A theme common to many of our articles about the Pennsylvania prison system is how corrupt, unethical and lawless it is. It's a bad citizen which breaks laws as if it were George "the Fuhrer" Bush and could do whatever it chooses. It teaches prisoners by example; if you're strong enough and callous enough you can do anything you please to anyone you please regardless of the law. There are countless examples of ways in which the Department of Imprisonment under Jeffrey Beard simply ignores the law. One is the use of dogs to harass prison visitors. We've published an account of the way dogs are used to intimidate families which visit the prisons. It's a shameful and unethical practice. Sandra Feigley, our cofounder wrote to prison boss Beard reminding him that the practice was not only ill-advised, but illegal. In the case of Commonwealth versus Martin, 534 Pa 136, 626 A2d 556 (1993), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that for a dog to sniff a person for drugs, "the police must have probable cause to believe that a canine search of a person will produce contraband or evidence of crime. Reasonable suspicion of criminal activity will not suffice. Moreover, because the intrusion concerns the person, we also hold that once the police have probable cause and a sniff search has been conducted...the police must secure a search warrant..." Other cases agree with this teaching of the Supreme Court. One may wonder how doctor Beard's prison system gets around the law. It's easy, they lie! As Mrs. Feigley wrote to boss Beard, "conniving around settled law with the bad faith and disingenuous dodge that the search is 'voluntary' is simply corrupt, albeit a common DOC fiction." Mrs. Feigley observed that the "policy is ill-advised and suggests no genuine rational motivation beyond harassment." She went on to remind doctor Beard that his "aim should be to foster visiting, not to discourage it." Indeed, why would a public official want to circumvent the law or find excuses for violating it? We wrote an article about Jeffrey Beard's program of recycling prisoners' medications. Beard's scheme takes medications back from prisoners who die or who don't use them all and reissues the drugs to other sick prisoners. We explained that the practice violates both state and federal regulations. Our cofounder, Mrs. Feigley, wrote to Diamond Pharmacy Services of 645 Kolter street, Indiana, PA 15701, the corporation which appears to be in collusion with the prisons to recycle the medications. She reminded the business of Food and Drug Administration regulation, CPG 7132b.09 also called Section 460.300. The policy says in part: "A pharmacist should not return drug products to his stock once they have been out of his possession. It can be a dangerous practice for pharmacists to accept and return to stock the unused portions of prescriptions that are returned by patrons, because he would no longer have assurance of the strength, purity or identity on the articles." So why would the prison boss want to risk giving contaminated or improper medications to prisoners? For two reasons, the victims of the risk are only prisoners and neither he nor any other prison administrator seems to care much about the welfare of sick prisoners. The second reason is that the program may save a few bucks, money Beard might be able to use to help himself or other prison managers. The more practical question is why would Diamond Drug want to involve itself in such an unscrupulous practice. As the FDA warns "The Pharmacist or doctor dispensing a drug is legally responsible for all hazards of contamination or adulteration that may arise, should he mix returned portions of drugs to his shelf stock. Some of our investigations in the past have shown that drugs returned by patrons and subsequently resold by the pharmacist were responsible for injuries." These are but two examples of a philosophy of lawlessness which pervades the Pennsylvania Department of Imprisonment. There are good reasons why there are laws to protect citizens. The prisons should be scrupulously obeying the laws, not slithering around them, seeing how much they can get away with. Where are the legislature and the courts which are suppose to constrain departmental corruption? Rebecca's Bargain Antiques Collectible Vintage Photos Fine Prints - Old Maps Sheet Music - Old Books Elegant Antiques and Collectibles "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" George Orwell, 1946 You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the Public Enemies Menu Return to the Main Menu. Go to our site's Search Engine Send us Your Comments or Input.