Schriro’s Parallel Universe Continues to Improve Prisons

PHOENIX – Correctional facilities throughout the United States are suffering from overcrowding that is often fueled by repeat offenders. With few resources to make vast changes to stem the tide of incoming prisoners, correctional employees often find that they have their hands tied and are restricted from make any significant changes.

One woman, Dora Schriro, director of Arizona Department of Corrections, is working with her staff to stop the influx of inmates while improving their lives, the lives of those who have been affected by their actions, and the lives of the correctional employees that interact with them everyday.

Her program, Parallel Universe, has been around for years, but it continues to develop while prompting improvements to the Arizona prison system.

“We have continued to develop the concept,” Schriro says. “In Arizona, it has substantially improved.”

The number of GEDs earned by Arizona state prisoners has jumped significantly since Schriro took her position in July 2003. During that fiscal year 791 inmates earned a GED; the number increased to 1,439 in FY 2004, and it jumped again during the 2005 fiscal year with 3,125 inmates earning a GED.

The program was formed under the assumption that the best inmate is often the worst ex-offender. Inmates who are docile and keep to themselves and obey orders often have trouble doing things for themselves when they return to society and don’t make responsible decisions, Schriro says. Parallel Universe aims to make these inmates active in their rehabilitation instead of passive.

“It’s a culmination of serving in the field for a number of years, observing those things that worked and those that didn’t, and identifying fairly basic truths about the field,” Schriro says.

The program aims to bring as many “real world” experiences as possible to inmates so they are better prepared for re-entry. Thus, a “parallel universe” is created between daily activities in prisons and daily activities on the outside.

“It’s meant to very seriously convey our approach to problem solving,” Schriro says. “We will run our facilities as much like the real world as possible, within the obvious security considerations.”

The daily activities of inmates are split into three parts: work, leisure and community. The inmate workday is made up of vocational programs, education or treatment. Leisure time is given to inmates so they can learn how to use their free time productively. Community time mimics family time or community service in the “real world.”

“Much of our population, even if they get certain skills in prison, still falter in the community because they don’t use leisure time wisely,” Schriro says.

The program also aims to bring simple activities that most people do every day back into the daily routine at prisons.

“As much as we talk about being tough on crime and criminals, we do quite a few basic things for the prison population that they should do for themselves,” Schriro says.

A new program is being developed at Arizona prisons to give inmates more financial responsibility. Instead of having correctional officers look up the balance of their monetary accounts, monthly statements that resemble bank statements will be issued. Inmates are also held responsible for getting themselves out of bed and to vocation and treatment programs on time, instead of having correctional officers roust them.

“What we are asking inmates to do is be grown up, to do inside what other people ask them to do outside,” Schriro says.

Prison staff has also benefited from improvement. Inmate-on-inmate assaults and inmate-on-staff assaults have dropped 20 percent during the last three years, creating a safer atmosphere for staff and inmates.

“The facilities are being managed more safely as they are being managed more smartly,” Schriro says.

Prison staff also has the opportunity to contribute to improvements through strategizing sessions and other means of communication.

“Many of these suggestions have come from officers and others in the facilities who see the benefit of taking this new approach to problem solving,” Schriro says. “Many of our staff are co-authors to the master plan.”

Schriro toured each Arizona prison with three division directors last summer and held strategic planning sessions at each facility to help determine what directions the department would take and to fine-tune reform plans.

Reforms have generally been accepted but they have not occurred without hurdles, according to Schriro.

“You’re always doing remediation concurrent to the innovation that you’re pursuing,” Schriro says. “There’s always any number of things that are breaking or require attention at the same time you’re looking to institute new ways of making change happen.

“The challenge is to remain flexible and to be able to go backward and forward at the same time.”

Despite occasional kinks in the system, the reforms undertaken with Parallel Universe benefit inmates, staff and crime victims equally, according to Schriro.

“I think we are as successful as we have been because we have the interest of all three in mind,” she says.