non-member? Register"
In 2017, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Philadelphia, then President James P. Lynch gave a speech on the importance of obtaining state prison data, involving various measures such as recidivism . When it comes to who gets the data, prison officials like it the most. Taking the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) as an example, Lynch said that no one had access to data there—except for a few exceptions such as Kiminori Nakamura, Lynch’s colleague at the University of Maryland.
"Kiminori got it magically from Pennsylvania," he said, referring to the state's prison system. "So I don't know what will happen there."
From the audience's point of view, the PA DOC project analyst at the time, JZ*, knew the reason: Kiminori Nakamura was a friend of Dr. Kristofer “Bret” Bucklen, Director of the Planning, Research and Statistics Bureau of PA DOC.
Both university professors and criminal justice personnel seem to think that Bakron's work at PA DOC is legal and valuable. On the Internet, he talked with many famous criminal justice figures in the United States. People think he is an adviser, a source of expert advisers for more influential political parties, rather than a person who makes the decision on his own.
Bucklan started his PA DOC career as a research and evaluation analyst twenty years ago. In 2011, Franklin County Prison Warden John Wetzel became PA DOC secretary and appointed Bakron to his current position.
As the director, Bucklund worked with various academic researchers to analyze its innovations and set out to make active public relations adjustments to the department's work. These include a new probation violation program that relies on "swift, deterministic, and fair" consequences, and a payment model to midway contractors based on reducing recidivism. (Prison institutions in other states usually only issue basic reports on demographic data.)
At the same time, Wetzel increased solitary confinement during his ten years as secretary, banned book plans for prisoners, and arbitrarily refused medical care before leaving office in October.
However, the warden from a college football player has been widely praised by liberals and conservatives as a typical example of data-driven corrections. How could this become his public image?
Wetzel publicly expressed his dependence on Bakron. But from JZ's perspective during his work there, Bucklund put forward a similar narrative around Wetzel that he did for the entire PA DOC-in exchange, he had a disproportionate influence on the department's rehabilitation methods.
When a project or research project prioritizes rehabilitation rather than imprisonment, JZ tells the filter that Bakron has put them on the fast lane with nowhere to go. In PA DOC, "What Bakron said is the gospel."
In 2015, Bucklen and Nakamura published a study examining a new contract between PA DOC and private sector halfway houses that use a "pay for performance" model. According to JZ, Bakron only allows a few friends or PA DOC staff to view halfway house data. Apart from him, no one can visit even in his own office.
According to Bucklund, this research produced "amazing" results. Obviously, the department’s facilities have reduced recidivism almost four times faster than comparable state-owned facilities.
The study only included records of hundreds of paroleers (other similar studies tracked thousands), and its authors refused to disclose what they said supported their conclusions. Nevertheless, the pay-for-performance model has become the new norm for PA DOC to sign contracts with private halfway dormitories.
In 2017, PA DOC made a similar claim for its state intermediate punishment program—only tracking participants for one year, while such studies usually follow them for at least five years, praising how this approach reduces crime and costs—but nothing Give anyone a way to confirm the data. Today, the plan is still used in some PA DOC halfway houses.
"Bucklen seems to be saving money, cutting resources and maintaining control, rather than trying to help others and trying to understand their struggles," JZ said.
Neither Bucklen nor Wetzel responded to Filter's request for comment; PA DOC rejected the request multiple times.
Bucklen's graduate thesis at the University of Maryland praised the benefits of imprisonment for minor probation violations, such as drug use, including alcohol abuse. He claimed that alcohol should be illegal, supported "forced abstinence" to avoid the use of drugs, and denied the benefits of treatment for prisoners because it was "mostly too late." He tweeted racist lies, including that the crime is "hereditary" and blacks are imprisoned in a disproportionate proportion, mainly because they committed a disproportionate crime.
None of this prevented Fordham law professor John Pfaff from naming Bakrun in the acknowledgment section of his influential 2017 book Locked In, which criticized mass incarceration and accused prosecutors The rate of imprisonment for officials is rising. Or from reformers who praised Bakron's opposition to mandatory minimum punishment.
"This opposition has nothing to do with rehabilitation or reform," JZ told Filter. "This has to do with saving costs and reducing the population to look good in the media and create legacy."
When Wetzel defended Bakrun’s harmful social media presence, he cited Bakrun’s “leading the struggle against the new mandatory minimum”.
JZ is a counselor and mental health researcher with a master's degree in criminology and counseling psychology. He started his criminal justice career in 2013 with research work on the Pennsylvania Probation and Parole Board. In 2017, PA DOC absorbed the board of directors, making Buckron his new boss.
During that transitional period, JZ has been studying the views of parole agents and those cited for breach of parole. "[It] helps tell the information behind the numbers," he said.
When JZ came to PA DOC, Bakron told him that this kind of humane work is no longer a priority. The project was shelved.
JZ found that Bucklund was a despicable bureau chief. He scared off talents and made ideological demands on employees. He recalled that Bucklund told him that interviewing parole officers and parole persons was a "waste of time", the treatment plan "does not work", and those involved in the judicial system "just need to go to church to solve their problems." JZ believes that because Bakron found that he was “too biased toward treatment” during his incarceration, he was excluded from various programs.
After 2018, when JZ was promoted to Research and Evaluation Manager, part of his job was to chair the Research Review Committee (RRC). RRC manages the proposals of external researchers who wish to collaborate with PA DOC. In an email to JZ and other staff on July 12, 2019, Bakrun wrote: “I don’t know of any RRC projects that have evaluated any projects we pay for, and most RRC projects are It's useless." "I don't see anything useful there."
Most of the proposals focus on the evaluation of the rehabilitation plan. Although the PA DOC website lists some of them as approved, they have not actually been issued.
"If you control the data, you control the information."
JZ also witnessed how Bucklun controlled the narrative, which seemed to be the fact itself—anyone who wanted data had to request it directly through Buckron. Employees are also not allowed to send any data to the parole agency without Baklun’s approval. He controls all the data going in and out of the prison.
JZ claimed that employees who challenged this lack of transparency were excluded from the project and degraded. During Bucklen's ten-year tenure, at least seven employees left his team or left PA DOC altogether.
"I have never seen so many outstanding people underutilized and undervalued in the workplace," JZ said. "It's really sad." Earlier this year, he became the eighth person to leave.
Bucklen's views on PA DOC driven by reforms have enabled Wetzel to obtain speaking arrangements with members of Congress, NFL players and senior Google employees. The Vera Institute of Justice even sent him to Norway at his own expense to inspect its more "dignified" prison, which inspired Wetzel to establish a "small Scandinavian" prison in Philadelphia's medium security prison SCI Chester.
Wetzel is no longer in PA DOC. Without Wetzel to ensure it, Bakron's influence may be diminished. However, the position of acting secretary has been taken over by George Little, the former Deputy Secretary of Community Corrections and Reentry Bureau of Pennsylvania DOC. Little had previously been responsible for overseeing the troubled Memphis Police Department. In other efforts, he sought to deprive black police officers of promotion opportunities based on an inaccurate understanding of the opinions of the Federal Court of Appeals.
Rory is a writer and practicing lawyer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the guest writers are solely those of the author and may not reflect the views of Pioneer, its editors or the editorial board.
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