Prisons to follow discipline model set by Somerset facility

A punishment model that has reduced the number of prison assaults at the State Correctional Institution at Somerset during a pilot phase will be expanded in July and implemented at nine other state prisons.

The Swift, Certain & Fair model is designed to lessen inmate aggression by administering penalties quickly and consistently, in turn curtailing violence.

The pilot started in January in one housing unit at SCI Somerset, and in April, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections extended it for another 90 days. It will be expanded to another housing unit in July.

The Somerset prison was chosen for the pilot because of 20 assaults on the staff and 35 assaults on inmates in 2015, according to Brett Bucklen, director of research for the corrections department. Statewide, 719 assaults were reported on staff and 638 on inmates last year, he said.

From January through April, assaults at SCI Somerset dropped to three on the staff and seven on inmates, putting the prison on track to end 2016 with 21 assaults on inmates and nine assaults on staff, Bucklen said.

The pilot also has reduced stress and misconduct levels among staff and inmates, he added.

“Providing inmates with clear behavior expectations and specific consequences, which are implemented immediately in a consistent manner when they engage in such behavior, will alleviate the uncertainty and anxiety of how and when the consequence will be imposed,” said Amy Worden, press secretary for the state corrections department.

Less anxiety reduces the risk of aggression from both inmates and staff, she said.

Bucklen said the program will be implemented at the following of the state's 27 prisons: Muncy, Frackville, Camp Hill, Houtzdale, Benner, Albion, Coal Township, Mercer and Dallas.

Punishments in state prisons are decided by hearing examiners, who conduct scheduled, court-style hearings that usually involve a wait of about a week after the infraction.

The Swift, Certain & Fair model addresses nine punishable behaviors — they include lying to an employee, failure to stand for count and body punching or horseplay — and shifts the punishment duties from hearing examiners to correctional officers so they can be determined almost immediately.

SCI Somerset Superintendent Trevor Wingard stressed the importance of eliminating the delay in meting out punishment.

“If an inmate commits an infraction on Friday and then there's the weekend, maybe the examiner takes a vacation,” Wingard said. “When the inmate is punished, he might not even remember what he did.”

If all goes well with the second pilot phase, Bucklen said the program likely will become standard operating procedure at SCI Somerset. It could take a few years to fully implement, he said.

Wingard said Swift, Certain & Fair is the first program he's seen in 20 years on the job that both inmates and staff approve.

“If you've got that, I think you've hit on something,” Wingard said.

Worden said another goal of Swift, Certain & Fair is to make punishment decisions more subjective.

“The difference regarding subjectivity ... is not in who issues the sanction, but that (model) clearly designates what specific behaviors are being included and what sanctions are imposed by the unit sergeant (correctional officer) for the first through fourth infraction of those specific behaviors,” Worden said in an email. “There are no deviations from the specified sanctions.”

Those sanctions involve issuing a reprimand, giving warnings and taking away dayroom use privileges for varying time frames. Examiners have the liberty to issue other punishments that officers can't.

“Punishment doesn't need to be severe in order to work, if it is delivered swiftly and with a high degree of certainty,” Worden said. “(Swift, Certain & Fair) is all about using milder and more graduated sanctions for misbehavior.”

Bucklen said Pennsylvania is one piece of a nationwide prison violence problem, noting that Swift, Certain & Fair and similar programs are used in Ohio and Washington prisons.

An evaluation of SCI Somerset's pilot will be marketed around the country by BetaGov, a business that helps agencies, organizations and others to develop and conduct research that tests promising ideas for improving policies and practices, according to its website.

Natalie Wickman is a Tribune-Review staff writer.