Prison Violence Inside our Penitentiaries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i245b7xChM

WHY GOOD CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS BECOME R.O.A.D. WARRIORS
(Retired On Active Duty)

 

This idiom or phrase is usually spoken out loud as a workplace joke or a negative referral to someone that is performing at a sub-par level while on duty. It must be stressed that this expression is used often in the work place but is not to be taken literally. It is used by most correctional officers that speak the same language and knowing the meaning of such a phrase.

Although it may seem humorous in the beginning it is often a legitimate point of frustration and stress for those impacted by the lack of sensitivity and concern to this important matter. In fact, it is a high element of staff turnover and resignations. Many of these ROAD warriors exhibit the “Do it my way, or hit the highway” attitude that are often contradictions to policies and procedure and influenced by a culture of high tolerance to these “shortcuts” by their supervisors.

Every correctional officer must realize that the reality of working with such individuals on shift sends a terrible message to those who are already stretched thin on the job and working their butts off to make ends meet while solving problems to the best of their ability while on shift. We have experienced it on every tour of duty, at every prison complex and it seems to be growing in numbers and attitudes. The danger of such approach is how it impacts the new officer or transferred veteran candidate who come onboard with a pocket full of expectations and personal goals as well as determination to do the job well.

These potentially great officers quickly learn the ropes from those that are “retired while on active duty” by performing the same shortcuts, the same mannerism and the same attitudes demonstrated by their so-called “mentors.” This article is about prevention or in many cases, the intervention of such a phenomena happing at your workplace.

What causes this phenomenon and how do you combat such a influence. The answer is not easy and it takes a lot of work to re-direct new officers, as well as veteran employees back to the right direction. The most important element for making changes is the mannerism or approach you take to address this problem. It takes positive leadership qualities to reverse the trend and keep it going in the right direction. Looking at some of the dynamics of the ROAD syndrome, we find commonalities that must be addressed. How we change these negative activities is left up to three main steps for responsible parties.

The first step is for the administration to ensure their policies and procedures are updated and revised annually or identified as needed. In fact correctional “best practices” must be reasonable and according to nationally established standards as well as ensuring their training programs are up to standard and applicable to the tasks at hand in a real work environment, not just at the academy. This includes a follow up on-the-job orientation program that employs mentors of good standing and excellent work histories.

The rank and file of supervisors that are charged with direct supervision and guidance for all correctional officers, new and veterans. These supervisors must be properly trained to perform and make good decisions. They must also conduct sound and impartial personnel evaluations while building teams; have the ability to draw up individual development plans and evaluate and assess performance with no prejudice, bias or political influence when making the scores for every individual under their command.

Giving an undeserving officer an excellent rating when in fact, there may be room for improvement takes away the potential for growth and knowledge. Supervisors are not doing their subordinates any favors by overrating them as it stifles learning and career growth. This rating is most important during the probation periods as it must accurately reflect the performance and the behaviors exhibited during this trial period thus giving the officer a chance to redeem themselves through work improvement plans and other motivation tools provided by the supervisors. Reality is the key to best efforts put forh during this important trial period of employment. It sets the baseline of standards that could guide them throughout their entire career.

 

he last step is the individual that has voluntarily chosen to become a correctional officer and work inside a penitentiary that is potentially dangerous and harmful to both personal health and well being. This is the most important step as these persons should be receptive to instruction, direction and suggestions from those who know how to do the job according to best practices and training provided by the agency. Each individual must step up to a leadership position and address all issues coming their way professionally and in compliance with the rules and regulations imposed on this  potentially most dangerous workplace.

Setting aside personality issues or political preferences is a priority for leaders, supervisors and correctional officers. We already know that poor leadership qualities may in fact cause this ROAD phenomena thus it is important that the leadership recognize their responsibilities in this concept to avoid making the problems worse than they may already be in the workplace.

Leadership at all levels must be positive in nature and focus on reinforcement and instructional behaviors. The problem directly related to developing a good officer to become a great officer is the manner these individuals enable and promote good feelings related to job satisfaction, performance and appreciation of doing the job right. The obvious result for negative behaviors impacts the enabling of practicing poor work standards thus causing undesirable behaviors and this syndrome called ROAD warriors at work.

