COLOMBIA – Denial of parole, death in the family, loss of job in prison or removal from quarantine of COVID-19. These are among the stressors that South Carolina prison officials know can cause a prisoner to attack. So, they are working to defuse the tension before that happens.
Since September, the state prison agency has used its extensive data on prisoners’ lives to identify who may be on the verge of collapse and intervene before it can explode.
Dubbed the “Violence Indicator System”, it brings to mind “Minority Report”, the 2002 film in which a “pre-crime” police force for murders arrests people before they kill.
But in reality, no medium predicts the future. And there are no arrests or punishments for something that didn’t happen. Instead, the system involves weekly data and communication shredding.
“One of the things that impressed me the most is that sometimes people just want to be heard,” prison director Bryan Stirling told the Post and Courier. “They just want to talk to someone. They are no different from anyone, and I think this is lowering the temperature.
“The answer may be ‘Sorry, no, I can’t do what you want’. But they are heard. Or it could be ‘Yes, we can investigate this,’ “he said.
In any case, the authorities hope that a relationship will be established so that, when there are problems, the prisoner feels comfortable approaching the principal, said Stirling.
The seemingly simple concept is proving to be a success. The attacks, whether between inmates or police, decreased by 17 percent between deployment across the state and mid-December, he said.
Hiring a single person made this possible. Cheryl Bolchoz, a biostatistics, developed the data processing tool that displays a list of names for each prison every Monday.
“Basically, it’s just statistics,” said Bolchoz. “The beauty of this is that it is dynamic. Each week changes. I keep adding information about previous attacks and characteristics, and each week it gets a little different.”
The list is used subtly, said Brian Kendall, director of Lieber Maximum Security Correctional in Dorchester County, who piloted the system in August.
Kendall said he and four other members of his prison leadership team are the only ones to see the list, which usually has 20 names. They divide by penitentiary sector and will visit that area to talk to the identified inmates, among others, not to make it clear, he said.
“I never want the prisoner to know that he is on a list, so I get off and stop in three or four cells, but in the meantime there is one person I want to talk to on this list,” said Kendall, who helped train other guards on how to use the list.
The goal is to have an enlightening discussion.
“I’m asking about his personal life. Is everything okay at home? Is he talking to the family? I am slowly advancing to what is going on in his unit,” said Kendall. “I’m not asking if a fight is going to happen. What I’m asking is how is the temperature, that is, is it safe down here? What can I do to improve?”
Most prisoners open up and speak to some extent. For those who do not want to speak to the director, he will make a note and send someone else from the leadership team to try again a day or two later.
Many on the list have been violent in the past, so seeing their names is no surprise, and some appear on the list repeatedly. But others would not be even remotely on his radar, Kendall said. A conversation with one of those inmates stayed with him.
“All of his behavior changed while we had our discussion. In the end, he was really laughing with me, and he is not the type of inmate who would normally laugh,” said Kendall. “Did I avoid an attack? There is no way of knowing, but his behavior has definitely changed, and I felt good about leaving there.”
Stirling readily acknowledges that he borrowed the idea, and that it will not prevent all violence. But it can help.
After the April 2018 riot at Lee Correctional left seven prisoners dead and 22 injured, marking the worst prison riot in the country in nearly a quarter of a century, Stirling asked his colleagues in other states about the successes they were having and what he could copy. He learned about the predictive tool in Indiana during a national conference.
“What we are doing is using analytics and technology to make prisons safer for everyone,” said Stirling.
He also called this cost savings.
When an assault does not happen, it also means that there is no prosecution. No medical treatment is necessary. And police officers do not need to be removed from their normal duties to transport a prisoner to a local hospital.
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.