toi_ama
08-30-2003, 01:24 PM
New prisons chief hasn't a moment to lose
System overcrowded, cash-strapped
Chip Scutari
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 13, 2003 12:00 AM
Petite and soft-spoken, Dora Schriro brings a thoughtful approach to the crisis in Arizona prisons.
The new state corrections chief has a doctorate in education administration, a master's degree in psychology, a law degree and even a favorite Latin phrase: ad excelleum conamur, meaning "we strive toward excellence."
She started a system in Missouri called the "parallel universe," a microsociety that lets inmates engage full time in activities similar to those in the outside world.
Now, she faces an even bigger challenge: dealing with the prisons in Arizona, where the shortage of beds grows every month, where costs rise by the millions each year, and where hundreds of inmates have been shipped off to Texas to avoid even more overcrowding.
She also will confront a shortage of corrections officers and a lack of money to build new prisons.
Welcome to Arizona.
Schriro, 53, the first woman to take charge of the state Department of Corrections, embraces the challenges.
"We don't have a moment to lose," said Schriro, who will make $130,000 a year. "They have taken 25 years to get to be one way, and we have 35 months to undo it, redo it and get it going in another direction."
4,100 without beds
Her approach to law and order is all about preparing prisoners for life after confinement.
All but 4 percent of Arizona's 31,000 prisoners are scheduled to eventually go back on the street.
But her first challenge may be simply to find beds for thousands of inmates.
Arizona has 4,130 more prisoners than it has prison beds.
The overcrowding has forced officials to use a patchwork of tents, mattresses and medical beds to handle inmates at the state's prisons.
Mattresses are strewn over the floor at the reception center at Alhambra State Prison.
Many people have been pushing for a special legislative session later this year to deal with the overcrowding, but Schriro said she will not make a decision to push for such a session for several weeks.
She also said her recommendations on overcrowding and high turnover for corrections officers won't come until the fall.
She has just finished touring Arizona's 10 public prisons, climbing watchtowers and analyzing control rooms and pharmacies.
She'll be doing a second round of stops that will include midnight shifts.
In Arizona, she oversees a $634 million budget, more than 31,000 prisoners and more than 10,000 employees.
She dealt with a similar-size operation in Missouri.
Tough decisions
Here, the lack of beds coupled with low pay for corrections officers has the department in a fiscal pickle.
It has asked for an additional $31 million to alleviate overcrowding, but so far the cash-strapped Legislature hasn't released any money.
In a move of last resort, Arizona sent 624 inmates to a private county jail in Texas.
That initially backfired after underfed inmates rioted in January, flooding dormitories, tearing up mattresses and breaking windows.
Corrections officials gave the jail a clean bill of health in June.
But just last week, two prisoners briefly escaped from the jail.
The overcrowding has thrown Schriro another curveball.
She will have to decide whether to build the largest private women's prison in the nation.
The 3,200-bed facility, which would probably be built in Pima County, has stirred protests because the three bidders have less-than-stellar track records, critics say.
Schriro's decision is anxiously awaited.
Donna Hamm, a frequent critic of the Arizona Corrections Department, is impressed with Schriro's credentials but says Schriro has "some real mountains to climb."
"She gets it in terms of equating the treatment of prisoners with how they will act when they are released," said Hamm, director of the Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform.
"Her biggest hurdle is the entrenched good-ol'-boy network that seems to permeate the Department of Corrections. She's walking into a department that has a high staff turnover and low morale."
Corrections officials are adjusting to Schriro's hectic pace and six-day weeks.
"She has hit the ground sprinting," said George Weisz, an adviser to Gov. Janet Napolitano on corrections.
Schriro's career hasn't been free of controversy.
Four months after she started as city corrections commissioner in St. Louis, five prisoners escaped.
There were also four incidents of inmates using the identification of others to gain freedom.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay suspended her for two weeks. Ed Bushmeyer, the former public safety director in St. Louis who was Schriro's boss, said those problems weren't her fault.
"The system was totally broken, and in a relatively short time she made a lot of progress," said Bushmeyer, who was suspended along with Schriro.
She was Missouri's corrections chief from 1993 to 2001. During that time, the number of ex-convicts who re-entered the prison system on new crimes dropped to 19 percent from 34 percent. Inmate lawsuits filed against Missouri fell from nearly 1,700, to 380.
Reaching out to victims
Schriro will be putting a renewed focus on victims rights.
She will head to downtown Tucson today to meet with more than 20 victims rights groups. She's starting a program called "Impact of Crime on Victims." A panel will let victims groups, such as Parents of Murdered Children, go to prisons and talk with inmates about the devastating impact of crime on them and their families.
Schriro was supervising an execution on her second day as head of the Missouri prison system when she noticed something that she considered a lack of respect for victims families.
She asked where victims relatives sit. She was told they weren't invited. She changed that immediately. It sparked a commitment to victims rights as a key cog of prison reform.
At an early age, she learned the link between unemployment and the path to prison. Her grandfather, Michael Lesser, took her to places like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, crisscrossing inner cities where young men were living aimless lives.
"My grandfather, who had a keen sense of direction, would always end up getting lost in blighted neighborhoods of the cities," Schriro recalled. "I was really curious to know why all these grown men were sitting on the front stoop in the middle of the day. I said to myself, 'Why weren't they working?' "
Her eyes light up when she talks about her childhood hero. Lesser would ask her to recap the day's events, employing the Socratic method of questioning.
Schriro said she can't imagine pursuing another profession.
"When ex-offenders come up to you on the street and proudly introduce their family to you, it's amazing," she said. "To see how your policies impacted somebody's life, there isn't anything better."