Although there are many more tools available to address this phenomenon, it is recommended that every human resource administrator review their individual training plans to evaluate effectiveness and get feedback on elements of this plan to ensure applicability and practical exercises are included for all staff. This review should also include the assessment of all performance and evaluation tools and verify whether they are being used in the manner prescribed by a written outline rather than random scoring using poor rating techniques to get this [often perceived burdensome] task out of the way.

 

 

 

Playing Russian roulette with Community / Public Safeguards

 

Recent information revealed by the news media regarding the Arizona Department of Corrections attempt to reshape the Private Prison contracts should not come as a shock or surprise to our politicians, citizens as well as our families living in our communities. This action was made possible because of disproportional power structures within our state. It was also created by a combination of the weak and fragmented community and political leadership within our state legislative body and business professionals. Surely, we must take the time to recognize this dangerous trend.

This concept was accomplished because of policymakers out-thinking the lawmakers or perhaps collusion between the two to make it a successful plan. The governor of our state did not resist such dramatic political changes and in fact, through her silence, embraced the takeover with personal satisfaction and potential future earnings as a silent partner.

The conclusion in this matter has led policy makers to be the winners and lawmakers the losers. Short term and long term goals will be profit for the policymakers and burdensome expensive fiscal spending and contractual obligations for those lawmakers [and unfortunately the taxpayers] who sat idle while this change occurred.

One must surely realize some disturbing changes are underway in the manner the Arizona Department of Corrections conducts its daily business. Rather than strict oversight and compliance-controlling methods to ensure transparency and accountability, it plays a loose and fancy free attitude to allow the private contractors much lead way into their practices, their expenditures and human resource management. Through contractual agreement, they have assured them a good profit for building new prisons for the state that can or may change ownership twenty years from now if the contract is completed.

The Corrections Department has managed to established relationships with local and state political authorities to accomplish this feat. Legitimately in power to embrace such changes, they were instrumental in forging a legal and legitimate prison economy within our state making this a prime target for more private prisons to be built by eager contractors willing to play by these easy rules. These corporations are enthusiastic to supplement their meager wages elsewhere and delivering more promises to Arizona in order to increase their profits and partner up with such a willing state of affairs.

At the moment, the ADOC does not face any immediate threats on their territorial gains in the prison business. Mostly benign opposition rarely makes the headlines as their involvement in this corrupt but yet legitimate partnership has been brought to question more than a dozen times or so by community leaders and organizations.

This new approach is not without any hazards or peril. There are collateral damages that may impact the eventual revision or re-thinking of this concept but it won’t happen until it is too late to reverse the current trend.

 Statistically speaking, the private prison industry will eventually dry up leaving those eager to partner up without any economic support or basis for income as they will pack up like carpetbaggers and move out of their locality and find another prime spot eager to accept their promises of wealth and betterment.

Statistically speaking, there will be operational flaws and disasters related to the soundness of each prison complex under their ownership as well as those neglected state prisons that suffer in preventive maintenance severely. Communities must endure disturbances, escapes, and property damage demanding the local authorities be backed up by state or federally- owned resources.

There is no doubt that this new approach will curtail the “business as usual” for state employees as there are plans to reduce public employees on the payroll and replace them with this private enterprise. It is suspect integrated policies mandated by the governor to draw up a plan to collate these human resources, diminish their earning capacity, and pool them into a large group of workers paid minimum wages at the best without retirement or other basic benefits now in place for the public workers.

There will be economic hardship due to abandonment. There will be financial doom as their investments will flourish only short term and fail in the long run. There will be obvious negative implications for those employed and eventually laid off causing domestic instability and unemployment.

What Can We Do?

How can we respond to these developments? Unfortunately, the power in place to effectively change the direction primarily lies not in our hands or our control. Therefore, we must plan for change and assert our political authority or influence wherever we can.

However, at the same time we must:

1. Prepare for the fact that private prisons will fail and leave the deal to the taxpayers at some point in the future.
1. We must recognize our contractual obligations and ensure compliance to the letter of the agreement and force compliance through legal efforts if necessary.
2. We must continue to encourage our political leaders, regardless of their party affiliations and emphasize our need to prioritize the task of restructuring the prison complexes when the time comes for abandonment and surrender by the private enterprises that can elude their contractual obligations easily through the stroke of the pen.
3. We should continue to intensify our resistance programs and consolidate to bring more power to the voices of opposition.
1. These initiatives are important as we identify those financial supporting resources and make them understand this is detrimental to the economy of our state and communities.
4. More importantly, we must draw them towards us and encourage them to provide an infusion of new ideas to restructure our prison system and our economic base according to those best practice principles in the business world and return this base back to common sense approaches and proven criminal justice practices.

