PRESS RELEASE: No Racism; No Sexism; No Torture in Pennsylvania

Attorney General Tom Corbett will speak at the Lancaster County Crime Summit at the Public Safety Training Center in Salunga on June 12.

This past Saturday, Traci Guynup, a resident of the City of Lancaster, spoke in front of the American Friends Service Committee's Conference 'STOPMAX' about prison conditions for female inmates.

The American Friends Service Committee has made it a PRIORITY to promote and support a national movement to end the use of solitary confinement and related forms of TORTURE in US prisons.

Solitary confinement and torture are used in Lancaster County Prison. Closed-front segregation cells have been defined as instruments of torture by the Supreme Court of Indiana. However, mentally ill women are routinely housed for months in closed-front segregation cells on D-block in Lancaster County Prison.

Five female LCP inmates have died since November 2007. Three have died in the prison. Two have died within 2 weeks of being released. Two of the women (26 and 38 years old) died from "natural causes" according to Warden Vincent Guarini.

For the two that died outside the prison (even though they were suicidal inside the prison; or victims of domestic violence) Warden Guarini said they were not the responsibility of Lancaster County Prison. It was NOT the responsibility of the Prison to see that these women received proper psychiatric care or housing immediately upon leaving the prison even if they had been suicidal in the prison immediately prior to release.

Due to the situation of Water Street Rescue Mission often being full, women often must find housing with their crack dealers in Lancaster. There is no other housing available for these women. Attorney General Tom Corbett denies that racism, torture and sexism exist in Pennsylvania.

According to the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the Office of the Attorney General, the Attorney General has received only ONE complaint of civil rights violations, racism, torture, or sexism in Pennsylvania in five years. The Office of the Attorney General declared there is no pattern of racism in Pennsylvania! Attorney General Corbett will be the guest speaker at the Lancaster County Reentry Management Council's Crime Summit on June 12 at the Public Safety Training Center.

The Crime Summit comes close on the heels of (6) six workshops that were held this Spring 2008 by the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board. Lancaster County held 2 brainstorming workshops on "What to do about the disproportionate amount of Latinos in Lancaster County Prison." Four answers were:
Have Latino mentors/role models in positions of authority. [police, Probation, Correctional Officers, Judges, counselors]
Have more Spanish-speaking professionals Hire more Latinos
Assist Latino-owned businesses

The Lancaster County Reentry Management Organization, which organized the Crime Summit, has completely ignored these suggestions and has gone on to invite (5) five white English-speaking men for the "Crime Summit" on June 12.

Some of the invited men will be in line to obtain contracts with Lancaster County for the: $150M new prison, $30M annual gross revenue from a day-reporting center, $150,000 annual contracts for reentry, $150,000 for a drop-in center.

These white men have already expressed their interest in pursuing these contracts through presentations given to the Lancaster County Prison Board since January 2008. Women- and minority-owned businesses have not been invited to the Prison Board; nor to the Crime Summit as speakers.

A Hispanic man, who is not a business-owner, will present later in the day. He is no longer directly involved in reentry; and no longer a member of the Reentry Management Council; but is now employed at the Homeless Outreach Center.

I hope you will join me at the Crime Summit in welcoming Attorney General Corbett. And seeing how we no longer have racism or sexism in Pennsylvania; then I think it appropriate to eliminate the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the Office of Attorney General Civil Rights Enforcement Section; as there is certainly no need for either of these agencies according to the Office of the Attorney General....

God love you, Traci -- Traci Guynup 717 824 2524

Editor's note: The writer intended to be identified