Why Call It Corrections?

But like all the corrections of follow up approximately 30 minutes to make that twenty eight fifty. The following program is a public affairs special report. The Iowa public. Testing network. In the dead of night. There were the first signs of battle the signs of a mob of inmates that battled yesterday at the Iowa men's penitentiary at Fort Madison. Fighting a war

against a system. And against themselves if you please. Just recently you come to the bottom line who would have been going to find a correctional guard. That doesn't have the common courtesy to communicate with people properly. The image name is Gary Eugene Tyson t y s o n age. A black male aged 31 is serving two concurrent 25 year sentences one for robbery and the other for robbery with aggravation. This from Blackhawk County he's been in prison since January 1968. His family has been informed of his death. He was found in the prison kitchen area. He it appears that he's been stabbed in the neck. We were obviously investigating. The death. Why call it a correction. A follow up report.

Good evening. It was not St. Phil. New Mexico or Michigan it was Iowa where prison disturbances when they occur which they do rarely occur with the risks of yesterday's Fort Madison uprising. Indeed it has been 10 years since hostages were taken and one of Iowa's correctional facilities and that disturbance was solved without a life lost. This one wasn't though it must be stressed that at present there is no known association between the death of Gary Tyson and the reasons for the riot. What is known is that Gary Tyson was concerned about the prison conditions that led to the disturbance conditions he described to us in our report called Why call it corrections broadcast in July conditions that led him to warn of a quote possible bloodbath at the penitentiary. That a bloodbath was avoided as clearly to someone's credit. Inmates or officials for US prison disturbances go Mark Braun. The tension in this one was diffused relatively quickly. Dan at Fort Madison where you were and here in Des Moines where the governor and other top state officials gathered to monitor the crisis visual that lasted through half the night

had in it an odd combination of uncertainty and smoothness. Sirens blaring the glare of television lights smoke drifting from the Fort Madison prison compound their concern and fear on faces of relatives of prison guards being held hostage. Those were the sights the sounds the impression at the police barricade outside Iowas maximum security prison in Fort Madison. By dawn the drama was over. Throughout the ordeal it unfolded like a novel with a scene shifting back and forth from Fort Madison and a crisis command post set up in the basement of the Hoover state office building into more. Than just a slogan. The ordeal started yesterday morning in the inmate dining room. Four prison officials including the director of security at the facility were taken hostage at approximately are at a fast lane 10:30 yesterday morning.

The four hostages. Were taken away. OK right security director and our two assistant security directors and a first lieutenant were in the dining area at a small table. They're basically just watching mainline you know go through. An inmate approached them at that time with a weapon. They were telling me that's right. It was a homemade shotgun. By afternoon prison official Don malinger began a ritual of walking from the prison to the barricade to read press release. There was something new to report. And Governor Ray's press secretary John Mackerras faced reporters at the command post in Des Moines. The number of hostages had grown to tamp. Negotiations were under way. I wanted to update you on the seven hostages still being held. We believe they are all in building 51 which is a building separate from the one we talked about earlier. Have no reports of any injuries. We don't know who exactly is holding them whether the same five inmates or just a couple of them. But talks do continue at

this time. The warden and his negotiators talking with the inmates trying to get them released. Wow was OK if we would not have taken hostages today. You would know what it would be. Security director Mr. James maintain the system security director Mr. Larry Moline have been released unharmed. Think what you will if we did. He's all right he just got released. Japanese the mind in the same bed. She's the one with you know. Where you heard. No I was not her.

Sure did you see anybody who was hurt. No. How did you get out. But. Not really a middle man right now. What was went through your mind. Well you know hostile. No comment. One more thing I don't. Know if they all hostages have now been released by the inmates of the I was state penitentiary deputy corrections director Paul Gross Sime confirmed the five remaining hostages were taken unharmed to the prisons administration building and that's And just last few minutes. In the end the five inmates who traded away the hostages for a press conference. But the hostages were not harmed. What satisfied the inmates what indeed ended the organized facet of the protest was something that those with power often take for granted something those without power seek desperately. It was access the ability to tell their story to a group of reporters who were then to relate the story to the state. The story is not new.

It deals with prison conditions contaminants that inmates say are polluting their water overcrowded sounds poor medical facilities poor training for them and their guards and the like. The complaints have been the focus of in May concerns for years the subject of their lawsuits which have increased more than four fold in the past three years and which have forced the state's attorney general to add additional attorneys to handle the suits. Which have forced the I would apartment of social services to re-evaluate its corrections programs and which have forced the Iowa legislature to look hard at the state's correctional facilities all of which by the way is going on right now. Evidently though the inmates who took the hostages yesterday wanted speedier action on the part of the state. They weren't the only ones correctional officers want changes too. And this morning the head of their union used the disturbance last night to underscore the guard's longstanding complaints.

