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Many of us have heard the standard
history of how the Thresholds program was founded. We
know it was started by
Milton "Mickey" Burglass, a man who once served time in
jail
in the state of Louisiana. Some of us had the
opportunity to
meet this mysterious individual when
he spoke at our Annual
Dinner in February 2000. The details of his life, however,
continue to remain somewhat sketchy. One of our longtime
volunteers herself was curious about the
life of Mickey
Burglass. Caryl Jones did some research of her own and this is
what she transcribed: "One of our clients commented that
he
would like to have a conversation with Mickey
Burglass. How
many of us would like to do that, too! With the purpose of
finding out more about the founder of the Thresholds
program, I did some homework and would like to share
with you a little of
what I learned. What I know comes from
information gathered
at basic weekends, two magazine articles, a "Decision"
newsletter and a telephone call to Gretchen Van Utt, a
dedicated
Thresholds person and friend to Mickey. A young man
devised
a financial scheme to back a failing
oil venture, was pursued by the F.B.I., turned himself
in, and at age 24 was jailed in Orleans
Parish Prison. It was here that Mickey Burglass was asked to
help with a literacy program for inmates and here that
the basic
concepts for the Thresholds program took form.
While the
average adult can learn to read in 80 hours, the inmates
averaged 120 hours; a deficiency in problem-solving
skills was detected and when decision-making was added
to the literacy
program, the inmates could now learn to read in 38 hours!
...After Mickey was released in 1966, he attended Tulane
(B.S.)
and New York University Medical School (M.D.,
M.P.H.) then
went to Harvard's Cambridge City Hospital to serve his
internship. His association with Harvard included
faculty
appointments at Harvard Medical School and
Harvard School of
Divinity. During these years, the curriculum for Thresholds,
which was based on the theories of Piaget and concepts
developed at Chicago's Ecumenical Institute, was enlarged and
put into manual
form, the Bucks County manual, copyrighted
1972."
So how exactly did the Thresholds program in Delaware
County get started? According to an article in The
Evening
Bulletin
dated February 23, 1978: "One Sunday nearly six years
ago, the pastor of the Unitarian Church, Rose
Tree Road,
Media, turned
over the pulpit to a 'long-haired hippie' who had just
been released from Delaware County Prison. The youth,
dressed in blue jeans
and a T-shirt, delivered an impressive
sermon. It was good enough to change the lifestyle of Pat
Lasseter, a Virginia
native who had moved to Swarthmore
about four years
before. Ms. Lasseter said the young speaker
had just spent a week
at Broadmeadows for taking part in a
peace demonstration.
He complained of the lack of programs at
the prison, and was
especially critical of the lack of
transportation from
Chester, where many prisoners lived. [There
was no Septa bus service to the prison at that time.] Relatives
who wanted to visit
were paying neighbors $15 for rides to -Broadmeadows
on visiting days, he said. Ms. Lasseter was
touched. 'I had two
preschoolers at home and a lot of time on
my hands. I was
tired of serving on committees and sulking. I
wanted to do
something positive,' she said. She immediately
started a car pool
with other church members to provide relatives
and friends with rides to the prison. Her concern over
the lack of programs
at the prison grew, and her group
contacted a national
organization called Thresholds, headquartered in
Boston."
The group to which Lasseter belonged was the
Delaware
County Justice Coalition. This group began meeting in
the fall
of 1973 for the purpose of making some public statement
about
conditions at the Delaware County
Prison and the drastic need
for improvement. This group was composed of
representatives
from the Unitarian Church, Main Line Cluster for Justice,
ACLU and Citizens for Justice, among others. According
to the
February 11, 1974 minutes of this group: "It was suggested that
the coalition be
indefinitely dissolved, because of the lack of
unity over the
group's direction. A compromise plan of action
evolved whereby the
group ... agreed to address itself to the
problem of hiring a
superintendent for the prison and
institutionalizing
citizens' input into Prison Board decisions as
recommended in the Garner and White report." The Garner
and White report was
a study of the Delaware County Prison, or
Broadmeadows as it
was then called, commissioned by the
County. Completed in
1973, it was a Law Enforcement
Assistance Act (LEAA)
funded study conducted by the architectural firm
of Garner and White Associates.
The group did indeed go on to address
its' compromise issues as can be evidenced by an article
in the Delaware County Daily Times dated October 17,
1974. It reads: "An organization
espousing social justice causes, including prison
reform,
Wednesday urged Delaware County commissioners
to appoint
'a responsible prison board' and hire a first-rate administrator to
run the county prison. 'The horrifying incidents at the
prison
last month shocked the community and all
decent citizens into
realizing
that even a prisoner is not safe in his own cell,' Mrs.
Elsie Romoser told the commissioners at their weekly meeting.
Mrs. Romoser of
Radnor, secretary of the Main Line Cluster for
Justice, was
referring to the alleged homosexual rape of a 19-year-old
male prisoner by two other inmates at the prison while
a private security
guard purportedly looked on. 'The time has
come for Delaware
County to realize that our prison is a
failure,' she said,
stressing that many times in the past her group had
warned the commissioners about the inadequate number of
guards at the
institution in Thornbury. Mrs. Romoser also
referred to the
recent threat by the Pennsylvania Bureau of
Corrections to close the prison, saying the warning was
not 'an idle threat,'
and that it 'cannot be tossed off as petty politics.'"
It was at this same meeting of the County
Commissioners that the resignation of Edward Leiby was
announced. According to the Delaware County Daily Times,
"Leiby, 59, is a
retired state police corporal who was appointed
acting superintendent
at the county's minimum security prison
in Thornbury last May
2 [1974]. Leiby was named top prisonadministrator
following a spate of escapes by inmates and an
incident in which
seven prisoners required hospital treatment for
drug overdoses. ...
