Report Card on Arizona Prisons

Arizona Prisons, Too Little, Too Late

A Report Card

 

By Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman

 

Introduction – This report card is used for the purpose of evaluating and documenting information collected in local media streams with the sole purpose of providing guidance and support to those advocating better, safer and less costly prisons inside Arizona. Arizona spends more than $ 1 billion dollars on prison management in the past fiscal years and continues to ask for additional funding to keep their agency afloat.

 

Background – The opinions expressed in this report are those of its author and takes into consideration that most data received or collected is anecdotal in nature and may be personal or subjective based on inferences or cultural insights.

 

Overview – This overview is based on rational conclusions acquired and gained a period of time working inside southwest prisons and throughout the approximately thirty years in law enforcement having the experience of working the Arizona prisons for five years and working another twenty years in the New Mexico prisons offering a valid southwest cultural viewpoint on how prisons are management in this part of the country.

 

Report Card – In January, 2009, a new agency director was appointed by then governor Janice K. Brewer. His appointment was interim and pending permanent appointment and approval by the Legislature. Between the years 2004 and 2009, the Arizona prison system was under the directorship of Dora Schriro, a progressive liberal minded individual who focused on inmate programming and education priorities.

 

Mr. Schriro started a new trend in Arizona by promoting self-help programs, therapeutic environment conditions for the mentally ill and expanded the inmate employment program to the point where there was between 79 % to 84 % of the inmate gainfully employed or going to school.

 

This report card will document the progress made since her departure in January 2009, and the arrival of a new director, Charles L. Ryan, a former Arizona corrections official who had returned from tenure with the federal government and assigned in an official capacity at the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison to train and develop prison programs for that country.

 

 

Summary of Findings – The prevalence of mismanagement complaints about public prisons inside Arizona has made the headlines now for more than three years. These events are well documented and warrant research and analysis by those responsible for public safety and the preservation of civil rights inside Arizona.

 

The reader should focus on the number of staff assaults that have occurred, the number of “natural deaths” reported, the number of suicides committed within the last two years and the flawed delivery of medical and mental health services that are neglected and delayed raising an awareness issue of known cases of communicable diseases, chronic illnesses and other sanitation and health conditions that may impact the communities when prisoners are released,

 

Government’s Response – There have been no significant, positive developments to report since the arrival of Charles L. Ryan as director. Although it appears he might have implemented a number of strategically goals and objectives within his five year plan, they have not made any noteworthy impact through these initiatives and leave much of these problems status quo for the time being.

 

It is clear that government has failed to provide the resources, leadership and vision necessary to address in a comprehensive and progressive manner those issues raised by their own investigative reports, and those by the media or advocacy groups vocal about changing the manner prisons are being operated.

 

There appears to be a lack of coordination and harmonization between this agency and those assigned required services according to the rule of law and internal policies and procedures. As a result, the standards of care related to custodial and healthcare available to prisoners varies between failing and barely meeting minimum requirements per law, standards and contractual obligations.

 

Conclusion – Prison systems have a moral, but also a legal responsibility to act without further delay to address these urgent issues reported and known to be deficient in nature or operation. Today, the government continues to fail to meet its responsibilities for public safety, staff safety and prisoner related safety issues.

There are few positive developments that have occurred since 2009 but the government is clearly not doing all they can do in the matters presented in this report card. It comes down to the quality of leadership within this agency that will make the difference between meeting its moral and legal obligations to the public and do much more to improve the current conditions as they stand.

