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Editorial voice from elsewhere

5 min read

Ty’rique Riley didn’t die from being beaten in Dauphin County Prison, as many of his supporters feared after seeing pictures of his bruised body. That was the conclusion of Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick, who determined the 21-year-old died of something even more puzzling – natural causes.

A healthy young man is not supposed to die of natural causes. So even after the coroner’s presentation, a nagging question remained: could his death have been prevented? If he had gotten medical care sooner, would he have lived?

It’s a question at the heart of the Pennsylvania Prison Society’s mission, and the reason it was founded more than 100 years ago – to help protect people behind bars and to advocate for their humane treatment.

According to Claire Shubik-Richards, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, most deaths in state and county facilities are from suicide or from the puzzling “natural causes.” That doesn’t make a lot of sense to her, either.

“Deaths are frequently reported as natural causes,” said Shubik-Richards, “but they’re all preventable.”

She says her organization is taking a closer look at data from inmate deaths and their classification in Pennsylvania to focus a spotlight on the label “natural causes,” and will provide a report on the results of its investigation. It also is delving into data on the how’s and why’s of suicide in Pennsylvania prisons, another disturbing trend that the organization says has increased in recent years.

To Pennsylvania’s credit, the Pennsylvania Prison Society is one of few officially sanctioned organizations in the nation with a mandate to protect the rights of incarcerated people. Only New York and Illinois have such official organizations to regularly monitor the status of prisoners and respond to their pleas for help.

Their most important mission is preventing prisoner abuse and death.

Deaths of inmates in Pennsylvania are classified in four categories: homicide, suicide, accidental or natural. But the Pennsylvania Prison Society is concerned that classifying deaths as from natural causes or even suicide masks deeper issues about how inmates are treated.

In a recent case in Blair County, a prisoner asked to see a doctor, Shubik-Richards noted, but instead of getting him to a hospital, he was given a Tylenol. When he died, the report said it was from “natural causes.”

Stopping preventable deaths in prison is one of the organization’s primary missions. But there’s an even bigger one – reducing the number of people put behind bars in the first place.

Pennsylvania’s prison population has increased 850% in the last 40 years, according to the group. Forty years ago, Pennsylvania had seven prisons. Today there are 25.

Closer to home, Pennsylvania’s county jail population rose by more than 450% over the last 40 years, despite the population growing by 7.8%.

Half of the state’s prisoners are black, although only 11% of the state’s’ population is black. Black men account for 38.1% of the county jail population.

Hispanic prisoners make up 11.1% of PA’s county jail population, but 6.8% of the state’s population.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society says “over-policing” in black and brown communities is one of the main causes of the disproportionate incarceration rates. To make matters worse, many inmates haven’t been convicted of any crime. They simply can’t make bail, leading taxpayers to pay for their upkeep until their cases are tried.

According to the Pennsylvania Prison Society, taxpayers spend more than $2.4 billion a year to keep people behind bars. On any given day, more than 80,000 Pennsylvanians are incarcerated.

Think about it. It costs $42,000 to keep someone behind bars in Pennsylvania and $16,000 to send them to a state college for a year.

Too many lives are being lost by throwing people into jail instead of seeking ways to keep them contributing members of society. And Shubik-Richards contends there are other serious problems with Pennsylvania’s criminal code, including the amount of time someone on probation stays under supervision – another drain on taxpayer dollars.

“PA is one of few states where people can be under community supervision for 10-20 years, ” Shubik-Richards says. “There need to be caps on community supervision.

Taxpayers also are footing the bill for sick, elderly inmates who are no danger to society. The Pennsylvania Prison Society wants to see more elderly inmates released on parole after 25 to 35 years, saving taxpayers millions in shelter, food and health care costs.

Too many lives are being lost and too much money is being wasted in locking up and caring for people who present no danger to our communities.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society’s arguments for change make sense. Pennsylvania lawmakers should heed their calls for a comprehensive review of the state’s prison system and the criminal justice code.

And we await the organization’s report on the data from inmate deaths in Pennsylvania’s prisons. It could help prevent needless deaths from causes that may be anything but natural.

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