Massachusetts Department of Corrections Commissioner Harold Clarke is leaving the state
Virginia, he's your problem now.
Commissioner Harold Clarke, the top administrator of Massachusetts Department of Corrections, has taken a job as the director of Virginia's Department of Corrections.
Last month, the Phoenix published an investigation into one of the Mass DOC's biggest failures: the Old Colony Correctional Facility [OCCC], which has been plagued by suicides, overcrowding, and allegations of human-rights abuses. The DOC declined to make Clarke available to respond to our story, but maybe the Virginia media will have better luck getting some answers out of him. Here's a taste:
In
the past year, several elected officials and DOC Commissioner Harold
Clarke have visited OCCC to address problems between Caucasian officers
and minority inmates. Concurrently, at least two female employees were
escorted off the grounds after being caught having sex with convicts.
In a state where convicts reportedly kill themselves at more than three
times the national rate, in 2010 OCCC is the facility where prisoners
are most likely to commit suicide. Attorneys for a recently deceased
prisoner who hung himself there say the inmate complained up until his
death about being denied his anti-psychotic drug regimen as retribution.
According to documents obtained by the Phoenix
and interviews done with prisoners, problems between convicts and OCCC
officers have escalated in the midst of what appears to be chronic
institutional dysfunction. Visits from top lawmakers including Governor
Deval Patrick have failed to stem what activists allege is systemic
abuse of black and Latino prisoners, who comprise 54 percent of the
center's population. Among the allegations: officers intentionally
disrespect such religious and cultural items as Korans; concerted
efforts are made to suppress educational opportunities for minority
prisoners; and physical and institutional retribution is carried out
against convicts who file grievances. A group of black prisoners at
OCCC who organize as the African Heritage Coalition (AHC) say they have
been especially targeted. Internal reports show that this past winter
officers cancelled a long-planned Kwanzaa celebration on false
premises; inmate advocates perceive this as a dangerous symbolic
gesture.
This all comes at a time
when tensions between officers and administrators are particularly high
due to department-wide overcrowding, and when severe financial
restraints are causing further problems. For the first quarter of 2010,
the Mass DOC operated at 141 percent of its designated capacity,
exceeding the intended average daily statewide population by more than
3000 prisoners. OCCC currently holds about 755 convicts — nearly 300
more than the facility was designed for. In 2009, the state could not
afford to pay Bridgewater an annual $187,000 prison mitigation payment
that the town uses to protect itself in the event of a jailbreak. In
July, the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU)
sued the DOC for overcrowding, alleging that the department is
illegally and irresponsibly double-bunking convicts at the
Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley. The case was dismissed
because the union could not prove administrative guilt, but
overcrowding at commonwealth facilities remains an ongoing worry: it's
the rare issue that officers and progressive prison abolitionists
mostly agree on . . .
. . . With
aggravation building between inmates and administrators, in June of
2009 Commissioner Clarke and Governor Patrick visited OCCC to interview
both sides. Among the grievances reported by inmates at the meeting,
and that were recorded by AHC members, including Roxbury native Mac
Hudson: OCCC employees "use policies and practices to discriminate
against minorities in every facet of their institutional life," from
job assignments, re-entry programs, and visitation policies to meal
quality and recreational opportunities. Most damning were allegations
that officers conspired against certain groups and individuals by
manipulating the disciplinary process. Yet the DOC has no official
report from this meeting, and refused to make the commissioner
available for comment. Instead, a spokesperson tells the Phoenix that "Clarke is not aware of such [racial] tension."
READ: Old Colony Correctional Center has been plagued by suicide, overcrowding, and brutality — and things are only getting worse