Wasted Honor -- - Say What you Need To Say......

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Are Prisons Becoming Abusive, Neglectful and Ill-Prepared for the Masses?

Don’t Shoot the Messenger Please ~~

There appears to be a trend developing throughout the world and also within the United States as well. More information is being gathered by human rights groups concerning letters and complaints received by inmates, family members and advocacy groups indicting a rise in human right violations.

Using their access to the press or international media, this movement to expose cruel and unusual prison practices has brought the concern to the front page of many national newspapers and tabloids. Depending on information relayed through family members that either visit or receive letters or phone calls from their imprisoned relatives, the substance of providing evidentiary proof of such a practice is difficult to explain or expose.

Prison regulations vary from country to country and are often based on the individual country’s laws, culture and practices. Regardless, all countries reserve their right to incarcerate those not following the law and sentence them to prison terms.

Looking closely at some of these allegations in the United States you will find the main contributor to prison abuse, neglect or even torture is how prisons are funded and operated today. There are three conditions that plague current prison conditions today. They are:

Mass Incarceration agendas with lack of supportive funding available

Systemic “deliberate indifferences” cultures, traditions and practice

Individual or case by case abuses by administration or positions

Prisoners are isolated for many reasons within the prison setting and the focus on solitary confinement has brought scrutiny to the practice in place in many large penitentiaries throughout the world. However, as many of these reports reveal, it is not the correctional officer that imposes these abuses but rather the system that is not designed to handle such a capacity inside our penitentiaries and detention centers under the mass incarceration agenda.

Under the umbrella of “prison conditions” you may also find that many systems fall short of their legal obligations to take proper care for their incarcerated wards of the state. This condition is important as it is a major contributor for the many symptoms found inside of prisons. The fact that many prisons don’t have regulatory oversight inspections adds to the problem as this lack of transparency hides the truth as it may exist within many prisons.

The main symptom found is the lack of sufficient resources to manage these prisons. Because of either a shortage of funding, staffing or other essential resources, inmate rights may be violated unintentionally by the denial of crucial services created by the shortage of tools provided by each individual system.

One could expand such existing resource by the implementation of linking with community based social services outside the prison and provide direct participation to provide the essential services needed. This would focus mainly on medical and mental healthcare needs for the prisoners as required by law and policy. The “torture” element would be those cases where convicted felons are denied or subjected to neglect for their chronic or immediate medical care and loss of limb or life is imminent because of lack of these critically needed resources and access to medical treatment in order to operate prisons appropriately.

Thus when we look at prison abuse, we must overshadow un-intentional staff abuse or individual “deliberate indifferences” that do exist but are not quite as large of a problem as other factors that are the “main contributors” to making prisons more inefficient and unable to meet statutory requirements or expectations.

Generally speaking, when you combine lack of access to medical care, nutritional provision (food portions and quality), heating and cooling systems failing because of aging or poor maintenance physical plant conditions, it is compounded by overcrowding and lack of programming that would allow early re-leases for those felons meeting program criteria to re-enter the communities sooner and with supervision practices in place to prevent relapse of their programming.

Perhaps now is the time to seek alternatives to mass incarceration and review our laws, mandatory sentencing process, community alternative programs and pre-release programs for those to reduce the “revolving door” syndrome and lower recidivism within those acceptable for a sound criminal justice system to be functional and properly maintained.