According to Bernard Kerik, former commissioner of the New York City Police Department (and NYCDOC): "Grown men sit around...talking about old times, drugs, guns... Then you have young, nonviolent, low-level drug offenders who are sentenced to five to ten years and wind up in here in the same camp with the older prisoners... This is a terrible circumstance for these younger men. Some of them have graduated from high school, a few attended colleges, but many are uneducated, some completely illiterate...However, once they arrive here and mix into their new surroundings and the fear of prison dissipates, they begin their new education with the older, institutionalized inmates as their teachers. They learn how to lie, cheat, steal, con, manipulate and gamble... Many of them seem to have no respect for the privacy of others... minor disagreements often result in threats of violence. Here they learn more about drug trade than they did on the outside, and they make all the contacts they need to further themselves in criminal activities once back on the street. Over time, their surroundings begin to demoralize and demean them, and they lose respect, discipline, and responsibility."