In a bizarre, Orwellian development of prison idiocy, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections ("DOC") has concocted a policy of keeping prison rules secret from the very prisoners who must obey the rules! For 20 years the DOC has been in a steady slide into the moronic. Nobody in authority seems to have even a passing familiarity with common sense. "Corrections" has become a business and an exploitation of the poor. The new policy low is a twilight zone of secret rules. What kind of bureaucrats are in charge here? Do they have any connection with reality? Okay, the new rules aren't completely secret. The prison staff is given copies of the rules. You, the public can obtain copies of the rules online. The rules are only kept secret from the prisoners who must obey them! If you're a rich enough prisoner, you're supposed to be allowed to buy a copy of the rules. Even that's a lie. When I personally tried to buy copies of the rules, Lisa Hollabaugh, the prison's administrative assistant refused to sell copies to me. When I tries to buy copies from the prison library, they refused as well. The DOC is notorious for dishonesty. The new policy is so absurd that our publisher, Sandra Feigley, wrote to state Representative Kathy M. Manderino, the conscientious legislator from Philadelphia who consistently struggles for rational management of the bloated prison system. Honorable Kathy M. Manderino 6526 Ridge Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19128 Dear Representative Manderino: Conscious of your sincere interest in the safe and rational management of the Commonwealth's prison system, I respectfully draw your attention to a bizarre development of which you may be unaware. The Department of Corrections has initiated a policy of issuing new rules and directives without giving copies of the rules to the inmates. If the inmate wants a copy of the rules he/she must buy it! Enclosed is a copy of my husband's institutional grievance1 about the policy. As he says, the staff gets copies of the rules free of charge. The public gets free copies online.2 Only the prisoners who are required to obey the rules are required to buy the rules!3 In theory, prisoners are informed that there has been a rule change. The prisoner may buy a copy of the rule (10 cents/page). A copy of the rules is supposedly available by asking a guard on the cellblock for it. The rules were not actually available on my husband's cellblock. In any event, most prisoners don't fraternize with guards. A copy of the rules is also supposed to be available in the library. Access to the library, even for the few prisoners who are knowledgeable about how to use it, is difficult and limited. I believe this to be an ill-conceived policy. It fails to give the ordinary prisoner fair notice of what the rules are. If the Department doesn't want to give copies to every prisoner, it should, nonetheless, give free copies of any/all rules to those who request copies. It is noteworthy that when the new policy of secreting the rules was started, the prison confiscated all existing copies of the directives from the prisoners. I am: Sandra Feigley, Publisher sf@prisoners.com 717-236-6045 We urge those of you who have family and loved ones in Pennsylvania prisons to complain to the Secretary of Corrections about this regressive policy: Jeffrey A. Beard, PhD jbeard@state.pa.us 717-975-4860 Box 598 Camp Hill, PA 17110 FOOTNOTES 1 The text of the inmate grievance follows: Pursuant to a new Department of Corrections ("DOC") policy, prisoners must buy the rules that they are required to obey. The staff gets copies free. The public gets free copies online. Only the prisoners who are required to obey the rules are also required to buy them. This is insanity! New and amended DOC directives are no longer distributed to me and each prisoner, nor are personal copies of the new directives available upon request. The torrent of rules which micro-manage my life are not provided to me. They are secreted and made more obscure. How am I reasonably to be expected to obey a rule if I'm not given the rule? That is simply not fair and reasonable notice. It's completely unreasonable to expect me and each prisoner to buy copies of each of the MANY lengthy, wordy, new rules. I earn only pennies a week. Personal copies should be available upon request. The policy of secreting new directives is another step backwards toward failed penological schemes. It is universally recognized that if rules are to be respected and obeyed, they must be explicitly and officially communicated to each person who is expected to obey them. Hiding copies in the library (which is difficult to access) is disingenuous. The pretense that a copy of the rules is available on the block if someone wants to inspect it, is inane. GIVE ME A COPY OF THE NEW RULES WITHOUT CHARGE. 2 While we don't endorse the propaganda spewed out by the Department of Corrections website, you should be able to judge for yourself. After all, you pay over $100,000.00 a year to operate the site. The link is www.cor.state.pa.us/policy.html 3 As indicated earlier, it was not even possible for me to buy copies of the rules. When I tried to file a grievance about their unavailability for purchase, Lisa Hollabaugh refused to even process, let alone to answer the complaint. As I've said, dishonesty is a mainstay of the "corrections" business.