This opinion serves as an early warning signal that our leadership is failing us and guiding us down the path of destruction related to our sovereignty on government responsibilities, our control over prisons and the public safety of our communities.  

Power is based on organized force. At the present time, the power is with those organized structures within our state government taking us towards this risky business approach.

We must begin to: disclose, educate,  recruit, develop and identify new resources and meet these organized power structures head on mainly because of their sheer unpredictability related to successes [and failures] and focus on documenting the dangerous behaviors already exhibited but kept under control by the power establishment today.

 

 

Viral Exposure Impacts Our Communities Too~~~~

Viral Exposure a "laissez-faire" event in Arizona’s

Culture of Death Prisons

Information provided by Craig Harris, reporter at the azcentral.com website and press release provided by Arizona Department of Corrections via Channel 12, Wendy Halloran, the investigative reporter who disclosed this matter and contacted the ADOC for information.  If it were not for this request, it is highly doubtful that the ADOC would have revealed and released a news release on this matter based on their historic pattern of behavior to minimize and not report such events in the past via the news media to alert family and constituents of possible bio-hazards in our community.

The media reports “At least 100 inmates at the [ASPC Lewis Complex] state prison west of Phoenix may have been exposed to Hepatitis C because medication was administered with a dirty needle.” The story goes on to indicate that the Department of Corrections did not release or report this incident as required by public health statutes and quickly stated in a press release that the matter has been dealt with and under investigation.”

“Officials with the state and Maricopa County health departments, who confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Tuesday that they had not been informed by Wexford Health Sources Inc. of the problem, said they will launch investigations into the incident.”

The state Department of Corrections says a contracted nurse violated the basic infection-control protocols. In a press release they stated:

“On August 27, 2012, a potential exposure event occurred at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Lewis while administering medication. A vial of medication, which may have been compromised with a previously used syringe, was subsequently used to treat additional inmates.

Review of this event determined the potential exposure to Hepatitis C and involved up to 105 inmates. As a result, these inmates were notified and are currently being screened for infectious diseases as per protocol in such an exposure event. An independent laboratory, under contract with Wexford, will provide continued medical monitoring and testing of these potentially exposed inmates over the next several months. All patients will be informed of the results of the testing.

The medical protocols related to this potential exposure have been reviewed to ensure that subsequent events do not occur. The initial event remains under review by Wexford Health, the contracted provider responsible for inmate health care.

The nurse who violated the basic infection control protocols is an employee of a staffing agency under contract with Wexford Health. Wexford has banned the nurse from working under any of its contracts and has also requested that the individual be referred to the State Board of Nursing for investigation.

An independent laboratory will provide continued medical monitoring and testing of these potentially exposed inmates over the next several months.” Released by Bill Lamoreaux, public information officer for the Arizona Department of Corrections ~ dated 9/04/2912

However, they failed to mention that these tests may be moot to some degree as this viral condition may in fact lay dormant inside the liver and show up 20 years from now. Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplants and causes liver cancer. Seventy-five to 85 percent of people with hepatitis C develop a chronic infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
Shoana Anderson, head of the state Office of Infectious Disease Services, said one of the biggest dangers for those infected with hepatitis C is "it sits in the liver quietly, and 20 years later, a person can develop severe liver disease."

Wexford, which has previously lost contracts for poor service in other jurisdictions, this spring won a $349 million, three-year contract to provide health care for Arizona inmates. The company began providing services for nearly 40,000 Arizona inmates on July 1.

These news outlets and the DOC fail to mention the global impact of such a mistake. They fail to mention how the DOC [through lack of oversight] and Wexford failed our community as they allowed a viral exposure and contamination to occur that may impact our families sometime in the future as these prisoners will eventually be released into the community and exposed to our children, our relatives, close friends and neighbors..

This event isn’t just about a bad “mistake” with a needle exposure into a vial, its about neglecting to consider the impact of such gross neglect on our -  community and families – our employees working the prisons – general community health safeguards –

It is time the governor and the legislative body recognize the fact that whatever happens inside a prison will eventually spill over into our homes and families that live in our communities and deserve better protection and safeguards than what has been demonstrated by this “la flair” attitude by the DOC and Wexford.