Leiby reportedly told county officials
recently he did not
wish to continue in a post where he could
not do the best
possible job because of things like guards'
salaries that were beyond his control." Shortly
thereafter a new Prison Superintendent was appointed,
Gerard T. Frey. Frey was
a retired Army
lieutenant colonel who had been working as a
commandant of cadets
at Pennsylvania Military College (now
Widener University).
One year after Frey's appointment, the
State Bureau of
Corrections again reviewed Delaware County Prison,
however this time the prison received a top rating. In a
1976 editorial
letter, Superintendent Frey pointed out that credit
for the
prison's improvement should go to his staff and others
in the
community. In the editorial he writes, "I am impressed
by the continuing interest and assistance given me by the many
groups such as the
Pennsylvania Prison Society, Pennsylvania
Program for Women and
Girl Offenders, Inc., Delaware County Legal
Assistance, Thresholds and others."
So how exactly did the Delaware County Justice
Coalition get Thresholds started? Well, according to a
letter
written by former Delaware County
Justice Coalition member
Nancy Hirsig on February 25, 1976: "Two years ago,
Thresholds in
Delaware County did not exist. Some of us had heard of
Bucks County's program, but no one had tried to start
one here as far as I
know. Many people in Delaware County
had been interested
and working for some time toward greater
citizen involvement
in and awareness of the criminal justice
system and the
prison. One person had the inspiration to arrange
for Dr. Milton
Burglass (Thresholds' primary developer) to
come to Media in May,
1974 to speak." That person was
Yvonne McCabe.
According to Nancy, "She invited judges,
county
commissioners, the prison board, and representatives of
various county criminal justice departments, as well as
people
involved in community groups especially interested in
these areas."
Nancy notes Yvonne's idea was key, because up to that
point the
Coalition members had taken a very "us against them"
approach. Nancy continues: "One result of that
meeting was the
prison board's approval, the following month, of the use
of Thresholds in Delaware County Prison. Since it's a community-based
program, the ball was definitely in our court. Some of
us talked about it for two months, waiting for something
to bloom.
Finally, a handful of people remained who were willing
to commit
themselves to this effort. I can only speak for myself
at this point;
I was asked to "lead" the group, although I felt as
though I was
the least likely, least capable candidate for the job.
Knowledge of
the program: a little; experience in organization
or leadership: practically nil; knowledge of Delaware
County Prison and its
problems: some, as a concerned person, an
'outsider.' I felt,
however, that it needed to be done, and
therefore I would try. Four of us attended a basic weekend
[training] in Bucks
County in September, 1974, and two made
the decision, with
much trepidation, to go ahead." Those two
individuals were Nancy and Pat Lassaster. Nancy goes on: "In
talking up
Thresholds, in the community and among friends, we
gathered a few
more people who were willing to give some time
and effort to our cause. We formed a board of directors
in order to apply
for non-profit corporate status, and organized our first
basic weekend for January 1975."
The initial years were difficult ones
for the organization.
As Nancy explains: "The counseling end of things began in
February 1975 in the prison, although it was a time of
transition and apprehension at the prison, which was
undergoing some
administrative changes; Col. Frey had just
taken over as
superintendent. Our enthusiasm was high, and we managed well
through some real and some potential pitfalls. My own
image
was of all of us simply holding hands and
plunging in together."
How was the organization able to fund itself in the early
years?
Thresholds received a LEA A grant through the Governor's
Justice Commission from July 1, 1975 to July 1, 1976. It
was in
the amount of $16,094.00 but required a
5% state buy-in of
$894.00. Delaware County supplied the necessary 5% matching
funds. This
provided a salary for a Director, office equipment,
and operating
expenses. The prison provided office space free
of charge. The first part-time Director hired was Keri Luiso from
Bucks County. Additionally, the LEAA funds enabled the
organization to send four volunteers to Cambridge, MA for
teacher
certification. This move made it possible for Thresholds
to reduce the Basic Training Weekend fee for volunteers
from $30.00 to
$15.00.
According to Nancy Hirsig: "Between July and
January 1976, we faced some real internal struggles and
were forced to look more carefully at our goals and
expectations. The gift was
the tremendous growth some of us experienced,
individually and collectively. When Keri left, I decided
to apply for the
position of
director; the board approved, and on February 1, I
began officially in that capacity." Due to a change in priorities
established by the Governor's Justice Commission,
however, Thresholds did not receive additional LEAA funding after July 1976. From
that time until December 1, 1977, Thresholds again
became an all-volunteer organization, keeping the office
at the prison staffed part-time by volunteers. The Prison Board helped
with the expenses by
contributing $1,000 and the organization received
approximately $800 from area churches.
Though the organization struggled financially
for some time, Thresholds in Delaware County eventually
raised enough
funds to not only hire a full-time Director, but a
part-time
Coordinator and part-time Secretary as well. Nancy
Hirsig had
since moved away from the area and so
Pat Lassaster took on
the Director's position until May of 1980. Subsequent
Executive Directors were: Jacqui McDonald (1980-1992),
Fran Cook (1993-1998), Chris Jacobsen (1998-2000) and
Michelle
Rief(2000-present).
Over the years, Thresholds in Delaware
County has
likely graduated close to two thousand individuals from our
decision-making program. How effective are we? Most
volunteers witness firsthand the difference
they make in their
clients'
lives. Our clients demonstrate increased self-esteem,
feelings of empowerment, and establish realistic strategies for
accomplishing their
goals. A recidivism study recently
completed at the
George W. Hill Correctional Facility found
that Thresholds
graduates are 33% less likely to return to prison than
inmates not completing the program. The impact of the
Thresholds program over the years: priceless!
End Origins of Thresholds in Delaware
County
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