The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections ("DOC") has a shrewd and underhanded way to not only practice racism, but also geographical discrimination. Here at the state Correctional Institution at Houtzdale in remote rural Central Pennsylvania, corrections officers ("COs") use racial slurs toward blacks and Hispanics without the least fear of reprimand. They regularly do it in a effort to provoke and demean the prisoners. The staff has an old-boy's system which allows them to fabricate write-ups (misconduct report) in order to cover their butts. It's backed by the hearing examiner and sanctioned by the deputy superintendent of security along with the superintendent. The provocation goes as follows. A CO will make a racial remark and wait a moment for his victim to react. Even if the inmate doesn't react, he is still given a write-up and accused of threatening the guard or his family, or of using abusive language. The inmate receives a kangaroo-court hearing in front of the hearing examiner. The inmate is told that the hearing examiner is automatically going to take the guard's word. At the hearing the inmate can't even call witnesses of be represented. Invariably, the hearing examiner convicts the inmate. On appeal, the Program Review Committee ("PRC") invariably upholds the hearing examiner's ruling and the inmate spends 30, 60, 90 or even 120 days in the Restrictive Housing Unit, better known as the "hole." The DOC is supposed to have a grievance system, but, most times, because there are no checks and balances at the institution, the inmate is ruled against. The geographical discrimination practiced by the DOC is very sly. Pennsylvania has 25 prisons spread across the state, almost all in remote rural areas. The Department has a policy of crisscrossing inmates around the state. The funniest part is that the policy applies to blacks and Hispanics along with a very few white men from the Philadelphia region. What the DOC does is to move men far away from their homes, typically four to eight hours drive for a family wishing to visit. A guy from Pittsburgh will be sent to Graterford while a guy from Philadelphia will be shipped to Houtzdale or Albion. There are at least eight prisons which are within two hours drive of Philadelphia, but families and prisoners are both victimized by hardship of money and time trying to keep contact. Even phone calls are more expensive. And when there's a problem, the inmate's too far away to receive help. Houtzdale also puts inmates' families in the same difficult position as the inmates in dealing with the racist guards and community. Prisoners' families bring money into the local economy by staying at motels and hotels, by shopping and eating. At local restaurants prisoners' families are subjected to the same negative attitudes which the prisoners endure from the prison staff. In some ways it reminds us of the pre-1960s, but those abuses occurred in Southern states. [Editor's note: At this time, the author is a prisoner at SCI-Houtzdale.]