Wake up call for Governor Brewer, Director Charles Ryan and Company

No, we aren't talking about the elections ~~ we are talking about Arizona Prisons and how they have been operating since February 1, 2009 when Charles L. Ryan took over and decimated existing systems that were working and creating better medical care, better mental health care and less violence towards staff. Since his tenure he has destroyed moral, the morality and the purpose of incarceration e.g. rehabilitation, reforming attitudes and behaviors, reduce recidvism through life skill educational opportunities and other evidence based practices non-existent under his rule or management. Stay tuned for an exclusive story on this man's reputation and mannerism that has made the prisons of Arizona a target for private prison enterprise, abusive cultures and excessive deaths inside our prisons.

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK ALMOST TIME TO WAKE UP CHUCK !!!

Reducing temporary beds increases safety inside prisons

California is reducing their temporary beds and Arizona should do likewise ~~

This method of housing prisoners has been a contributing factor to the increased violence inside prisons. When you put temporary beds in for a permanent reason there are negative impacts associated with this task. The lack of showers, toilets, and encumbered space limitations increase tension and makes it unsafe for correctional officers that have to walk these beats.

Read more:
SACRAMENTO— After more than two decades of using non-traditional beds, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is no longer double- and triple-bunking inmates in areas that were not designed for housing, such as gymnasiums and dayrooms.

On February 23, 2012, CDCR removed the last of such beds and has begun renovation projects. "non-traditional beds became the iconic symbol of California’s prison overcrowding crisis,” CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said. “Now, gyms once filled with inmates in triple-bunk beds are open and can be used for their intended purpose. This demonstrates how much progress California has made in improving inmate conditions and employee safety.”

On October 25, 2006, CDCR reached its all-time-high inmate population of 173,479, more than 200 percent of design capacity in its 33 adult institutions. August 2007 marked the peak of CDCR’s use of non-traditional beds at 19,618 in 72 gyms and 125 dayrooms.

Marco Rubio ~ What was your response to these young ladies?

Opinion: Dreamers’ Open Letter to Marco Rubio


Written By Erika Andiola & Mayra
Published February 24, 2012
Fox News Latino

Senator Rubio:

We are here. We are in Arizona, a major Latino state and home of next week’s Republican presidential primary. We are in Florida, another major Latino state and home to one of last month’s primaries. We are in large and small cities across America. DREAMers like us are here, working hard to serve our communities, and all we want is an opportunity to continue our work as residents and citizens. You rarely leave Washington and Florida. You don’t know Latinos in the rest of the country and polls tell us that most Latinos don’t know you. And you don’t support the DREAM Act and other positive immigration policies strongly supported by most Latinos. So what gives you the authority to speak on behalf of Latinos on immigration?

We write to you today on behalf of DREAMers and other Latinos across our nation to ask you to reverse your opposition to the DREAM Act, as well as to reverse your support of Arizona’s SB-1070 racial profiling law and other copy-cat anti-immigrant policies. If you are to be a real national Latino leader, one who is acknowledged and respected by our community, we need you to reject the Tea Party-backed anti-immigration policies, and we need you to show your support for hardworking young immigrants in college through your vote.

Do Border Agents Stake Out Hospitals in Arizona?

We don’t need any more flowery speeches about your immigrant family or about the “tone” of the immigration debate. As the Arizona primary puts the national focus back on Latinos, we need you to support policies that will actually do something to give hard-working, well-intentioned immigrants a path out of the shadows of undocumented status, and toward becoming fully contributing and recognized members of American society. Nothing more. Nothing less. Earlier this year, you said that “when politicians and political figures speak about the issue of migration, they’re not just talking about a legal issue. They’re speaking about the real lives of real people that so many of us love and care for.”

We heard you say that and we’ve heard your personal story, which is why we cannot understand your refusal to support the DREAM Act, or your insistence on supporting of one of the most anti-immigrant, anti-Latino pieces of legislation in the country, Arizona’s SB-1070. We seek the same opportunity provided to you and your parents. No more. No less.

Like your parents, our parents came here to make a better life for their children. We did not choose to come here. We, too, are forever grateful for our new home country – the United States – and for the opportunities that we now have to work hard toward a better future. We are as American as your parents or as you are, Senator Rubio. Why don’t you support us?

Celebrities Who Were Once Undocumented

We DREAMers are here, listening to politicians like you – one of the select group of Latino elected officials in Congress – making speeches as if you will “deliver the Latino vote.” The problem with your words is, for example, that approximately 91% of Latinos do support the DREAM Act. And yet you do not. Broad support for the DREAM Act comes from leaders across party lines and ideology within business, education and religion. And yet you still oppose the DREAM Act. Listening to your soaring and compassionate words saddens us. Not because you don’t appear to care about the struggles we face. We are saddened and angered because your words are not matched by your actions or policy positions, which more closely resemble those of the Tea Party and other anti-Latino, anti-immigrant groups than they do Latinos. Your success should be a point of inspiration for us, rather than one of anger or frustration. Outside of the Latino community, many have begun to speak of you as the likely vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party. But among Latinos, especially among many of us young Latinos, the similarities between you and us feels skin deep, at best.

