, that's not true. Admittedly, the guards in the Pennsylvania state prisons are pretty bad. Conversely, some of them are pretty good. In order to quantify and evaluate the real quality of the Pennsylvania prison guard force, we conducted a rather elaborate (but not scientific) survey involving all 26 state prisons. We discovered that, on average, over half of the guards (53%) are nothing special; not particularly bad and not particularly good. Not surprisingly, we learned that over a third of all Pennsylvania guards are bad enough to be classified as jerks or, as some prisoners prefer to say, assholes. More surprisingly, about 12 guards in every 100 are rated as good by prisoners. These "good" guards were seen to be civil, dignified, respectful and helpful. The bad guards were seen to be bullies, thugs, agitators and provocative. So, our survey found that there were three times as many jerks as good guards. It also revealed that there is a great difference between the prisons. Each prison seemed to have a mentality from very bad (the Frackville prison) to good (the geriatric nursing home at Laurel Highlands). The two women's prisons were somewhat less bad than the men's prisons, 26% bad guards versus 17% good ones. The survey makes it clear that Pennsylvania prison guards are trained to be bad and discouraged from being decent. Each prison had a mentality which largely reflected the prison bosses; bad bosses, bad guards. The survey also revealed that the prisoners are right. Pennsylvania's prison guards are pretty poor overall. We've compiled the survey results by prison showing the percentage of jerk guards versus the percentage of "good" ones. While the survey isn't really scientific, we believe that it fairly accurately reflects the facts. SURVEY RESULTS JERKS PER ONE HUNDRED GUARDS Prison Jerks Per 100 Guards Good Guards Per 100 Frackville 73 5 Greene 68 4 Camp Hill 67 7 Houtzdale 61 13 Albion 59 12 Quehanna 59 13 Pine Grove 57 6 Coal Township 55 9 Huntingdon 47 9 Chester 42 11 Forest 41 12 Dallas 41 14 Waymart 37 15 Retreat 36 14 Rockview 35 11 Smithfield 29 13 Fayette 25 9 Mahanoy 22 11 Waynesburg 19 14 Mercer 16 13 Cresson 15 15 Graterford 14 6 Greensburg 12 16 Laurel Highlands 9 23 Women's Prisons Cambridge Springs 31 18 Muncy 22 17 OTHER PRISONS Pittsburgh (CLOSED) AVERAGE 35 13 The above chart is arranged with the worst prison staff at the top and the least bad at the bottom. Over time we may get revisions of our information. If so, we'll try to update the chart. Rebecca's Bargain Antiques Collectible Vintage Photos Fine Prints - Old Maps Sheet Music - Old Books Elegant Antiques and Collectibles "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees" Dolores Ibarruri, 1936 You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the New and Interesting Items Menu Return to the Glimpse of Prison Life Menu Return to the Main Menu Go to our site's Search Engine Send us Your Comments or Input.