BEHIND BARS Is the ACI up to policing itself? BY STEVEN STYCOS

After unsuccessfully wrangling with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, a state commission is ready to hear complaints from prisoners at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston. It remains open to question, though, whether the 10-day period for accepting complaints will result in a thorough review.

Fearing unrest or a riot, DOC director A.T. Wall insisted on the 10-day window for prisoners to file complaints with the House Commission to Study the Creation and Benefits of a Permanent Oversight Commission for the Department of Corrections. "We believe during that period of time we will have inmates challenging day-to-day orders given to them by officers," says Robert McCutcheon, DOC departmental grievance coordinator, Wall’s representative on the commission.

Several of the commission’s 11 members, including its chairman, state Representative Joseph Almeida (D-Providence), argued for a longer period, fearing inmates will not learn of the commission in time to communicate their grievances. Realizing, though, that it had no power to dictate to Wall, the commission agreed in December to consider only complaints filed between January 5 and 15. Notices will be posted for the general prison population, promises McCutcheon, and inmates in segregation will also be informed.

The independent commission to investigate prisoner complaints was formed after the Providence community-action group Direct Action for Rights & Equality (DARE) lobbied the legislature last winter. DOC selected 10 days, explains DOC spokesman Al Bucci, because US District Judge Raymond Pettine set 10 days for filing prisoner complaints in a case during the 1970s. Pamela DeWitt, a former correction officer whose husband was imprisoned at the ACI, predicts, however, that after McCutcheon posts notices, guards will rip them down.

The current grievance procedure permits inmates to complain about food, abuse by guards, and lost personal belongings. Inmate discipline, prison assignment, and medical care can’t be grieved. McCutcheon says prisoners file 300 to 400 complaints a year and that DOC’s actions are upheld 80 to 85 percent of the time. He attributes DOC’s high winning percentage to a well-trained staff and prisoners who are "misinformed" and "slick." But Mimi Budnick, community organizer for DARE’s Behind the Walls Prison Project, says the current grievance procedure does not work. "Absolute power and control in the hands of one body leads to abuse," she told the commission, noting, "Whether they [prisoners] were treated with respect and fairness affects the product that comes out [of the prison]." The House commission was established to take a one-time look at the ACI’s handling of grievances.

In a phone interview, Anderson Cesar, a US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee who has been held at the ACI for more than two years, says the DOC’s grievance procedure can be frustrating. Says Cesar, "They [guards] tell you that you cannot win: ‘It’s our house.’ "

DeWitt and other DARE members testified that prisoners face retaliation for filing grievances or helping others complain who cannot write English. Inmate handbooks may also contribute to the perception that the DOC grievance process is "unfair." Although Maximum Security’s handbook is "great," Budnick says, other facilities’ handbooks tell inmates they must obtain a grievance form from supervising guards. That stifles complaints, she says, since forms may also be obtained directly from Wall’s office and the prison library.

Budnick says many handbooks do not indicate that grievances must be filed within three days of the incident. Late grievances are then rejected, rather than being seriously investigated, she observes. These and other problems, Budnick says, deny prison officials information on simmering issues that affect prison safety. (McCutcheon did not respond to DARE’s criticisms, and Bucci was unable to comment on the specifics of the inmate manuals.)

Complaints or comments about the ACI can be mailed to Almeida at the State House, Room 323, Providence, RI 02903.