Barring of Latina Candidate in Arizona Stirs Criticism of English Proficiency Law

You mentioned in the same well-delivered speech a few weeks ago that “number one, I’m not who they think I am and number two, I don’t stand for what they claim I stand for.” Now is the time to show us. Show us who you are and what you stand for. Now is the time to demonstrate that you are not the anti-immigrant son of immigrants that your policies – and growing numbers of Latinos – say you are. Show your support for the DREAM Act and other positive immigration policies, Senator Rubio. Young students are looking to you now. We are DREAMers. You hold our dreams in your hands. And, if you don’t change your positions, many of us in the Latino community may hold your dreams – and those of the Republican Party – in ours.

Sincerely,

DREAMers across America.

Erika Andiola and Mayra

Mayra is from Lakeland, Florida. Originally from Naranjo, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Mayra immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 6 months old. She is undocumented and lives in Lakeland, Florida where she is an organizer for Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER), a grassroots organization founded by undocumented immigrant youth in Florida. Currently a student at Polk State College, she aspires to earn a law degree specializing in immigration law.

Erika Andiola is originally from Durango, Mexico but immigrated to Mesa, Arizona when she was 11 with her family. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2009 with a B.A. in Psychology. Erika is one of the co-founders of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition (ADAC), which is an umbrella organization of groups and individuals across the state of Arizona who are interested in fighting for the welfare of immigrant students.

Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino

Arizona Politicians lying to citizens about prison costs

Former State Rep. Bill Konopnicki is a board member for the Grand Canyon Institute, a centrist think tank.

Opinions

If in 2002 Arizonans were asked whether they'd like to move investments in our three great universities to prisons, they'd likely give a resounding "no!" Yet that's exactly what we've done. In 2002, Arizona invested 40 percent more in universities than corrections. Ten years later the incarceration rate has risen, while universities have been severely cut, and the state is spending 40 percent more on prisons than universities.

Politicians harp on being "tough on crime," but we really need to be "smart on crime." States across the country are realizing they can improve public safety, enhance the likelihood of inmates reintegrating into society, and save money by reducing incarceration. We've already seen evidence of this in Arizona.

For the first time since we've kept prison statistics, Arizona has experienced a modest decline in its prison population. The reason has been evidence-based practices with our probation population, reducing those sent to prison. The Safe Communities Act of 2008, a bipartisan effort, sponsored by then State Sen. John Huppenthal, a Republican, gave county probation agencies incentives to reduce crime and violations rather than return offenders into state custody.Under the law, offenders earn 20 days off their probation term for every month they meet all of their obligations, including payment of victim restitution if it was ordered. The Grand Canyon Institute's latest report "Reducing Incarceration Costs While Maintaining Public Safety," notes that in Maricopa County alone the drop in probation revocations to prison saved taxpayers $27 million annually over costs in 2008.

The Institute's report using classifications from a report written for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council identifies that nearly 20 percent of our current prison population are nonviolent offenders at low risk for recidivism. When I chaired an Arizona House Alternatives to Sentencing Workgroup in 2003, I called many prison wardens, and each one told me they could identify a couple hundred inmates who could be safely released. Our report estimates if low risk nonviolent offenders through good behavior and participation in education, vocational and treatment programs earned reduced prison time and moved into community supervision with appropriate follow up, the state of Arizona could save between $30 million and $73 million annually, depending on how eligibility was structured. But to do that we have to revisit "Truth in Sentencing" for nonviolent offenders. Arizona is the only state that forces nonviolent offenders, regardless of risk, to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence behind bars. Mississippi was the only other state to also treat nonviolent offenders this way, and in 2001 and again in 2008, they changed paths and paroled thousands of nonviolent offenders, saving Mississippi about $200 million without impacting public safety.

The math is pretty simple. It costs $20,000 to incarcerate a nonviolent offender, but less than $4,500 to provide community supervision, often with electronic monitoring, and drug treatment and testing to the same person. The alternative is continuing to build prisons. Gov. Jan Brewer proposed spending five times more on prison construction than on building schools this coming fiscal year. Our prisons can be a revolving door. Last year, 19,055 people left the Arizona Department of Corrections and another 18,759 people replaced them. At least three in four have significant substance-abuse issues, yet last year only 1,810 received treatment. It's no wonder that repeat offenders make up seven out of every 10 inmates.

