Abuse at SCI-Greene

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Allegations of prisoner abuse by prison staff at State Correctional Institution-Greene (SCI-GREENE) are pervasive. SCI-GREENE is a maximum security prison located in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

Staff firings and charges of racism have shaken up SCI Greene over the years [1]. SCI-GREENE is perhaps most known for employing Charles Graner, who became a household name after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case in Iraq. As one writer has pointed out, in Prison Legal News, Graner "took what he learned here (SCI-GREENE), over there (ABU GHRAIB). [2]

Mumia Abu Jamal, an SCI-GREENE inmate of international notoriety, writes: "a score of guards were charged with brutal, racist, and vile behavior against men in the hole. Roughly two dozen guards were fired, but after union appeals, most were quietly reinstated" [3].

With a prison guard population that is 95% white overseeing an inmate population that is 98% black [4], a certain perception of institutional racism permeates SCI-GREENE's atmosphere. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, "Most of them [the Caucasian staff ]never had to deal with black people before."[5].

From state representatives to church groups, many individuals and groups have been working to open up official investigations of the said practices at SCI-GREENE [6].