Complacency in Correctional Officers

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, December 7, 2012

Complacency in Correctional Officers

Complacency ~ the Evil Influences on Correctional Officers

By Carl R. ToersBijns

Correctional Officers today are well trained and professional in demeanor and performance. To a great extent, they are representative of a law enforcement professional in modern day penology that emphasizes on self-confidence and self assertion to be able to perform their job that is dangerous and unusual to say the least.

Their role inside prisons characterizes moral as well as political thoughts but carry with them traditional sound and ethical moral ideals and social forms that continue to seek a safe and secure environment as well as proper custodial care of our humanity.

Every day these men and women walk this most perilous beat as they go inside these gates of Hell with thoughts of “trust thyself” and maintain the integrity of their own minds as they were trained and how you carry their moral values.

Working within a prison means living side by side with the Devil. A demonic spirit that reigns in this man-made Hell-hole and that refuses to submit to the perfected ideals and principles to do the job with the intent to be fair, firm and consistent with those that live here in Hell.

Thus it can be said that working inside this Hell-hole is in fact a rebellion against sanity and God’s sovereignty as it is quite wicked in here and temptation is abound. In addition to its darkness, it is quite real and demonic in existence and pride that emphasizes wrongful deeds and dishonored thinking.

This is the sentiment to overcome as you walk through those gates to Hell and leave all the sanity and reality behind as the heavy metal gates shut you in until it is time to end your shift.

As you walk through these gates of Hell your voice inside your head tries to reassure you that all is well and you are ready to face yet again a fresh challenge with evil lurking around every corner of this place.

For this and other reasons you focus on your safety as well as the safety of others. Taking “the six” and backing up your teammates carries with it a tremendous amount of responsibility that exceeds all others for the next eight hours or so. Working inside this Hell-hole has serious consequences and being lax is unacceptable under any terms or conditions.

Your mind is focus on every move and deepest threat from within. Working with pride and self confidence are basic ingredients that allows you to walk the beat with self assurance as you battle the afflictions of the “demon of acedia” because this is the most dangerous evil one of them all.

“Acedia [Latin] or the “noonday devil”” is most common inside these prison Hell-holes and thrives on the souls of those that have submitted to the seven sins of heaven and have become careless and without care how they perform their jobs and responsibilities. Some blame fatigue while others blame the need for power and greed.

This “noonday devil” brings you nothing but pain and sorrow as it cites your ideals and moral values into new conceptual traditions that allows the devil to rule and misfortune, harm, violence and death to exist. While under the influence of this “noonday devil” you will feel sadness or idleness in your purpose and submit to his evil ways without thinking about it twice.

For all practical purposes, this complex and spiritual state of mind defies all simplicity in content and context as well as mindset definitions. Because this demonic influence fosters a lassitude and despairing mood, it overwhelms your own spiritual and moral capacity and feelings and transforms your performance into stages of idleness and laziness that also creates a dullness of the soul.

Your heart becomes dry, with a sense of bareness that creates tasteless decision making as it bares your soul. It induces you into stages of waning confidence and produces a lack of motivation that leaves you in a state of mind resembling an attitude of “what’s the use” and “it is what it is” and allows you to dip into temptation to not do your job and lift you into a stage of thinking what you are doing is pointless and futile to say the least.

This ““noonday devil”” phenomena slips into your mind as you begin to tire and feel a lack of commitment, support and despair about why you are busting your heart out to do a job that has no real self serving purpose or gratitude from those you serve.

Thus you will slowly or eventually succumb into a stage of temptation and decide to relax a little and let things go with the flow that in fact threatens the safety and security of where you are as well as those you are sharing ground with while being here in Hell.

Acedia, then, is a real threat, a deadly sin doing its deadly work in the presence of those who trust you and respect you. Its demonic presence can be detected rather clearly in the way you are acting and the way you are working inside this most demonic culture that has no remorse or sanity attached to it.

It breeds contempt for rules and following instructions as well as truthfulness and routine ethical decision making. It separates you from your cultural context and evolves into an irresponsible culture and morality that establishes critical distance between right and wrong. You no longer worry about your own beliefs and practices that would normally stand for human decency and moral rectitude as it now all seems silly and pointless.

In most cases, the basic strategy of instruction is to step back and allow your normal ethical and honorable judgments to return back to normal through patience and meditation. It is important to clear your head and realize that you have to be doctrinally consistent with policies and procedures as well as unified in thought with those working around you.

You can’t let the negative influences of this “acadia” events overwhelm you and corrupt your thinking; you must resist any negative preconceptions to foster or continue to exist inside your head. At the same time you must reach in deep of your own soul and heart and allow your passion to bring you back on track and keep you focused on the possessions you attained through diligent training and positive experiences as you prepared yourself for this most challenging job.

You have to break this cycle of change and step back without stepping back from your inherited duties and responsibilities as well as the oath you took when you accepted this job. How you undertake these responsibilities will decide how long you will last in wearing a badge of honor within this man made Hell-hole called prison.

Your general commitment while at work is to ensure public safety and reduce the chances or opportunities for others to commit additional crimes or misconduct. Your job is to prevent the infliction of needless or preventable pain or harm by predators seeking the weak and making them submit to the evilness around you.

The final assessment to this phenomena call “acedia” is that if you choose to accept this as your new chosen standard of care and your moral code to perform you are in fact discarding all of your own moral and social standards that existed before you walked through those gates.

In fact, you have allowed the devil, this ever present evil spirit to invade your soul to set a new standard for your moral and social standards now considered by you as a virtue rather than what you once thought was evil and wrong.

December 7, 2012