Showing pride in our
correctional employees

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Correctional officers have good reason for thinking of their profession as "invisible." While the prisoners in their care seem to attract public attention at every turn, correctional officers rarely end up in the spotlight.
And when they do, it’s often because something bad has happened behind the walls of the city’s prisons.
But last week, local officers and their civilian co-workers finally got some tangible attention of the positive variety as the Philadelphia Prison System unveiled a new outdoor mural to kick off Correctional Employee Week.
The 200-foot-long painting adorns a prominent exterior wall of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, at 7901 State Road, and depicts in a series of 10 vignettes the wide array of jobs performed by prison system employees.
Mayor Michael Nutter joined Prisons Commissioner Louis A. Giorla, former Prisons Commissioner Leon A. King II, Jane Golden, director of the city’s Mural Arts Program, and other officials at the May 5 dedication ceremony.
The mural is emblematic of the great pride that correctional employees collectively take in the work they do, even if it goes unnoticed by the outside public.
Its aesthetic qualities, meanwhile, help foster a spirit of enthusiasm in an environment challenged perpetually by cynicism and grief.
"It’s not an exciting place. It is what it is — a jail," said Sgt. Edwin Cruz, who has 21 years on the job, when asked to describe what it’s like to work behind the walls of the city’s prisons. "We’re trying to better the place," he said. "That’s what it’s all about."
In addition to his duties as a uniformed supervisor, Cruz is commander of the prison system’s honor guard, which carries the colors at official department functions, parades, memorial services and other major events.
Members of the honor guard, including Cruz, are depicted in a central panel of the mural, which was created by lead artist Michael Webb with assistance from several inmates.
"I got a lot of compliments — how good it looks and how good I look in it," joked Cruz, a Bustleton resident. "The people on there look like they’re supposed to."
Titled "The Team," the mural is the 28th painted within city jails in the last five years through an inmate enrichment program in which the prison system collaborates with the city’s Mural Arts Program. Most of the paintings are on interior walls and out of view to visitors.
In 2006, the prison system debuted its first exterior mural, "Going Home" by Ann Northrup, at the Riverside Correctional Facility, also on State Road. Shortly after its completion, then-Commissioner King conceived of the second outdoor mural at CFCF.
"I thought about how most taxpayers and visitors to our jails had no idea about the breadth of experience and specialization among our staff," King said. "I wanted a project that would showcase our staff and provide vocational training to inmates in a useful skill with the possibility of employment upon re-entry (into the community)."
Cruz thinks that the mural does a great service to his co-workers. There are 2,200 city employees in the prison system, along with 600 regular contract workers. The painting has the same kind of impact that Cruz’s honor guard does when it marches with the flag.
"It shows the sense of pride that we have," Cruz said. "It lets people know who we are and what we represent — professionalism." ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com