Chester Prison to Test ‘Prisoner-First’ Inmate Units

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Image via Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Pa.gov.

The state prison in Chester (SCI Chester) is testing a new kind of prison unit, one focused on a prisoner-first approach, writes Adam Hermann for PhillyVoice.

The State Correctional Institution, Chester, will use a $163,000 grant to send 12 corrections employees to Sweden and Norway to research the Scandivanian countries’ prisons in the hopes they can help reform the prison system here at home.

The grants come from the Vera Institute of Justice, and the organization’s Restoring Promise initiative.

When the staff members return from the trip this summer, they’ll be in charge of establishing a new housing unit at SCI Chester, according to WESA, similar to previously successful prison units in Connecticut, among others.

In Connecticut, inmates were allowed to paint their cells, attend programs where they learn skills, both career-focused and creativity-focused, and have conversations with their supervisors and “unit managers” about living conditions and experiences.

The goal will be to research if a different approach to corrections can help reduce the recidivism rate in the United States, as it has overseas. Staff members will randomly assign inmates to the new housing unit.

The research will be done in tandem with Drexel University.

Read more about the study here.

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