We had predicted something like this is going to be happening some time ago and we had brought the attention to management and this is a possibility. We have been asking for and we've been having meetings with the state asking for better training programs that a proposal for a training academy hoping that the corrections officers that are trained prior to coming to work in the state or course express our concerns about low pay. Shortages help. We had all kinds of problems taken together the grievances aired last night and some concerns voiced today raise a very fundamental and oft repeated question one that was put to the governor this morning. Does Iowa need a new president. Well I do think it's somewhat fallacious to believe that merely If we had new institutions that we would never have in this type of incident occur because we're dealing with human beings people that have the

propensity as well as the capacity to do things out of the ordinary. And when you have that kind of individual that you have to deal with it can happen in an institution even if the facility is a brand new one standing beside the governor throughout his morning press conference and by his side throughout the crisis was Michael Reagan. I was commissioner of Social Services and the person with the authority over all of Iowa's correctional facilities within this evening for a look at what happened at the fort and why is his chief deputy health hairier director of Iowa's division of adult corrections who last night at this time was inside the fort itself working to free the 12 hostages. They will be questioned on this program by David yaps with the Des Moines Register and by Mark Braun of our staff John. John the first question that comes to my Abida that's what I'll direct advance of you starting with Mr. Reagan is the basic question why why did this happen. Well we're really not sure. And they can you in your clips that you just choose you will you

and other people touched on some of the basic concerns and basic ingredients which exist in all of American Corrections and that is in many instances to sions or a lot of dead time on the facticity. Not enough training and for years. And on it goes. But we believe that this particular situation we really have no reason to believe that it was going to occur in the past year or so we've made progress and trying to train officers not allow for more to go but we've made progress. There are some problems with the afore Madison facility. And we present a plan to the legislature and they will prove the dollars in the process now of all of the fixing the place up. Well one element does not mention. I don't think was that you have a number of people who are in a in a heightened environment with a sense of closure. And they have a variety of motivations to put into perspective what we perceive took place yesterday. His. Several spontaneous sorts of things

taking place kind of at the same time and up until. Well several days ago we had reason to believe that things were cool and were quiet and were moving along and making progress. So we were kind of taken back by the unfortunate situations in place yesterday. Now fery same answer and the same question of the story. Well in terms of what is the cause for this disturbance. I don't think that at this point there's any definite answer yet appeared to be a spontaneous reaction on the part of four or five inmates food took four of our staff and they took four key staff to get attention with the press. They had other avenues to gain this attention. They could have written to press they could have called the press to the telephones they could have gone through the. Prisoners committee with the right and they chose not to do

that they chose to take this route. I do not know at this time why they took chose that route. We are investigating that to see if we can determine the cause. So I just added up we've had nine hours of sleep among all five. I sit. At this table in the last 24 hours and I'm one of the reasons because everybody's been monitoring the situation that exists down there. Mr. Ferrier Will you tell us what is the situation right now. At the fort. What's the temperature inside there. The situation at this time in Fort Madison is that all inmates are locked and single cells. The attitude among the prisoners today was one of relative calm. The attitude on the part of the officers was that they have control the attitude of the administration is we have control and we will continue to maintain control. Part of that lock up that if you're in that you're involved with down there right now involves designer

standard interviews of scores of inmates. Really correct me if I'm wrong trying to put the pieces of the puzzle that we're talking to you about together. Have any of those interviews given you any idea how weapons and shells got into the fort. We have not determined that at this particular time. We know that the weapon. The weapons used were made inside the institution. They're very simple kinds of weapons similar to what adolescents might use on the street of a large city. When they make those up guns. Is there any way to stop that. We have made some substantial progress in stopping that kind of weaponry. We've moved the. Machine shop which was a vocational training outside the walls and we have taken away many of the sophistication sophisticated tools at the end maids

have to make weapons more crime story getting involved in this disturbance at Fort Madison had a list of grievances that they wanted to bring to the attention of state officials and the public at large by the food staff training living conditions in prison. Can you tick off those grievances and give your response to the crowd first let's put things in perspective. You say the inmates OK the best of my knowledge there are six hundred twenty six inmates in Fort Madison when the day commenced yesterday and the wardens told me that he believes that there are at least a four hundred fifty that were cooperative and were not involved. We it's very obvious to me that there were several groups at different times of inmates with whom we were in communication. So I don't want to in any way to mislead the public. Or to give the impression that it was a unified group with inmates with a single long list of demands and so on that just is not true. Now. The fact of the matter are that

we had at least two groups initially one that that how related to who. Who who wanted to access it to the media they wanted initially to meet with a print reporter from The Fort Madison area and then a broadcast report or radio person then then wanted to have a television crew. And what they want to say they want to exchange their hostages the security director and his deputy and associates because they want to say there are a lot of crazy people in the institution. That's the first and one demand that was made of a press conference was it was arranged with pool reporters and. Subsequently in the intervening time period there were some other hostages that were taken by another group of people. And at that press conference some of you fellows were there your colleagues were there another inmate walked up and. And read off for right handed to reporters all typical list of. Of

