Penn. County Warden Pursues Prison Industries Plan

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By Chambersburg Gazette

Published: 03/18/2003

Franklin County Prison Warden John Wetzel, armed with the blessings of the prison board and the county commissioners, is pursuing one of the goals he had when he came here - a prison industries program in which inmates learn skills they can use after their release back into society.
The prison board recently gave Wetzel the go-ahead to form an advisory committee to establish guidelines for the program. They told Wetzel they felt Sheriff Robert Wollyung and District Attorney Jack Nelson, or a designee, should serve on the committee.
Wetzel said recently that assistant county administrator Kelly Livermore will join that group. He said he also wants to include representatives from organized labor, management, business, education, and the bar association on the committee, which he hopes will be able to meet at least once before the next prison board meeting on March 6.
'We'll (the committee) set the parameters,' Wetzel said, adding that the main fear seems to be that giving jobs to inmates will take work away from others in the community.
'The big thing is that we're not displacing people,' he said.
Wetzel doesn't know yet what type of work prisoners here will do.
He said he and other local prison officials within the past month have visited correctional facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and studied their prison industry programs.
Each had a different philosophy and a different type of work program. 'In Massachusetts they didn't act like they were trying to help the inmates. They were just putting them to work, and that was okay,' he said. 'In the other program, they used prison industries as a way to better inmates. That's cool too. Both programs worked.'
In Massachusetts inmates reupholstered furniture in a 10,000-square-foot work area. 'The high school would call and say we need our auditorium (seats) upholstered. They would come and get the stuff, fix it at the prison, and take it back.'
In New Hampshire, 150 inmates worked in a much smaller-scale program. 'They managed their own commissary,' he said.
Next week, he said he will go to another program in Virginia, which is in its infancy.
Wetzel has also looked at prison industries in Maryland, where corrections facilities are allowed to produce goods for interstate sale - something that's currently not permitted in Pennsylvania.
'In Maryland ... they subcontract with a company that provides them with, say, a widget machine. The prisoners make the widgets, and then the company sells them,' he explained.
Although each program Wetzel studied was different, they all had a common theme. 'They did whatever it took to make them successful,' he said. 'We share that theme.'
The purpose of studying a variety of industries programs, according to Wetzel, is to avoid making mistakes others have made. 'We picked their brains, and looked at what they've done differently,' he said. 'We want to look at their failures, and see what they've done that's worked, so we won't make the same mistakes ... so we can replicate their successes.'
Wetzel says that a prison industries program here would hopefully reduce the high local recidivism rate, by giving unskilled prisoners a trade or skill that they could use when they are released back into the community after serving their time. He said prisoners awaiting trial could also be put to work in the program. National studies show that the rate of return to prison is lower among those who learned a trade while behind bars, according to the warden.
Wetzel said because of a poor job market here, and because many inmates now come to prison without marketable skills, 'less and less are eligible for work release.'
At the very least, a prison industries program 'would make them get out of bed and do something,' and hopefully give them 'something to be proud of,' he said.
He's realistic enough to know that not all prisoners who are taught a skill will stay out of trouble once they're on the outside, but he hopes that the experience will at least help. 'Maybe a guy comes in for punching someone,' he says. 'If he comes in the next time for spitting on that person, he's made progress. Maybe the next time he'll just yell at them.'
'People are still going to screw up, but at least we're working towards an end. If nothing else, it will get the guys off their butts while they're in here,' he said.
As far as reducing the return rate of prisoners, Wetzel feels that should be a priority across the board in the judicial/corrections arena. 'We have to make a concerted effort within the system as a whole to stop this revolving door,' he said. 'We have to sit down as a criminal justice system and make it our No. 1 or No. 2 goal to reduce recidivism, and build our programs around that.'
Wetzel said that out of 300 inmates at the prison now, only 60 are working on the outside in the work-release program. 'We had well over 100 last year,' he said. An estimated 30 to 50 of the prisoners in the main building could be put to work through a prison industries program, according to Wetzel.
The committee he's currently forming would help determine, among other things, which prisoners should be eligible for the program, he said.
Also to be decided is the type of work prisoners would do, where they would do it, and how they would be paid.
Wetzel said at most prisons, inmates earn money - 'anywhere from between $1 an hour to $6 an hour - or they are given special privileges, such as more out-of-cell time.'
The type of work the inmates do will determine how much room is needed for the industries program, according to Wetzel.
'Depending on the type of work, we could do it in the chow hall on third shift, when it's not being used,' he said. 'If it's stuffing envelopes we could do that in the dayroom ...'
Wetzel, in charge of an old, crowded prison, said he will not let space limitations stop him from implementing a prison industries program.
'I will not sit around and wait,' he said. 'I will not sit around and wait for the ideal situation to arise. That may never happen. If we have to throw a warehouse up out back, we can do that.'
He added that whatever type of work program is decided upon, it 'must be at least cost-neutral.'
Wetzel said he prison industries program is something that's long been on his front burner, but he appreciates the fact that 'our commissioners force us to do our homework, and to address the problem system wide. I think that's good. I've been to prisons where they didn't do their homework, and they've got a real mess on their hands.'
But while he understands the need for process, Wetzel also likes for things to get done 'yesterday.' It's just the way he is.
'I wanted to get this going four months ago,' he said. 'I wanted everything underway already.'

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