This is not to say that New York's prisons compare poorly to others. He said New York was one of the first states to have all of its prisons accredited. The overall picture, though, is a system that is moving toward a more punitive approach, depending less on programs and rehabilitation and more on punishment. We have more inmates in programs today than ever before,'' said James Flateau, spokesman for Commissioner Glenn Goord, who declined an interview. More inmates are getting high school equivalency degrees, the number enrolled in vocational programs is up and the rates of assaults on staff and inmates are at their lowest points in 14 and seven years, respectively, he said.
Families fear restlessness Critics of state prisons acknowledge people are in prison to be punished.
More tension inside prisons and more certainty that those released will be back. The conditions today are a groundswell for another Attica,'' said Harold Walker, a former inmate involved in the 1971 Attica prison uprising that killed 43 people. He is now a paralegal for Prisoners Legal Services in Poughkeepsie, which represents inmates. There, inmates do not participate in programs, are let out once a day for an hour and have little human contact. That's the way the system works, whether it's in prison or out of prison.