WITNESS
Walter Dickey has been a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School since 1976 and is currently Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law. He is the faculty director of the Remington Center for Research, Education and Service in Criminal Justice. Founded in 1965 by Frank J. Remington and staffed by twelve full time clinical faculty, the Center includes projects in Restorative Justice, Appeals, Legal Assistance to the Institutionalized, Prosecution, Defense, and Economic Justice.
Professor Dickey was the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections from 1983 to 1987 and in an earlier leave of absence from the Law School drafted the Administrative Rules for the Department. He chaired the Wisconsin Judicial Council when it modernized the law of homicide and is the author of two books and numerous articles on criminal justice issues and professional responsibility. He has been a member of the American Law Institute since 1989 and chaired the Governor's Task Force on Sentencing and Corrections which reported in December 1996. He has worked extensively with the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy in Washington and authored reports which include "Three Strikes and You're Out" Laws: What Have We Learned? (1996) and What Every Policymaker Should Know About Imprisonment and the Crime Rate (1995). He was a member of the Executive Sessions on Sentencing and Corrections, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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STATEMENT
My experience in Wisconsin taught me that many of the tried and true practices, at least tried and true in the eyes of prison managers, were nothing more than habits handed down from one manager to another, practices often made for the convenience of staff rather than because they advanced the values they were intended to advance. Open examination and evaluation of practices, made possible by visible policies and practices, can go a long way towards the development of effective and sensible policy, and prison management consistent with the values of our society. Anything less risks reducing the visibility of the rules and policies to mere formalism.
Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of interest in the management of prisons, except at times of crisis. Neither elected officials nor the public, nor the press, actually pay much attention to them, and this lack of attention explains in part the lack of visibility and accountability of prison management.
Without greater factual information about what goes on in prisons and evaluations of effectiveness, even those who are interested have to take on faith what is on offer. …prisons are part of a larger culture. This larger culture profoundly influences how they operate and who is in them. One worries that the lack of interest in prisons and prisoners reflects a fundamental but unstated belief in the larger society that those who are in prison don't deserve the time and effort it would take to run them consistent with the values of our society.
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
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