Why Arizona Prisons are Failing

Wasted Honor -

Carl R. ToersBijns is the author of the Wasted Honor Trilogy [Wasted Honor I,II and Gorilla Justice] and his newest book From the Womb to the Tomb, the Tony Lester Story, which is a reflection of his life and his experiences as a correctional officer and a correctional administrator retiring with the rank of deputy warden in the New Mexico and Arizona correctional systems.

Carl also wrote a book on his combat experience in the Kindle book titled - Combat Medic - Men with destiny - A red cross of Valor -

Carl is considered by many a rogue expert in the field of prison security systems since leaving the profession. Carl has been involved in the design of many pilot programs related to mental health treatment, security threat groups, suicide prevention, and maximum custody operational plans including double bunking max inmates and enhancing security for staff. He invites you to read his books so you can understand and grasp the cultural and political implications and influences of these prisons. He deals with the emotions, the stress and anxiety as well as the realities faced working inside a prison. He deals with the occupational risks while elaborating on the psychological impact of both prison worker and prisoner.

His most recent book, Gorilla Justice, is an un-edited raw fictional version of realistic prison experiences and events through the eyes of an anecdotal translation of the inmate’s plight and suffering while enduring the harsh and toxic prison environment including solitary confinement.

Carl has been interviewed by numerous news stations and newspapers in Phoenix regarding the escape from the Kingman prison and other high profile media cases related to wrongful deaths and suicides inside prisons. His insights have been solicited by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and various other legal firms representing solitary confinement cases in California and Arizona. He is currently working on the STG Step Down program at Pelican Bay and has offered his own experience insights with the Center of Constitutional Rights lawyers and interns to establish a core program at the SHU units. He has personally corresponded and written with SHU prisoners to assess the living conditions and how it impacts their long term placement inside these type of units that are similar to those in Arizona Florence Eyman special management unit where Carl was a unit deputy warden for almost two years before his promotion to Deputy Warden of Operations in Safford and Eyman.

He is a strong advocate for the mentally ill and is a board member of David's Hope Inc. a non-profit advocacy group in Phoenix and also serves as a senior advisor for Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council in Chino, California As a subject matter expert and corrections consultant, Carl has provided interviews and spoken on national and international radio talk shows e.g. BBC CBC Lou Show & TV shows as well as the Associated Press.

I use sarcasm, satire, parodies and other means to make you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Why Arizona Prisons are Failing

Arizona prisons are hinged in a very perilous state of affairs under the current leadership of the director appointed by the governor. If it is one thing that has been clearly demonstrated time after time is the lack of consistency this prison system has failed to perform even its most rudimentary functions of all correctional practices, keep staff safe and prevent escapes, assaults and violence down inside prisons.

Of course, we can’t blame their failures entirely on the director as he must have help in gaining such an ill reputed standing of being incompetent and negligent in the manner his upper echelon staff performs their duties as outlined within the agency policies and procedures. No doubt, Arizona prisons are not one of the easiest prisons to manage but before the arrival of the current director and those appointments he has made since taking the reigns of the bureaucracy he has failed the citizens miserably in performance and expectations more so than in the past.

Running no doubt the most narrow-minded and inhumane prisons in this country, its current organizational practices range right up there with medieval operations and Abu Ghraib mentalities. Even the most routine events or tasks are compromised by failures to act properly and inflicting needless harm on prisoners that are at the mercy of the failed supervisors and administrators. Officers are left to fend for themselves as they get no assistance or guidance from managers or administrators interested in only two things as directed by their boss; to prevent escapes and to contain any internal damage with fear and retaliatory management methods that reflect serious issues inside a prison setting.

For example, in the Arizona Department of Corrections, an employee has an 80 % chance of being disciplined and found guilty of charges pressed without due process or conclusive evidence or allowances for mitigating circumstances. On the other hand, an inmate that assaults an officer has a 77 % chance of getting away with a physical attack on an employee as the agency has only pressed charges in 23 % of assaults on staff that occurs on the average of 1 per every 3 days of the year. This heavy hand on disciplining staff has resulted in poor morale and poor performance that contributes to the many operational failures incurred in the past two and a half years. Recent data gathered illustrating a contributing cause to this negative culture is the pervasiveness of the “blame” factor more than the “mistake” factor. This shows that operational standards are not followed because of poor executive and managerial oversight and accountability. Lapses in security, high levels of staff injuries and illness, absence of proper training and abuse of its employees are evident and not addressed by any of those in a position to manage change of these shortcomings. Employees are coming to work as they are assigned by thin rosters carrying with them additional stress and anxiety as the “statistics reveal the full depth of the department's apathy towards officers injured by inmates in the line of duty. In addition to losing benefits at six months, facing termination, being ignored by your administration after your sacrifice, and suffering physically and mentally.” In summary of these matters, there are other tangible factors not yet listed or explained that includes ignoring fair labor standards, equal opportunity laws, disability requirements, labor safety standards and many more that include a flawed fabric and methodology to work in. [1]

Data published by a well known retired correctional administrator reflected a very discerning fact that impacts the wellness and morale of every correctional employee that works inside a prison. “Not only do you face permanent injury, disfigurement, loss of income, and the stress on your family life that fighting the Workman's Compensation system entails, you now know that the inmate(s) who hurt you have a less than 20% chance of being convicted of the crime. Actually, the last three years have been better than 20%, but 2006 and this year's statistics bring the average down. Say, a 23% chance of conviction, just to be fair to ADC and CIU.” [1]

This negative culture breeds contempt for orderly procedures, abuse of prisoners, neglect and attention to detail matters concerning inmate movement, counts, escapes, etc. their investigative tools are biased and poorly implemented and it is staff rather than the prisoner these investigators focus on when something goes wrong. Until it was brought to the director’s attention, a culture to “punish staff” existed that has somewhat backed off once the practice was revealed. Currently there are multiple issues at hand being totally ignored as another catastrophe such as the Lewis hostage situation is brewing inside Arizona prisons and nobody is paying attention to the smoke signals being sent out by those who have been victimized by the system.

Sources:

[1] www.thunderrolls.net