Arizona needs to adopt evidence-based practices that move us in a fiscally prudent manner that would enable our investments in universities to climb without imperiling public safety.

.Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/03/02/20120302konopnicki-state-can-save-money-by-reducing-prison-population.html#ixzz1o4CmPK84

Watching Tony Die?

http://www.youtube.com/v/rgR9487OQgs&feature=plcp&context=C33b49f6UDOEgsToPDskIJMbzdVfgFbLvDnpoEkZ5W

Write your comments for change or outrage to:

connect@ad.gannett.com and make your voice heard around the world

It's time for a change we treat the severely mentally ill in prisons ~~

Mentally ill prisoner mistakenly given razors

Family of schizophrenic prisoner who committed suicide in his cell sues after watching video showing him slit his throat and bleed to death 'while guards watched'Anthony Lester, 26, was serving 12 years for stabbing women at party


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108772/Anthony-Lesters-family-sues-mistakenly-given-razor-commits-suicide-Tucson-prison-Arizona.html
By Louise Boyle



Last updated at 10:10 PM on 1st March 2012





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108772/Anthony-Lesters-family-sues-mistakenly-given-razor-commits-suicide-Tucson-prison-Arizona.html#ixzz1nyEPeJbk

Sheriff Paul Babeu

Friends,

Last week, I was honored to be recognized with a Defender of Freedom Award by the California Rifle and Pistol Association. This award means a lot to me because our second amendment rights are under constant attack, and I'm proud to be recognized for my efforts to defend those rights.

Through Operation Fast and Furious, Obama's Justice Department transferred over 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels. These are the most dangerous criminals in North America, who have killed over 42,000 of their own people. Guns from "Fast and Furious" have turned up at crime scenes throughout Mexico, and were used to murder an American hero, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, on American soil.  Despite all that, the Obama Administration is blaming Americans and our honest, law-abiding gun dealers, suggesting that we need stricter gun laws.

Are you as outraged by this as I am?  If so, let me know by leaving a comment on my Facebook page or let me know via Twitter. If you're able to make a contribution to help me continue my campaign to defend our second amendment rights, you can do so on my website at www.sheriffpaul.com.

Thank you for your support - together we can fight those who seek to restrict our freedom as Americans.

Sheriff Paul Babeu

Want Change? here is your chance view video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2BF1UUM4Y&feature=plcp&context=C33b49f6UDOEgsToPDskIJMbzdVfgFbLvDnpoEkZ5W

Globe Arizona business sets the record straight on private prison data

Reader warns ‘beware of biased political rants’


Posted: Wednesday, Feb 29th, 2012









Dear Editor: [Silver Belt, Globe, Arizona newspaper]

http://www.silverbelt.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=79&story_id=3449

I have been reluctant to respond to the recent letters of Mr. Stephen LaFleur about private prisons because this matter was so thoroughly debated in our community during the past 18 months. However, since we are in the homestretch of an important municipal election, I must set the record straight. First, readers of your newspaper deserve to know a couple of things about Mr. LaFleur. He is not a resident of Globe, but rather a newcomer to Wheatfields. He is a former consultant/contractor to the private prison industry. Of course, he is entitled to his opinion about private prisons. He is not entitled to his own set of facts.

To illustrate how uninformed Mr. LaFleur is about private prisons in Arizona, he stated in a letter last week that the AZDOC is currently sending inmates to out-of-state prisons due to a shortage of in-state prison beds. False. Virtually all of Arizona’s prison inmates returned ‘home’ many, many months ago. Our State’s prison population has actually declined by several hundred inmates over the past two years, which is one reason the DOC canceled its request for 5,000 new prison beds.

Mr. LaFleur seems to be oblivious to the series of in-depth reports published by the Arizona Republic during this past year that has validated every argument I publicly put forth during our local private prison debate. A significant recent finding by the Auditor General of AZ suggests that private prisons actually cost taxpayers more than state-run prisons. I have asserted repeatedly that building more prisons at this time is pure fiscal insanity. Arizona currently spends $1 billion per year on Corrections. Representative Cecil Ashe of Mesa is absolutely right when he argues that Arizona desperately needs Sentencing Reform legislation. There is a responsible way to reduce our incarceration rate without a risk to public safety. A substantial percentage of Arizona’s prison population is serving time for a non-violent offense. We can save taxpayers millions of dollars, and most importantly, we can reform a criminal justice system so that it offers non-violent offenders a better chance for a productive life.

Mr. LaFleur’s uninformed comments defending local elected officials who arrogantly dismissed the people’s voice on this issue, should be regarded for what it is - a biased political rant. Again, I want to thank the one local elected official who went the second and third mile for Globe citizens on this issue. It was Councilman Terry Wheeler who fought to protect our town’s resources, and represented the interests of our community to stop a private prison.

