Graterford Prison

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This semester I'm taking a Philosophy of Criminal Justice course and my professor, Dr. Betz, offers to take students as well as faculty members to Graterford Prison, where he teaches inmates several classes. Graterford is maximum security prison operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. It generally houses men serving life or very long sentences. Certain individuals are accepted into a program where they can recieve their bachelor's degree from Villanova at the prison. Villanova professors, such as Dr. Betz, travel to Graterford to teach to the inmates. Only allowed to take 2 courses a semester, it takes the inmates many years to recieve their degree.

We had the opportunity of talking with 6 of the men who were in this program about their experience with it and also their experience and thoughts about the prison and the judicial system as a whole. It was extremely interesting to hear their stories and perspectives, especially in conjunction to what we have been learning for a good portion of the semester. Although almost all of the men we talked with are sentenced to life (they will most likely die in prison, there is no chance of parole or commutation), they still have a sense of hope that they will one day be able to get out and contribute something to society- a perspective they contribute mainly to the opportunity of having an education. It gives them a sense of worth and accomplishment that they are bettering one aspect of their lives, while most others are hopeless. Receiving an education from a young age and being able to continue it is something that I value very much, but at times it is easy to take it for granted and forget about how much of a priviledge it is. Hearing how much they appreciate it and look forward to it, makes me appreciate what I have even more.

In addition to the education program, we talked about the prison as an institution and and industry in and of itself. Within the grounds of Graterford is somewhat like a small town- among other things they have a barbershop, laundry room, kitchen, woodshops, and factory where underwear, clothing, and shoes are made. I don't mean to make it seem that they have everything they need right on hand because it is far from that. They have no privacy, independence, freedom, etc- they are required to work in at least one of the factory/shops. The men we talked to referred to the whole system as messed up and corrupt. They all pointed to problems with their economic background, inability to hire a good lawyer, and race as determining factors in their life sentences. As much as we would like to think that race and money don't factor into decisions of people's lives by the judicial system, they undoubtedly play a huge role in it. The operations of the prison itself are corrupt, according to the inmates. They all agreed that the prison guards are usually more violent and abusive than any of the prisoners and sometimes take advantage of their authority. Instead of being responded to with violence and stipping them of all their freedoms, they agreed it would be much more beneficial to be given opportunities to change and reform for the better. However, the institution of a prison is something that provides alot of jobs and employment- so much so that areas actually request to have penetentaries built in their area. Therefore, if the prison provided means of reforming the criminals, many people would be out of jobs- which, the prisoners feel, is just one of the reasons they are kept there for life with no chance of parole or commutation. This seems to happen alot in our society- industries and institutions are corrupt or severely flawed, yet change will probably not occur because their existence fuels the economy.

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