Reach the reporter at chip.scutari@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8069.
System overcrowded, cash-strapped
Chip Scutari
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 13, 2003 12:00 AM
Petite and soft-spoken, Dora Schriro brings a thoughtful approach to the crisis in Arizona prisons.
The new state corrections chief has a doctorate in education administration, a master's degree in psychology, a law degree and even a favorite Latin phrase: ad excelleum conamur, meaning "we strive toward excellence."
She started a system in Missouri called the "parallel universe," a microsociety that lets inmates engage full time in activities similar to those in the outside world.
Now, she faces an even bigger challenge: dealing with the prisons in Arizona, where the shortage of beds grows every month, where costs rise by the millions each year, and where hundreds of inmates have been shipped off to Texas to avoid even more overcrowding.
She also will confront a shortage of corrections officers and a lack of money to build new prisons.
Welcome to Arizona.
Schriro, 53, the first woman to take charge of the state Department of Corrections, embraces the challenges.
"We don't have a moment to lose," said Schriro, who will make $130,000 a year. "They have taken 25 years to get to be one way, and we have 35 months to undo it, redo it and get it going in another direction."
4,100 without beds
Her approach to law and order is all about preparing prisoners for life after confinement.
All but 4 percent of Arizona's 31,000 prisoners are scheduled to eventually go back on the street.
But her first challenge may be simply to find beds for thousands of inmates.
Arizona has 4,130 more prisoners than it has prison beds.
The overcrowding has forced officials to use a patchwork of tents, mattresses and medical beds to handle inmates at the state's prisons.
Mattresses are strewn over the floor at the reception center at Alhambra State Prison.
Many people have been pushing for a special legislative session later this year to deal with the overcrowding, but Schriro said she will not make a decision to push for such a session for several weeks.
She also said her recommendations on overcrowding and high turnover for corrections officers won't come until the fall.
She has just finished touring Arizona's 10 public prisons, climbing watchtowers and analyzing control rooms and pharmacies.
She'll be doing a second round of stops that will include midnight shifts.
In Arizona, she oversees a $634 million budget, more than 31,000 prisoners and more than 10,000 employees.
She dealt with a similar-size operation in Missouri.
Tough decisions
Here, the lack of beds coupled with low pay for corrections officers has the department in a fiscal pickle.
It has asked for an additional $31 million to alleviate overcrowding, but so far the cash-strapped Legislature hasn't released any money.
In a move of last resort, Arizona sent 624 inmates to a private county jail in Texas.
That initially backfired after underfed inmates rioted in January, flooding dormitories, tearing up mattresses and breaking windows.
Corrections officials gave the jail a clean bill of health in June.
But just last week, two prisoners briefly escaped from the jail.
The overcrowding has thrown Schriro another curveball.
She will have to decide whether to build the largest private women's prison in the nation.
The 3,200-bed facility, which would probably be built in Pima County, has stirred protests because the three bidders have less-than-stellar track records, critics say.
Schriro's decision is anxiously awaited.
Donna Hamm, a frequent critic of the Arizona Corrections Department, is impressed with Schriro's credentials but says Schriro has "some real mountains to climb."
"She gets it in terms of equating the treatment of prisoners with how they will act when they are released," said Hamm, director of the Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform.
"Her biggest hurdle is the entrenched good-ol'-boy network that seems to permeate the Department of Corrections. She's walking into a department that has a high staff turnover and low morale."
Corrections officials are adjusting to Schriro's hectic pace and six-day weeks.
"She has hit the ground sprinting," said George Weisz, an adviser to Gov. Janet Napolitano on corrections.
Schriro's career hasn't been free of controversy.
Four months after she started as city corrections commissioner in St. Louis, five prisoners escaped.
There were also four incidents of inmates using the identification of others to gain freedom.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay suspended her for two weeks. Ed Bushmeyer, the former public safety director in St. Louis who was Schriro's boss, said those problems weren't her fault.
"The system was totally broken, and in a relatively short time she made a lot of progress," said Bushmeyer, who was suspended along with Schriro.
She was Missouri's corrections chief from 1993 to 2001. During that time, the number of ex-convicts who re-entered the prison system on new crimes dropped to 19 percent from 34 percent. Inmate lawsuits filed against Missouri fell from nearly 1,700, to 380.
Reaching out to victims
Schriro will be putting a renewed focus on victims rights.
She will head to downtown Tucson today to meet with more than 20 victims rights groups. She's starting a program called "Impact of Crime on Victims." A panel will let victims groups, such as Parents of Murdered Children, go to prisons and talk with inmates about the devastating impact of crime on them and their families.
Schriro was supervising an execution on her second day as head of the Missouri prison system when she noticed something that she considered a lack of respect for victims families.
She asked where victims relatives sit. She was told they weren't invited. She changed that immediately. It sparked a commitment to victims rights as a key cog of prison reform.
At an early age, she learned the link between unemployment and the path to prison. Her grandfather, Michael Lesser, took her to places like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, crisscrossing inner cities where young men were living aimless lives.
"My grandfather, who had a keen sense of direction, would always end up getting lost in blighted neighborhoods of the cities," Schriro recalled. "I was really curious to know why all these grown men were sitting on the front stoop in the middle of the day. I said to myself, 'Why weren't they working?' "
Her eyes light up when she talks about her childhood hero. Lesser would ask her to recap the day's events, employing the Socratic method of questioning.
Schriro said she can't imagine pursuing another profession.
"When ex-offenders come up to you on the street and proudly introduce their family to you, it's amazing," she said. "To see how your policies impacted somebody's life, there isn't anything better."
Reach the reporter at chip.scutari@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8069.