Reform Organizations Release Report on Prison Crisis Here

A group of 11 prison reformers including Judge Harry Elam, chairman of Governor Sargent's prison investigation team, demanded an explanation from Sargeant of the mounting crisis in the state's prison system that has forced the surprise resignation of the state Commissioner of Corrections, John J. Fitzpatrick.

In a press conference held yesterday morning at the office of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction, the group offered a joint statement praising Fitzpatrick for making "an honest effort to change a system that--because of some inmates, some guards and some wardens--may be almost impossible to change."

The group, many of whom have been involved in the effort to negotiate solutions to the problems besetting the state's correctional system, pledged full support to any constructive efforts the Governor might make to ease prison tensions and revive negotiations between inmates and administrators.

However the group also called "the lack of executive and legislative of command from the Governor's office to the Department of Correction a primary factor in creating the current prison crisis.

policy?" asked the statement of the Massachusetts council on Crime and Correction.

Sam Tyler of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction recommended that Sargent consider appointing Dr. Jerome Miller, currently chairman of the Department of Youth Services, or John Buckley, Sheriff of Middlesex County, to replace Fitzpatrick. Both Miller and Buckley have been highly praised for their administrative expertise and commitment to reform.

In individual statements, several spokesmen cited the seizure late Sunday night of 36 inmates at Norfolk State prison and their transfer to Walpole as a large factor in current tension.

John Carver of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction blamed the raid for reversing the "peaceful and rational effort toward change" that began after the Attica prison uprising in September.

"Today, we are facing the edge of disaster," Carver said. Negotiations have been cancelled. The inmates at Walpole are locked in their cells for the second time in less than a month."

Edward A. Aronson, executive director of Self Development Group, Inc., said that inmates are no longer "able to meet in an atmosphere of comparative relaxation" because they don't know who will be "branded next as a troublemaker and locked up."

"In both institutions (Norfolk and Walpole)," charged Louis L. Brin, the outside sponsor of Walpole Lifers' Group, "the most radical and life-saving idea in American Penology today, that prisoners are human, almost wholly eludes the administration."

Other organizations that released statements were the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

policy?" asked the statement of the Massachusetts council on Crime and Correction.

Sam Tyler of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction recommended that Sargent consider appointing Dr. Jerome Miller, currently chairman of the Department of Youth Services, or John Buckley, Sheriff of Middlesex County, to replace Fitzpatrick. Both Miller and Buckley have been highly praised for their administrative expertise and commitment to reform.

In individual statements, several spokesmen cited the seizure late Sunday night of 36 inmates at Norfolk State prison and their transfer to Walpole as a large factor in current tension.

John Carver of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction blamed the raid for reversing the "peaceful and rational effort toward change" that began after the Attica prison uprising in September.

"Today, we are facing the edge of disaster," Carver said. Negotiations have been cancelled. The inmates at Walpole are locked in their cells for the second time in less than a month."

Edward A. Aronson, executive director of Self Development Group, Inc., said that inmates are no longer "able to meet in an atmosphere of comparative relaxation" because they don't know who will be "branded next as a troublemaker and locked up."

"In both institutions (Norfolk and Walpole)," charged Louis L. Brin, the outside sponsor of Walpole Lifers' Group, "the most radical and life-saving idea in American Penology today, that prisoners are human, almost wholly eludes the administration."

Other organizations that released statements were the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

Sam Tyler of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction recommended that Sargent consider appointing Dr. Jerome Miller, currently chairman of the Department of Youth Services, or John Buckley, Sheriff of Middlesex County, to replace Fitzpatrick. Both Miller and Buckley have been highly praised for their administrative expertise and commitment to reform.

In individual statements, several spokesmen cited the seizure late Sunday night of 36 inmates at Norfolk State prison and their transfer to Walpole as a large factor in current tension.

John Carver of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction blamed the raid for reversing the "peaceful and rational effort toward change" that began after the Attica prison uprising in September.

"Today, we are facing the edge of disaster," Carver said. Negotiations have been cancelled. The inmates at Walpole are locked in their cells for the second time in less than a month."

Edward A. Aronson, executive director of Self Development Group, Inc., said that inmates are no longer "able to meet in an atmosphere of comparative relaxation" because they don't know who will be "branded next as a troublemaker and locked up."

"In both institutions (Norfolk and Walpole)," charged Louis L. Brin, the outside sponsor of Walpole Lifers' Group, "the most radical and life-saving idea in American Penology today, that prisoners are human, almost wholly eludes the administration."

Other organizations that released statements were the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute