EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S ANNUAL MEETING REPORT

Criminal justice has become the crown jewel of our "throw-away" society.

It is a system conflicted by austere puritanical values, self-serving political agendas, modern media influences and irrational public fears.

Today, more men and women are in our prisons than ever before. And, well over half them are incarcerated for non-violent offenses.

As a nation, we imprison a bigger percentage of our people than any democracy on Earth.

Those facts are not new to you. But I want to add some perspective. After all:

What all this depressing news adds up to is this: the mission of the Pennsylvania Prison Society is as vital today as it has ever been in its 218-year history. And, knowing that, I want to reassure you right now that every member of our staff is totally committed to the struggle of promoting just, humane and restorative corrections.

Let me take a minute now to have the staff stand and be recognized. This is a truly remarkable group of dedicated men and women.

And, it is true if impolitic to say that there are many equally concerned and supportive people with whom we work in every agency and department within the criminal justice system. We hear stories every day of physical and mental abuse, of prosecutorial misconduct and of other travesties of justice. But it would be grievously wrong for us to assume that everyone in the system is involved with or condones such activities.

During the past year, our service programs touched the lives of thousands of current prisoners, formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.

I can't get into every one of the Prison Society's programs here but all are important in the grand scheme of our efforts.

Our Service to Elder Prisoners (STEP) and Restorative Justice seminars for inmates are high impact, cutting edge programs not yet found in other prison systems. Neither were re-entry programs found elsewhere when the Prison Society started its efforts years ago. Now, re-entry is the hottest program in corrections.

Re-entry continues to be one of our biggest and most successful program areas. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of our work in this area - beyond providing assistance to former prisoners - is in collaborations with other service providers. Often these are agencies that had never before worked with ex-offenders. This is an example of how our service programs help expand our advocacy by widening the circle of concerned citizens.

We anticipate applying for federal funding from the Department of Labor to create two new re-entry programs later this year. One would be in Philadelphia and the other, hopefully, in Harrisburg.

Two of our family-focused programs, busing and virtual visitation, enabled more than four thousand (4,000) men, women and children to maintain contact in person or by video conferencing with prisoners across the state.

Our parenting classes now are being provided at the Philadelphia County Prison as well as eight state prisons. And, we foresee additional expansion of these much-needed classes.

The SKIP program - support to kids with incarcerated parents - has more than doubled the number of children enrolled. And we expect that to double again soon. This expansion is a result of our initiative to empower other organizations to facilitate classes. We have trained two other groups so far and expect to add others in the coming months.

Statewide membership is at an all-time high and growing - up almost 12 percent from last year.

At the same time, the number of official prison visitors peaked at 475, another record. Last month we held our annual Conveners' Conference, which was generally considered to be one of our most successful ever.

Our growth in members and in official visitors is occurring across the state - from urban Philadelphia to rural Greene County, with large and small jurisdictions in between. We're delighted to have more people join us and hope the increase is not merely a reflection of the increasing number of inmates.

In part at least, I believe this growth is a result of the increased visibility we have been getting through our service programs and our expanded communications initiatives.

Correctional Forum is going to 3,800 people each quarter. And, Graterfriends circulates to 3,250 every month. Both are solid publications that get better with each issue.

Although my heart is in the print media, I am really excited about our recently redesigned website and the potential Internet technology has for just about everything we do. If you haven't visited prisonsociety.org recently, you're in for a surprise. The site is filled with useful information and it's updated almost every day.

Our ability to utilize technology effectively in just about all areas of our operations is critically important to our future success. To that end, earlier this year we installed a server and networked the computers in our office. But we still have a way to go in this area.

Incidentally, our office building is now 100 percent occupied. A third group of doctors moved into the last available space we had at the rear of the first floor last November.

On another front, our work with various groups of prisoners has been both interesting and exciting.

One effort involved working with the Lifers Public Safety Initiative at Graterford. This group of older prisoners wrote an article that was published in a special edition of the Prison Journal. The article was titled, "Ending the Culture of Street Crime" and described how these inmates felt they could positively impact other prisoners before they returned to their communities.

As a follow-up, the authors of that article are planning a symposium for August with guests invited from the attendees at the World Congress of Criminology, which is meeting in the United States for the first time at the University of Pennsylvania.

Another effort, which we've come to call the Manhood project, also is still developing. With the support of the secretary of corrections - and the help of Deputy Secretary Vaughn -- we were able to convene two groups of nine prisoners. The prisoners came from throughout the system and were housed for the project at either Graterford or Camp Hill.

In group discussions over a two-week period, the men shared powerful, sometimes painful, recollections of their own troubled transitions from adolescence to manhood. Most, though not all, of the men were serving life sentences. All were mature veterans of the prison system.

What was obvious to any observer was that the men participating in the dialogue were different from the people they described themselves as in their youth. Some said they matured. Some said they were transformed.

Every one of them said the sharing they did during these discussions moved them in positive ways. Since they returned to their original prisons, some of the men have conducted "manhood" discussions for other prisoners.

Where this project heads from here is anyone's guess. But it seems clear there are connections with other activities we support, such as our Restorative Justice program.

When you get to work with prisoners like these, it becomes difficult to understand why the Commonwealth has seen fit to commute the sentence of just one lifer over the past 10 years. What a mockery of compassion!

Members of our board's Policy Committee, working with the Friends' Clemency Project, have paid special attention to the work of the Pardon's Board. We have met with Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll and found her to be sympathetic to our concerns. Unfortunately, her power as chair of the Pardons Board goes only so far.

The referendum of 1997 made a sham of Pennsylvania's commutation process, leaving judgment to the whims of the meanest among us.

Someone didn't think terminally ill Phyllis Krout was remorseful enough for her crime. She was convicted in the slaying of her husband who for years repeatedly beat and raped her and their son and daughter. So, they sent Phyllis back to Muncy to spend her remaining months in prison. She died three weeks ago.

Someone thought that a 15-year-old boy, one of three young teens involved in the killing of a girlfriend, should continue to do hard time after 35 years in prison. This even though neither of the others went to prison. This even though the sentencing judge assured the boy that he would learn a trade in prison and get released "after a few years." This even though the family of the victim pled for his release.

Such is the turbulent state of the world in which we labor. I'll close with this thought:

Pity them that have lost hope, and more, them that never knew the promise of humanity.

We can do this without despair because our values are deeply rooted; our common cause recognizes the breadth of human vices and virtues. We can also do this without weakening because we know both the fickleness and the fecklessness of our inaptly named corrections system. And, finally, we can do this with resolve because hope shines far more brightly than gold.

Thank you.