 

 

A Tribute to a Man with Uncommon Values

 http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/kodiakbears/171220

Being a man with a common background and uncommon talents, this man was labeled to be a transformational leader by a former Senate leader and the non-elected governor of the state. It was clear they chose this man for his uncommon values and his eagerness to bid their wishes in the manner best suited for greedy and ambitious businessmen and ranch owners back in the Wild Wild West.  It was these qualities along with many more that attracted the nomination and selection of the man with eight tentacles that reached far beyond any distance some visionary leaders might have thought they would through his persistence, tenacity and absolute power methods.

Implementing those viewpoints of those who selected him as well as his own, this man became a cultural and ideological radical in the way he shaped Arizona’s prison system pleasing those who embrace “mass incarceration” methods to bring heavy-handed righteousness to the criminal justice system. He was most certainly enabled to do this as his goals and vision were carried on the shoulders of greedy and often proliferating prosecutors that piled us a record number of convictions within a very short period of time to fill up our prisons.

It was from the beginning when he spoke convincingly and smoothly to his agency’s employees that he was on their side when he obscured his real “hang men” intentions about changing the prison system in Arizona. Promising fair and ethical hiring, promotional and assignment practices he turned instead to his primary goal. Once the dust settled, it was clear he was hired to increase prison beds and procure additional private prison beds from the corrections corporatists hired by the governor’s staff to embellish the profit sharing methods of privatizing prisons. In the end he made it clear which side he was really working for when hired on to run the Arizona prison system.

A former Abu Ghraib administrator and acting as a hired gun for the politicians, his tentacles reach far and cover the state from east to west and north to south. His justification for doing what he does best, intimidate, control, impose fear and add prison beds, is based on greed and profit making by those who call the shots in the governor’s office and legislative body. He has pleased them well and is assured longevity that will go down in record as one of the longest sitting agency directors in Arizona prison history.

It was oh so clear whose side he was on. He has decimated staff morale and working numbers in the rank and file. He has divided and conquered every aspect of political power or individualism as well as creativity within the agency and instilled fear and intimidation among the troops to ensure silence and complete power as well as dominance.  His radical management style practices deceit, cover ups, malpractice and unconventional politics atop of pure sadistic and mean spirited policy making for both worker and prisoner. How has this man reached out and changed the culture and found global support along the way one must ask. Within a short two year span he reshaped Arizona prison policy to attain complete control over his agency and environment.

His historic achievements include:

1. Reducing staffing to an all time low with the pretense of streamlining the agency to be more efficient and cost saving to the state resulting in an increase of staff assaults, prison homicides and suicides and “natural deaths” assisting those in power through advocating for more prison related money and future spending.
2. Eliminated or revised prison work programs to increase idleness and reduce productive achievements in general educational programs, treatment and rehabilitation efforts thereby ensuring a “revolving door” to maintain the growth of the prison system within the state.
3. Dismantle and replace the state medical and mental health provider systems and replaced with a private contractor to carry out arbitrary medical provisions and requirements related to health care and mental health treatment by mainly eliminating or reducing the number of patients eligible or identified to be provided basic treatment, medication and other expensive costs to reduce the state’s burden on providing medical care and treatment through unaccounted medical practices provided by law.
4. Expanded the use of private prison beds and added more “medium custody” needs for future acquisitions up to 2016 while ignoring his internal state owned physical plant maintenance repairs creating hazardous and dilapidated physical plan and housing unit structures throughout the state.
5. Changed the entire scope, size, and impact of agency policies and procedures to ensure complete and arbitrary control of all practices and due process guidelines for both staff and prisoners.
6. Divided and conquered organized labor unions or groups to ensure complete and unilateral control of negotiations, mediation and resolution conflict management.
7. Implemented and maintained a close circle of executives at the top of his administration that carry out his vision, his directives and priorities without resistance or question whether it is legal, practical or even a sound correctional practice. These “circles of friends” are comprised of former wardens and administrators from the past who served him well when he was the second in command under Terry Stewart.
8. Established complete media control over prison related stories, demonized the plight of the prisoners to justify the use of his policies and ignored public sentiment, protests or outcry on future prison expansion and growth causing a tremendous tax burden on Arizona taxpayers at the tune of $ 1.1 billion dollars plus.