In the late nineties a politician from Pike County, Illinois need to find a job for his son. Power breeds corruption. It always has and always will. This was how Donald Snyder from Pittsfield, Illinois became the new director of the Illinois Department of Correction. He came with the get-tough-on-crime rhetoric. He removed a lot of good policies in place to rehabilitate the prisoner. His famous line of B. S. was, “The Illinois prisoner is being treated like a pampered baby. They were sent to prison to be punished, and I will punish them.” He came, and hell came with him.
He removed the community health program of the Jaycees and Lifers program. The prisoners were allowed to buy food products to be delivered to their cells—stuff like hot pizzas, pints of ice cream and sandwiches. The program also sold clothing like gym outfits and nice shirts to wear on visits with family. The prisoner could buy coupons on the prisoner commissary. The money generated went into the bank. Yes, the Illinois Department of Corrections got their healthy cut of the profit. It went straight into their prison budget to off-set the cost on the tax payer.
The other portion of the profit went to community projects in the surrounding area of the prison. Great programs were voted on and approved, such as repair of a local church when a storm tore the roof off and buying school supplies for the needy families at the start of the school year. Yes, prisoner money was going back into the community to help. It was a wonderful program that taught a lot of good and got a lot of great things done for an impoverished town.
Director Snyder worked to get the tough regime imposed immediately. “Three hots and a cot” was his mindset. It is an old prison inside joke—three state dietary meals and a bed in a cell. This was usually the term used when a man was walked to segregation for rule violation. Segregation is the jail within the jail, with bare naked accommodations imposed for the rule violation: a change of underwear, one state jumpsuit and one set of cosmetics (toothbrush, soap, wash rag, towel, toothpaste, shampoo). You get a couple books for reading and yard once a week for a few hours to keep the body and mind fit. That was what Snyder had in mind for all prisoners, not just those being punished in segregation.
Now Snyder was a twisted pup with an ugly mindset. He stripped the prisoner of all his personal clothing—jeans, jackets, shirts and any shoes that were not state boots or white tennis shoes. What this did was raise the price for the taxpayer who now had to supply all clothing for the prisoner—another loss to the community and taxpayer.
There was a problem in the Illinois Department of Corrections. They had created all the segregation cells and segregation prisons for the “trouble prisoner.” Donald Snyder was expecting to come out a winner in his push for dominance over the Illinois prisoner mindset. But that was how he thought. He wanted to break the prisoner. But he was a fool, for one cannot break the real gangster. The true criminal will not bow down to anyone, any authority. He will adapt and overcome. Snyder just changed how the game was played in this closed world, and the taxpayer paid the price.
There was no resistance to his push for change. The prisoner was not fighting back. They did not assault the staff; they were not violating the new rules in place. Simply, they stood back and surveyed the new regime. For the real con knows that directors come and go with the newly elected governors. It was time to sit back and let the storm ride out. So we lay back and waited for his fall from grace.
So Snyder had to change his tactics. Nobody was assaulting staff; there were no prisoners with rule violations to fill the segregation cells he had created. So he went to work creating policies that pushed the prisoner into confrontations with the staff. It was his plan to keep the segregation regime in place and create a stack of assaults to prove up his twisted views he was imposing on the Illinois Department of Corrections prisoners.
The prisoner in the State of Illinois is locked down from 9:30 PM until 8 AM a.m. each day. Those in the medium and minimum camps are let out to walk to the chow hall for breakfast and then go back to lockdown. The men in maximum security facilities have their breakfast brought to their cells. No man is in his cell all night not causing a problem. They were not doing anything wrong. So he had to poke the bear looking for a reaction. Snyder’s twisted mind realized this was the perfect opportunity to create a problem between staff and the prisoner. He wanted to create an incident to get a physical reaction in order to keep those segregation cells full.
So Snyder invoked a new policy. At seven a.m. count each day the prisoner had to have all his property stored in his property box. Only one set of cosmetics, a cup and Bible could be out, along with one pair of shower shoes, tennis shoes or state boots.
