The larger of Pennsylvania's two women's prisons is at Muncy in the North-central part of the state. Apparently, the prison has a rule that where a prisoner sees or suspects sexual conduct or other "inappropriate" behavior between the staff and a prisoner, she is required to report the conduct. Like so many of the Department of Imprisonment's other policies, this rule is a fake. It's a ploy used not to catch misconduct by the staff or protect the women, but to cover it up. After getting no reply from Marirosa Lamas, the prisons' matron (she calls herself a "superintendent" as if she works) to our inquiry about the rule, we telephoned. Was that a farce! We talked to Troy Edwards, the so-called Administrative Assistant to the warden. Seems Troy didn't know what the rules were. Troy didn't know what the regulations were. Troy didn't know what the policies were. Troy didn't know much. Troy averred that he was the know-nothing who coordinated the rules and resolved prisoners' grievances about polices. He just had no idea what the policies were. He couldn't or wouldn't even say if there was a rule forbidding sexual assault of the prisoners. We've since made a Right-to-Know law request for the rules. Maybe someone else has more brain than Troy Edwards. An older woman who was awaiting parole (when parole was still possible in Pennsylvania) was assigned to an outside work detail apparently run by a "Mr. Dodson." She had no apparent reason to lie or invent anything. Her object was to keep a low profile and get paroled. The woman wrote to us explaining that she'd observed "inappropriate" conduct between two or more of the younger women prisoners and a member of the staff. While she identified the prisoners to us, she didn't actually identify the staff member and didn't actually describe the conduct. Her suggestions were pretty clear, however. Because there was a rule requiring her to do so, the prisoner reported the behavior to Marirosa Lamas. In short order, the prisoner was tossed into the hole. She was punished with not just 90 days of solitary confinement, but also loss of her parole! To cover his butt, the male miscreant had simply denied the prisoner's charge. That was good enough for Lamas and the prison security department. No video tapes were viewed, none of the other prisoners who'd witnessed the conduct were even questioned. Lamas and her staff covered-up the misconduct and punished the female prisoner who dared to do what the rules required her to do. The male staff member was protected. The administration protected the criminal staff member and good, old Troy Edwards had no idea about what the rules were or why the reporting woman would be punished. His only excuse was that if "you knowingly made a false report to the police, you would be arrested." The obvious fact that our boy Troy omitted was that the report had to be false. If you want to try your luck with getting to the truth, try: Marirose Lamas Superintendent SCI-Muncy Box 180 Muncy, PA 17756 570-546-3171

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