items and that's what you're referring to. On that. Why don't perceive those two in any way have been reflective of the majority of inmates who are certainly the ones with whom we were in negotiations. Number two the list of items and I'll get to them in a moment. By the same list of items that we have been discussing with UNAIDS even when we were in negotiations around the out-of-court settlement on the Watson vs Ray case. The major class action conditions suit which has been really all resolved in the state and they were things like the food is poor way like better medical attention. We. Would like to have a press conference any time we would like to have a press conference and so on. Not terribly specific but general and somewhat typical I believe reflective of one or two individuals who took advantage of the situation to share their perceptions now. Almost every one of those items. If I understand what they mean because they want specific.

Currently in the process of being addressed. I'm concerned about medical care were both 30 days away from from signing a contract with a major medical firm in the country to improve medical care of him and for Madison at the same time concerns about the infirmary and were building a new one for me in the list goes on. Commissioner is there a danger Mr Farey mentioned is there danger of the same flaring up again tonight. Situation after something like this occurs this is as you say it's possible that's possible likely and then it is possible and it's always possible for someone to take hostages. It's always possible for someone to make a weapon in any prison or any jail in America today. Mr. Tyson mentioned something. In the film clip that we just saw talking about at the score of these problems and very I was a corrections officer and his comment echoed statements that you've heard from other inmates. Now I notice they

took Mr. main hostage was Mr. Mekhi at all because of this situation that developed. No I don't think so at all. On why did they grab him. Because I think he was near and he was someone to grab. He is a clearly a. High official of the institution. And if we have if that was planned we don't know that yet. Clearly it's better to grab somebody higher than somebody lower. I reject the notion that there is any way I want to get this out the table if you're serious about talking about the causes of these sorts of problems. There is no one single cause. If you talk to some of our correctional officers they will tell you that it was a cause and some of the inmates some officers would say that. Was another line that the late Mr. Tyson used and I was a communications and that's like talking about motherhood. OK but communications is a dilemma and it is a problem this is one of part of it is in our own society. We have never made a conscious decision as to whether we're going to put our money where our mouth is and really rehabilitate or really punish or really just incarcerate that's not

only because you said that there will be investigations of this but which what independent agency will be investigating this. I know you're investigating it at the Department of Public Safety is investigating it and yet you are. Those were obviously agencies that were involved in it will there be an independent investigation of this incident by an outside group. In my mind the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Department of Public Safety of the state of Iowa is unbiased and objective as you can get. And there are there are leading the. The investigation we have obviously some of our own personnel going to property management team down there today we have some arson investigators and so on. But I believe the incredibility the credibility of the DCI and the state is impeccable and they'll conduct an investigation we will take appropriate action if it appears to be warranted. And I suspect some would be. And as I said this morning one of the chips fall where they may and sharing with the public generally this affair it's been nearly 24 hours now since the situation was essentially

held at Fort Madison. Have you at this point had a chance to really assess how much damage was done to the facility there in terms of dollars we have not had an opportunity to assess the dollar damage. We are aware that day in some buildings there's been some. Severe damage. To equipment to materials in the building and in some instances to the structure in terms of dollars we do not have that at this time. Which building it was most seriously damaged. I would say that building 51 which is an inside administration building had a major fire and charred the building very badly. I don't know whether damage to the structure it's a cement building or you've always been involved in major renovation projects and you've been down there to see some some of what the damage has been done is it more than a million dollars. I'm not prepared to say it's more or less than a million dollars that I am prepared to say that the damage is extensive in some areas.

Regardless of of what happened down there this you know you're not left with a situation as are the people who buy one of the larger question of where do you go from here. Do we need commission Reagan a new prison in Iowa. I don't know that we need a new prisoner with this point in time I'll tell you what I think we do need to know. I think we need is we need 200 more beds at our Oakdale facility. I think we do need to get the population of Fort Madison and have we have gotten it down from around 750 to six twenty six yesterday. I don't believe we ought to have an institution myself I don't believe that I have an institution with with more than 500 inmates and I prefer them to be around 300. I believe we need a classification system in the state so that we can properly place inmates that are entrusted to our care and in the proper quarters in our programming for them. Those are the things that I think we need in the state of this size at this point in time those are the things that I would hope that we would continue to get support on. Def. do you think we need a new president I will. I think the penitentiary at Fort Madison is adequate. There

