Prison Staff of Thieves

By: Elmer Miller - Statistician

What happened? Who stole all the prisoners' property? Who's looting the Inmate General Welfare Fund?

What Happened to the computers?
What happened to the music keyboards?
What happened to the big screen TV?
What happened to the exercise bicycle?
What happened to the guitars?
What happened to the drums?
What happened to the weightlifting machines?
What happened with all the sneakers?
What happened with the games?
What happened with the sports drink?

Who's stealing and how? THE STAFF, that's who!

The Inmate General Welfare Fund

Pennsylvania prisoners have a fund called the Inmate General Welfare Fund,or IGWF. It's money obtained from the prisoners themselves, not from tax money. The profits from the prison commissary (where the prisoners buy necessities), the considerable profits from inmate legal photocopying, the profits from the sale of crafts, from vending machine sales in the visiting room and so forth go into the fund. In addition, all the prisoners personal savings are in the fund.

By far the biggest income, $6,000,000.00 per year, comes from part of the huge profits drained from prisoners' families by the telephone system/racket.

The Inmate General Welfare Fund supposedly exists to benefit the prisoners, not the staff. For example, each month, each prisoner is allowed to mail 10 letters free of charge. The postage cost is paid for by the IGWF. Many Republican Pennsylvania legislators (none of whom have the brains God gave a pint of piss) think that the taxpayers pay that postage. They are horrified that prisoners might benefit. Of course, as with most things, the Republican legislators are wrong. Republicans may be obsessed with money and they may detest people, but they're not too bright.

Another use for IGWF money is to provide recreation and recreational equipment for the prisoners. Taxpayers don't provide any recreational services to prisoners, or any religious services either, for that matter. The prison library, gym and chapel are all supported by the IGWF, not by the taxpayers.

The Activities Department

The biggest chunk of prisoner money is taken by the recreation department, often called the activities department. A few musical instruments are bought to help the prisoners teach themselves how to play and to improve their self-esteem. Recently at one prison, two valuable new music keyboards vanished. No prisoner has them. They appear to have been stolen by the staff and carried out the back gate with the complicity of guards.

From the same program new guitars have disappeared and a valuable, albeit, used drum set. It appears that these instruments were stolen by members of the staff either for their own use, or for sale. Obviously, other members of the staff have covered up the thefts.

Members of the staff decide how to spend money from the IGWF. It's the staff who controls the purse strings, not the prisoners. There is VERY little oversight of the spending. Clearly, that's a recipe for abuse and corruption. The staff doesn't resist the temptation.

At one prison someone with access to IGWF money decided to use a few thousand dollars to buy a very large screen television set. The TV was put in the office in the gym. It was used by the staff to watch sporting events, movies and so forth. No benefit accrued to the prisoners. Apparently the prison administrators were aware of the embezzlement and did nothing about it.

The same gym staff used a lot of IGWF money to buy a fancy exercise bicycle. It was hidden in the staff rest room and used exclusively by the staff. Again prison administrators must have been aware of the corruption but did nothing.

All the gym equipment and indeed the gym itself was provided by the IGWF. Weightlifting machines and equipment were bought for the prisoners' recreation. This equipment is now used primarily by the guards for their personal recreation. To assist the staff's misuse of the prisoners' equipment, additional IGWF funds were spent. A closet full of expensive sports drink appears to have been purchased with IGWF funds and supplied solely to the staff. A large stock of sneakers is also provided to the staff for their recreation. The shoes appear to have been bought with IGWF money, yet they benefit only the staff.

While the gym and the sporting equipment is being appropriated by the staff, the prisoners who paid for it cannot use it. Staff which is supposed to supervise and instruct the prisoners plays in the gym with their coworkers or watches wide screen TV.

Athletic recreation in the gym and yard benefit only a small number of prisoners. The IGWF also buys board games, playing cards and similar distractions to help older and less athletic prisoners pass their idleness. In most state prisons a supply of these games are kept on the cellblocks where they are freely used by anyone who wants them. When they are worn, broken or lost, the IGWF buys replacements. Sometimes a prisoner is hired for a few cents to proctor the game inventory.

At a few places such as the Frackville prison, the stock of games has been removed from the cellblocks so that they cannot be used by prisoners. Thousands of dollars of the IGWF games are kept under the control of the staff in the activities department or have been sold, stolen or lost.

The Library

At most Pennsylvania state prisons the library is the best operated part of the facility. With a few exceptions such as the Smithfield prison, the staff is professional, cordial and knowledgeable. The Inmate General Welfare Fund buys the books and other supplies (but not the law books) for the prison libraries. It also owns a machine in the library where prisoners can buy certain kinds of photocopies.

The IGWF has bought computers for most prison libraries. The prisoners use them for educational purposes to read CDs. Recently many more computers were bought to facilitate doing legal research. Instead of law books, research materials are bought on CD. A few CDs are much easier for the staff to manage than thousands of bulky law books.

At one prison a dozen Tangent computers were bought for about $2000 apiece. At first it was unclear why such costly computers were bought where all they were going to be called on to do was read CDs. It became clear. The computers were never even plugged in before there were being replaced by newer computers (just to read CDs?!). The result was the loss of a quarter of a million dollars. The "old" but unused computers, will be given to the staff or sold to them for a few dollars. IGWF funds directly subsidize the benefit to the staff.

Why the Staff Embezzles

The staff steals because they're human and they can get away with it. Prison administrators make little or no effort to control them. The administrators are stealing, too.

If the staff wants a gym, let them buy their own with their own money on their own property. The Inmate General Welfare Fund shouldn't be looted to subsidize the guards, nor should the taxpayers pay for a private guard-spa.

Prison guards are grossly overpaid and they have a union that makes a leach look friendly. They are able to support their own recreation, sports and computer purchases.