PRISON COMPLAINTS DOWN WITH NEW EFFORT

Prisons by their very nature are hotbeds of discontent in which trouble breeds rapidly. This malaise often spreads beyond the walls to the families and friends of inmates and to civil-rights and other advocacy groups that purport to serve as watchdogs over the system.

Complaints about prisoner treatment are never-ending. Until recently, Missouri's penal system had gained an undesirable national reputation for housing an unproportionate number of complaining, litigation-prone inmates who sought to correct everything they dislike about being incarcerated, and most of those complaints went straight to the courts. The state, in fact, ranked second in the nation in per-capital prisoner-inspired lawsuits and fourth in the number of civil-rights complaints brought by prisoners.

Dora B. Schriro, who became director of the Missouri Department of Corrections in 1993, set out to find a way to reduce the number of complaints brought against the system, many of which resulted in lawsuits being brought against the corrections system.

Borrowing a page from the business world, Schriro set up a complaint desk of sorts to handle all of the grievances that were taking up much of the Department of Corrections' time and money, which was needed to meet needs of a fast-growing inmate population. She created an Office of Constituent Services, which, like services offered by large retailers, responds quickly to reasonable gripes and still keeps inmates and others who complained mostly happy.

She put an 18-year department veteran, Lisa Jones, in charge of complaints. The department set up a system that consolidates sources of complaints from prisoners, families, legislators, state agencies, advocacy groups and anyone else, in what has become an effective process that attacks problems through immediate attention, resolution and improved information and education.

The results have been remarkable. Since 1994, serious complaints have been radically reduced even though the corrections system has a population that is 163 percent above design capacity. Missouri dropped from fourth to 18th among states in the number of civil-rights cases filed, the state has dropped from fifth to 27th in the number of civil-rights cases pending, savings from the remedies from 1994 through 1996 are conservatively estimated at $2.5 million, and prisoners' lawsuits have gone down by 69 percent even as the prison population has gone up 52 percent.

The Office of Constituent Services has worked so well that it has been recognized nationally for its innovative features and problem resolutions, and the department deserves the recognition for the success of the program.

It serves as a good example of how applying some solid business practices to government works. More government agencies should do the same.