are some certainly some shortcomings in an institution that was built in 1838 some shortcomings we would like to see remedied. But I'm not sure the taxpayers in this state are willing to put up 50 million dollars for a new penitentiary at this time. But no matter what you do you know there's a saying that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and that institution is one hundred forty some years old. Now is it rehab. Can you rehabilitate it after the damage that's been done is still serviceable as an institute where they had serviceable today as an institution and we leak obviously can I can fix up what has been done and we don't know the cost you would be throwing. I threw a qualifier my friend into the into the response of the question you asked me why don't I said that I don't believe that we need a new penitentiary now and I don't. And Iran I don't believe that and if I did I'd tell you that I do. I think looking down the road one of the problems that we do have is we don't have enough. Minimum security space I would argue and I will you know we were one of the best in the nation in terms of

community corrections we truly are vast majority of the people who are opposed to you Tory people who run community corrections. I don't believe we need much more minimum security I think we do need some more medium security at some point. There's no question. In a decade or two from now. Somehow or other probably Fort Madison in my judgment will have to be replicated. So but I would not argue for an estate of this size with a fairly static population. And we should build another maximum security prison now so the cost of repairs to the fort will not be a matter of throwing away good money. No I believe the life before Madison is going to be with us for a generation. You met this afternoon with the governor constructs to discuss your budget and some of the building and construction plans. What specifically did you decide in that meeting that session today this afternoon with the governor.

Well we discussed say afternoon was her public welfare problems and the action I think I just recently took. And that's a whole other thing. Out of the 11 I can't intelligently discuss with the governor when our. Capital needs and for Madison are going to be until I have an estimate and I will probably take us to several days or a week but I will tell you this I don't have any money in my budget to repair for Madison. I don't have a farthing. Every dollar earned capital money has already been committed to our corrections plans I've got like a half a million dollars in capital and capital sorts of dollars for the remaining. 15 institutions in the state where you get a raise if you knew you were going to raise we're going to have to fix the place up I'll go to the Executive Council and show them our plans and I'm literally approving the Legislative Council in Toma we're going to have to do what we have to do. And when the legislature comes in session they want to provide the funds. Gentlemen we've talked for a few minutes now and it was hasn't been said directly to the always been implied and that's money you don't have it to repair it.

The governor mentioned this morning at his news conference that we didn't have it to build a new one right now. If we did maybe maybe we would. The money comes from from Iowans from this from from us from the citizens. You're committed to this process this corrections process both of you. How do you go about convincing a public that has always treated its prisons as out of sight and out of mind that they need to think about it a little bit more and I'd like to start with how fair Can you deal with it directly intimately. How do you convince them. Well I think that the citizenry and the state must make a decision. I think by and large our society across the country has become more conservative in terms of. Crime Prevention punishment of the criminals and sending the criminals to prison. Is that society's going to have some recreation facilities. That's the dilemma. I think the they think the dilemma is society

once the prisoners out of their community or the people out of their community who violate the laws I'm not sure society also wants to pay the bill for that. What do you do. Your church was your church was doing something what do you do the best we can. I don't know that you know we have any many smart answers for you. I don't know that anyone on our position in the in the country does. I'm not even sure we know the questions but it's based on facts you know this thread was Lee's three hundred twenty five thousand people in the United States today who were in an federal or state prisons as at least equal that number that are in detention facilities where crime continues to grow up. We are a fairly violent society we can talk about guns and all kinds of indices of problems now. There's no free lunch. You can't have it both ways as Howells indicated the you know you can't to take people off the street and not treat them reasonably decent because they're going to come back again. So I think that what our job is to do is to.

Present is because many prudent proposals as we possibly can at the same time try to try to try to communicate and try to tell the facts and the facts are that if you go to prison today you know at some point you're going to come back in and we'll make that person amenable when you do come back you're probably going to be worse off than when you went in. DAVID It isn't just about out of time but the whole tenor of our conversation this evening is this is going to happen again isn't it. She was it was it will happen again and I was your other disturbance and you know how long it will be before this will happen to you. I don't have a crystal ball. My preference is that it will never happen again and I will prefer that but what's your best guess is a plan or many many inmates have to get killed before something gets done. I think that's an unfair question. The inmate was killed. It was not as a result of planning nor as a result of lack of planning. I don't think you can plan for a prison riot. We have developed plans to prevent it. We have developed plans to deal with it if it

occurs. But in terms of planning for a prison riot at this point in time it is impossible for us to do. We simply can't I didn't mean to imply it was your fault. Do you think your plans worked yesterday. I think our plans work marvelously less yesterday and I think that's attested by the fact that we get 15 hostages out. I think it's also attested by the fact that we're sitting here in Des Moines analyzing something that is now history in that respect. I thank you both we're out of time. Gentlemen we have to go. Thank your health care. Michael Reagan for being with us this evening that concludes our special report on yesterday's prison disturbance at Fort Madison from our chrono David Jepsen. I'm Dan Miller. Thanks for joining us. Goodnight. All. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.