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

How to maintain Motivation & Morale for Change

During these times of controversy and who is telling the truth versus those trying to be politically correct, it has been very difficult to motivate people to do their best and the right thing. Ask yourself a simple question and look at the answer to find out if you are becoming a pessimist or remain to be a die hard optimist with these tough economic times and low morale within our country, our job and within the family circles. This question is very simply put. How many of you are really putting in the extra effort to enjoy a better quality of life? Then follow up with another question and ask yourself this one. How many of you are feeling the extra stress and anxiety at home or the workplace? If the answer to these two questions are negative in nature, you may need to pick up the pace a bit to get better at how you manage your life or job.


Obviously there are some things you can do to make it a better life for you and your family. You can begin to organize your thoughts to build up morale in the home and the workplace by knowing what it is you need to motivate those changes. Remember that motivation is a very powerful tool that can be used to create good things or bad things depending whether the thoughts are good or evil. The power and the desire require effort and the effort should be a united front [consistency] so that all things will work out well for all involved. Focusing on the good things and dealing with any adversities in a positive manner will keep you on track towards the goal.

The first element to increase the morale in life is to trust your own thinking and evaluation of the matters that surround and impact you. It is often said that self confidence and the inner trust of your own will bolster a positive feeling you can use to manage change. Share this trust and express how you see the task that lies in front of you and seek participants to join you in the challenge(s).

Before you start any such a task to change or motivate yourself or a group into a new directions you must make sure you have a plan. This plan should consist of expectations [group input] and clear up any misunderstandings immediately. Whether working as an individual or as work teams within the individuals assigned appoint a facilitator that can guide the group and step in or out as the progress is identified. Focus on creativity, independence in thinking and positive qualities to enhance motivation to participate to the fullest and most of all communicate effectively.

Communicate those things you want to do or implement. Managing change is important and should be shared with as many people that you can bring into the plan to transform the situations accordingly. Don’t try to do this by yourself as it will be a too heavy load to carry. Learn the effectiveness of writing and speaking the points with accuracy and personalization for each member of the change group. Draw them into a tighter circle so you can exemplify the trust in each of them and communicate accordingly. Seek dialogue and focus on the good ideas but never dispose of any bad ideas as they too are beneficial to this process. Be unselfish in you mannerism to gain ground on the project to change and motivate everyone’s lives with a celebration of some sort. Ask for help and talk things out. Stay away from promises and realize that change along the way is a key to success.

Give credit where credit is due and build on your progress with positivity that fuels the future and the result of this change. Don’t do all the talking as you let others talk. Be observant and look at body language as they speak to find consistency in their message and their actions. Do the same with every member of the group and if you see controversy, don’t be afraid to address it with a sincere approach for input or comments. Learn to rotate roles and delegate or disseminate the messages and the tasks. Let the trust factor guide you in decisions and do this judiciously so that a spirit of fairness exists within the work group or family circle. Don’t be afraid to allow the team to exercise their own strengths as they meet the expectations or those objectives discussed and identified. Many people tend to create a “loner” role that isolates them from the rest of the group and impairs their ability to delegate to others as they might not communicate their tasks with sufficient data or information.

As a group, let the successes and failures fall on the entire entity and not on any individual. Don’t be in a hurry to take sole responsibilities as the responsibility to succeed is everyone’s duty or task to accomplish one way or another. Don’t overload any one person in particular and give credit where credit is due. However, don’t let the credit syndrome overcome the spirit of the group as this is about teamwork and not individual accomplishments or glory. Don’t make excuses for others and don’t put the group in harm’s way by overloading the commitment to the tasks at hand.

Other elements of this task to motivate and change are ensuring positive relationships within the group and organization or family. Avoid competition or comparing of tasks to ruin the spirits designed to motive the group with positive energy. Ensure that when you identify the problems, you don’t become part of the problem. This may seem to be an obvious concern but conflict is the biggest factor of defeat among work groups or families. Treat each other with respect and don’t demean or patronize participants who are willing to share their input with others. Share as much as you can and formulate common ground that will solidify the findings or the points of views. Communicate clearly with each other and share the responsibilities to the fullest extent possible.