August 22, 1973

Con Game Reveals Prison Problems

Several Ohio newspapers - including one for which I am responsible - inadvertently participated in a "con game" that demonstrates all too graphically the reason for much of the difficulties at Lucasville Prison.

Most newspapers lean over backward to publish letters to the editor inasmuch as this is about the only way a citizen can address himself to the public at large.

Couple this with a sob story and otherwise cynical editors drop their defenses.

Thus it was that the following letter was published last June:

"Would you please print this article, as to give me one more chance to rid myself of the loneliness that does not pass on like the pages of yesterday.

"I was reading the paper about the "War being over, but to me it will always be remembered by me.  I lost a brother and several friends.  I was wounded there myself.  While I was there, my wife and daughter were killed in an accident; since then it seems I have no friends.  I wrote Two (2) novels and working on my seventh (7th) song.  I have no friends here in Ohio.  I would like to meet some people here; young or old.

Alan Young Box 789, Lucasville, Ohio"

In the cold light of print, the letter seemed too calculating and the address too suspicious so we dropped it from our other editions.

Nevertheless, a fine Christian lady responded to the plea.  She wrote a little note quoting some passages of Scripture to sustain the writer.  She received this reply:

"Dear Friend - Thanks for writing.  I read "Our Daily Bread" every day.  I read the Bible every day and favorite prayers twice a day.  Because I have a fund going to get enough money for an eye operation I spend most of my time getting it together so I can continue my writing.  In God we trust."

Though our subscriber is warm-hearted she is not gullible so she called us to check the authenticity of the writer's need.  We confessed we published the letter in good faith and had no special knowledge of its truth - but we would find out.

First, a call to they Lucasville post master; the box number is that of the state penitentiary.

Then, a call to the warden: Young is a prisoner in good health.

Ouch!

The warden explained that in conformity with a policy of "humanizing" the new prison, inmates were allowed to, send and receive uncensored mail.

Yes, a number of prisoners have set up profitable con schemes soliciting money through the mails.

No, those that are discovered are not allowed to continue.

If this seems incredible, consider the events of July 27 and thereafter.

On that day, a prisoner named Wayne Raney whipped a revolver, from under this shirt and shot a guard dead.  Another guard was shot to death accidentally while overpowering the murderer.

Inmates said there were at least two other guns and scores of knives in possession of prisoners so the inmates were stripped and moved to another part of the prison.  In a matter of days relatives of the prisoners fired off letters to the editor protesting the inhuman treatment.  A few big papers shed copious editorial tears over the prisoners' plight.

However, the Columbus Citizen-Journal interviewed some of the prison guards and unfolded a story of lax security, drugs, sex parties, prison gang wars and guard unrest over permissive policies.

"We are just bellhops in the Lucasville Hilton, that's what the convicts call it," said one guard.  "There are no lights-out rules and we are to let them out of their cells whenever they want."

The guard said there is a number of factions of convicts each seeking control of the prison.  He identified them as Black Unity, White Nationals, Jewish Community, two Muslim groups, Seven Flags and The Breed, a motorcycle-oriented gang.

The guard complains most about "Governor Gilligan's policy of uncensored mail."  He sees that as a source of dope and money with which convict leaders buy favors.

"They check packages but there is no way they can take a stereo or guitar apart and search it for guns," he says.  "Gilligan doesn't know what kind of people we have here," the guard said.  "They are not like the cones at the Marion or Lebanon prisons.  We have crazy people here.  Mean ones.  The kind who would kill for nothing.  I believe in being decent and fair, but I can't see where this is rehabilitation."

The complaints of Lucasville guards are not just overreaction to the murder of one of them.

Winston Moore, director of the Cook County (Chicago) Corrections department, confirms that permissiveness is creating unnecessary crises in U.S. prisons.

"There seems to be a new, rather disturbing premise in corrections: when in doubt either take the line of least resistance or do what seems to be the liberal thing," Moore says.

The result has been a nationwide wave of prison violence, he said.

In the last five years, records show that the number of prison officers being killed is rising as fast as the number of policemen killed.

"Some prison administrators unwisely have fallen victim to self-appointed experts on corrections who conduct social experiments," Moore says.

"These opportunists, many of whom are academicians who have set themselves up as authorities, deal strictly from an idealistic and undisciplined perspective.

"These academicians were the same people who were helpless in controlling campus unrest in recent years," Moore declares.

Shortly after the killing at Lucasville, the guards walked out and refused to return until some sensible security rules were established.  This was done, the prisoners searched and "reclassified" - whatever that means - and order restored.

Raney has been assigned to the maximum security block where, hopefully, he will receive only carefully censored mail.

Without the death penalty to deter him, or dispose of him, Raney can write letters and patiently await another opportunity to kill.

Author: Lindsey Williams