Then the correctional staff got together and made a game out of it. In large groups they would descend upon the sleeping prisoner. They would open the cell door and rush in with a garbage bag grabbing anything left out—in essence stealing the property acting under the color of law, using the authority that the correction badge gives the staff over the inmate.
Now this violated the rules big time, for the Staff may write a ticket for the prisoners not being in compliance, but they cannot steal his property and throw it away. The impoverished prisoner may wait months or years while his single momma works long enough to be able to send him the money to get a real pair of tennis shoes from the commissary. The prisoner will fight to keep this item that family has given him.
Remember that the prisoner has only a small amount of property left from his prior life. This little bit of stuff is everything to him in this harsh environment, so he will fight to keep it, especially when being awaken from a sound sleep to be attacked by staff stealing it. Director Snyder was onto something here. At first he got the reaction he was seeking. The staff got a beat down and hurt. Then the rest of the prison staff would descend on that one cell and beat the crap out of the inmate that had awaken and snapped when attacked.
Director Snyder was getting the press and the paperwork he needed. His staff was being assaulted by the prisoners in the medium and minimum facilities. They did not try to pull this crap in the maximum joints. Why? Because he had not created this policy in the maximum-security prisons. They did not try this crap in the maximum-security prisoner cells. Only the medium and minimum facilities got this new policy, to create the headlines needed: “Inmates Attack Staff at Medium and Minimum Facilities. Segregation Facilities Needed!”
The prisoner took awhile to adapt. Meanwhile Snyder and Governor Ryan, the two who created this prison reform regime, were both convicted of criminal activity while in office. Both became prisoners in a federal prison cell. But their policy was never overturned in the Illinois prison system. However, the bosses in Springfield did change the rules after numerous filings in the State Court of Claims made them replace shoes and other property taken.
What they do today is come in and throw the property out onto the gallery. They yell and scream and throw stuff around in the cell. The new fish are always getting caught up—they react and are then sent to segregation. But the real convict adapts. I am up at seven each morning, suited and booted—fully dressed with shoes on—ready to meet the man head-on. As I am in compliance, they cannot hurt me. See, the real thinker overcomes and adapts, but sadly the new fish get played each morning.
Now I ask you, as a thinking and educated mind, where does this policy have any penological interest?
The property has only to be put up for the brief ten minutes it takes to harass the whole house wing. Then the prisoner in that same cell can have his property out in any manner he deems necessary. So why go in and harass the sleeping man? I think it is to create the reaction, to create the physical incident that will justify harsh prison policy. As I explained, the real gangster will not fall into the trap. But his anger will fester. It will grow into a deep and dark hole in his soul. When released from prison that rage is a very real time bomb looking to go off.
What purpose is served by harassing the man sleeping in his cell at seven a.m. in the morning? Please explain this to me. For I can not wrap my head around that one. What rehabilitative policy is in effect here?
The prisoner is in his cell with his little bit of property. Why bother him at seven in the morning if it is not to create a problem with that prisoner?
So I ask you to review this policy and give me your feedback. For a society is judged by the way it rehabilitates offenders.
I have been in prison throughout the Snyder and Ryan regime. I watched a good system get ripped apart. The compliance check policy is not the only one Snyder created to cause problems with the prisoner population. He imposed placing rival gang members in the cell together to get fights going.
He also imposed the inter-racial cell mate policy to create fights and incidents of rape and robbery. These are proven facts. But on the most part the prisoners accepted the change and adapted to it. Only the hardcore knuckleheads fell into the Snyder trap. Mostly it affected the mentally ill. Why? Because they could not understand the prison policy they were now dealing with. All they knew was the street thug lifestyle that had kept them alive in the big cities.
So I wanted to point out the policies in place that were designed by Director Snyder, or should we call him, Convict Snyder, to get the prisoner to act out, to get the prisoner to make problems.
I await your feedback. Good or bad we live in America. The First Amendment gives you the right to have an opinion and to give it a voice.
Your Writer in Irons
Larry “Rocky” Harris