Jim Moss,

Watching Tony Lester Die - a video that will never be released

http://www.azcentral.com/video/#/News/Arizona%20inmate%2019s%20family%20watches%20his%20death%20video/40280768001/35150280001/1481841026001


Part III of a three part series on a horrible preventable suicide inside Arizona prison complex Tucson. I did the intro and the review on the investigative packet..

Wendy Halloran reports final episode Part III tonight on Ch 12 Phoenix news

Wendy Halloran

Wendy Halloran likes fighting for the "little guy." She's an Emmy Award winning Investigative Reporter who exposes con-artists, unscrupulous contractors, shady businesses, identity thieves and government corruption. She holds the powerful accountable. Halloran is perhaps best known for exposing a threat to our national security when she uncovered workers in missile defense with top secret security clearance... were holders of counterfeit credentials. She got the attention of Congress.  Halloran came to Phoenix from WHNT-TV in Northern Alabama where the "dirt" is knee-deep. She was the Chief Investigative Reporter. Now, she is here fighting for you in Arizona.

In 2011 she won an Emmy for investigative reporting from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Halloran's investigations have garnered 6 Emmy nominations for investigative reporting, business/consumer reporting, writing and enterprise reporting in addition to multiple awards from the Associated Press. Each year Halloran worked at WHNT-TV her exclusive investigations were awarded with top honors. She was awarded Best Investigative Reporter for 2008 and 2009 by the Alabama Associated Press. Twice, the Alabama Associated Press named Halloran that state's "Best Specialized Reporter of the Year," for her consumer investigations. She was also awarded Best Series by the Alabama AP for "Where's the Justice?" an investigation that exposed a loophole in Alabama's DUI law that allows drunk drivers who kill-to keep their driver's license.

In 2009 she broke a national investigation after uncovering fake college diplomas had infiltrated all levels of the U.S. Army including the Army Aviation and Missile Command. The investigative reports triggered a U.S. Army probe as well as a Commander's Inquiry on Redstone Arsenal, the premiere site of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. In 2010, the expose resulted in a federal bill, U.S. House Resolution 4535, "The Diploma and Accreditation Integrity Protection Act." If passed by Congress, it would make using a fake diploma a federal crime. In 2011 Breach of Trust garnered an Emmy Award in the Investigative Series category.


Also in 2009-2010 Halloran's hidden camera investigation into an air duct cleaning scam by a company called Pure Kleen revealed a con that's happening all across the country. WHNT-TV teamed up with the Better Business Bureau of North Alabama and was able to expose homeowners being systematically ripped off to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars with bait and switch tactics. Pure Kleen told the homeowners they had mold in their home even when they didn't. The investigation revealed Pure Kleen was being operated by a criminal syndicate and was actually one of a large group of related air duct cleaning businesses running similar "bait and switch" advertisements. The multi-part investigation shined the light on Pure Kleen and within days of being exposed on the local newscast Pure Kleen closed its doors. After Halloran left Alabama, the BBB of North Alabama partnered with Dateline NBC for an episode of The Hansen Files which further exposed these rogue companies.

Following the deadly shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville-allegedly at the hands of Professor Amy Bishop, Halloran dug deeper into the campus police department's handling of the crisis. Not only was there almost a one hour delay in activating the emergency alert system, she uncovered how campus police officers were being persuaded or forced to change the classification of crimes so as to avoid having to report them. She uncovered corruption and a possible violation of federal law when an undercover producer was denied access to the last 60 days of the daily crime log-caught on hidden camera. The series of hard-hitting reports prompted a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.

Prior to Alabama, Halloran worked at the ABC affiliate in Las Vegas where she specialized in consumer investigations. She held the dubious distinction of being dubbed "a poodle with teeth" for her confrontational skills where she held people accountable for their actions.  Her investigations have led to resignations, firings, arrests, grand jury indictments, felony convictions and prison sentences. Wendy's hidden camera stings and consumer advocacy reporting has changed lives and laws to better protect the consumer. Over the last five years, she has recovered more than a million dollars for consumers. Her work has also led to an FDA recall involving blankets used in hospitals nationwide during MRI's. That recall caused the company to re-label the blankets after a tiny cancer patient received third-degree burns.

Wendy is passionate about holding the powerful accountable, righting wrongs and giving a voice to the voiceless.  Halloran is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, (IRE) the professional organization for investigative journalists.

She attended San Diego State University where she received a B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration with an emphasis on Criminal Law and completed the Broadcast Journalism program at the University of Nevada-Reno Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism.  Halloran is originally from the West Coast and has worked as a television journalist for more than a decade.

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Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/bios/articles/wendyhalloranbio071510.html#ixzz1nmZic1QY