MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Pennsylvania Prison Society is to advocate for a humane, just and restorative correctional system, and to promote a rational approach to criminal justice issues.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society, founded on fundamentals embedded in the United States Constitution, has been an unwavering voice for justice and humanity for more than two centuries, and has adapted its programs over the years to continue its mission to advocate for a humane, just and restorative correctional system, and to promote a rational approach to criminal justice issues.

Members of the Prison Society believe that offenders should be held accountable for breaking laws and that punishments should be constructive. The Prison Society recognizes that constructive corrections helps to repair the damages of crimes on victims and communities. This precludes reliance on excessive and unnecessary incarceration, thus freeing government spending for vital issues such as education, healthcare, the environment and public safety. The equilibrium achieved through this restorative approach, which is both cost effective and humane, benefits and enriches all facets of society and advances the well being of the entire community.

Goals

1. To monitor correctional facilities within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, advocating for remedial action where unsafe or inhumane conditions exist, and to urge the creation and maintenance of constructive institutional environments.
2. To ensure development and implementation of policies that will improve prison conditions and programs, and to challenge corrections professional to remain informed about innovations in the field and apply them.
3. To support prisoners, their families and those recently released in their efforts toward self-help and development, and to reduce their pain and misery through visitation, services, and intervention.
4. To advocate for rational and progressive criminal justice legislation and programs, recognizing our overuse of incarceration as a failed experiment in crime control. To, therefore, substantially reduce the use of incarceration, through the implementation or more appropriate correctional settings.
5. To inform, educate and mobilize the public to promote correctional reform in Pennsylvania, and to coordinate the networking and exchange of information among constituencies engaged in these efforts and similar activities involving criminal justice reform.

A Vision of and for the Prison Society

By William M. DiMascio
   Executive Director

The Prison Society has a long history and a rich legacy spanning more than two centuries. In more halcyon and less sophisticated times, the fledgling organization led a movement away from corporal punishment and toward a more humane treatment for prisoners. Ironically, those measures of civility that the emerging American democracy adopted in developing its penal system also became a model for the older, European civilizations. Through twists and turns in the evolution of American culture and the criminal justice system, the Prison Society has remained steadfast in its commitment to humane treatment of offenders -- often, as now, in the face of harsh political and popular opposition. And, still, the organization has survived. I believe there is a profound reason for this endurance.

We personify the conscience of humankind. Even those who oppose us most adamantly share a sense of humanity, of right and wrong. They cannot ignore the fundamental truth of our message. As the voice of conscience for the way we treat the least of our people (in the sense that prisoners are the only people deprived of their liberty by the state), the Prison Society must continue as long as we have a civilization.

This mission gives us scope and purpose as broad as the nation itself. And, in truth -- given America's influence in a shrinking global environment -- our leadership has applicability everywhere. We haven't always recognized the magnitude of our charter. Indeed, at times it's been all we could do to stay afloat locally! It would be a mistake to act too grandly, but it would be an equal dereliction for us to ignore the vision shaped by more than two hundred years of commitment.

Therefore, I believe the Prison Society must do everything possible to strengthen itself to carry the campaign forward to regain the level of influence our founders held. Benjamin Rush did more than beat his breast; he raised the issue of inhumane treatment of prisoners to a point where change was possible. Today's Prison Society also aims to be proactive in engaging its communities.