 

Staff Issues – Cumulative Grade – F

 

Since January, 2009, the number of staff:

 

• resignations have increased
• disciplinary actions have increased
• grievances have increased
• assaults have increased

 

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• manpower resources have decreased
• availability on shift have decreased
• training quality has decreased
• protective measures for staff decreased
• morale has decreased

 

Security Issues – Cumulative Grade – D

 

Since January 2009, the number of:

• escapes or escape attempts have increased
• inmate assaults have increased
• double bunking of prisoners in all custody levels has increased
• hostage situations have increased
• disturbances have increased
• contraband found has increased
• drug related violence has increased
• gang related violence has increased
• prisoners housed in max custody has increased

 

Prison Self- Improvement Skill issues – Cumulative Grade – F

 

Since January, 2009, prisoner:

·        educational programs have decreased

·        vocational programs have decreased

·        employment opportunities have decreased

 

Prison Medical / Dental / Mental Issue – Cumulative Grade – F

 

Since January, 2009, prison health:

 

• medical treatment delays have increased
• medical community health risks have increased
• medical communicable/infectious diseases have increased
• medical services for the geriatric elderly has increased
• medical related “natural deaths” have increased
• medical related mistakes e.g. needle control have increased
• medical use of out-of-date medication has increased

 

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• medical priorities have decreased
• medical education/prevention on infectious diseases has decreased
• medical education of drugs or substance abuse have decreased
• medical staffing has decreased
• medical treatment has decreased
• medical prescription drugs have decreased
• medical referrals have decreased
• medical appointments have decreased

 

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• dental priorities have decreased
• dental services have decreased
• dental appointments have decreased

 

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• mental illness population has increased
• mental illness housing in solitary confinement has increased
• mental illness related suicides have increased
• mental illness housing in general population has increased

 

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• mental illness services have decreased
• mental illness treatment has decreased
• mental illness prescriptions have decreased
• mental illness cultural sensitivity has decreased
• mental illness segregation has decreased

 

 

 

Treatment versus Incarceration?

Arizona, a “civilized criminal justice system” for the behaviorally ill or still a “hang them high” punishment?

 

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

Today’s question is simply based on recent events and media stories related to the way Arizona prisons are being operated and how the sick people inside our prisons are being treated or as the media has divulges – mistreated.

 

There appears to be only two ways sick people incarcerated inside our state prisons are treated for their behavioral disabilities or illness. They are either treated and provided sound health care [for those who can afford it and privileged with political assistance] or they are deliberately neglected, abused or ignored because they are prisoners and not worthy of the extra expense of treating them right and avoid needless suffering.

 

It has been often said that Arizona is still a “Wild Wild West state that has its own rules for punishment for crimes against the state or society. Arizona culture has long accepted the harsher option of justice to “teach them a lesson” thus denying persons with mental illness the kind of treatment they deserve.

 

Their code ranges in the forms of isolation, separation and condemnation of the mentally ill who should be dumped into a dungeon or other dark hole, out of sight and out of mind.

 

Their hardness on the rule of law is beyond judicial consciousness that reflects a civilized society that has evolved from those western ways of controlling the law and punishment methods, land barons corrupting state officials and political correctness influencing law making and law breaking.

 

Today we still struggle with these ideologies from the past as Arizona refuses to move into the millennium where justice is working hard to be part of a balanced social system that contains elements of fairness and equality for all persons regardless whether incarcerated or free men and women.

 

This problem of behavioral disabilities is wide ranging and not just limited to the prisons. It impacts families on a consistent basis and harms their ability to seek good help for treatment within the community, from law enforcement, the criminal courts and society as a whole.

 

It appears that nobody wants to address mental health issues today unless it impacts their own lives or their own families making it an involuntary commitment to seek change because of their own inability to deal with their own problems appropriately and according to those standards set to allow their relatives personal protection from further harm or worst, death.

 

Today’s solution inside Arizona is forced segregation for those mentally ill because our laws, although some of the best in the country, do not provide enough incentives to use all tools available to avoid punishment as a final result. Forced segregation results or impacts us in various negative consequences within our communities as it may result in homelessness, incarceration along with violence including self-harm and suicides.

 

Our laws if applied appropriately should and can provide various degrees of treatment as alternatives to “legally” segregating these persons and eliminating such harm by giving them the help they need to cope and function as a human being among the rest of us.

 

The answer to behavioral disabilities is not incarceration but rather rehabilitation and recovery treatment to allow them to sustain daily life as a free person and void of chains and shackles. We are describing our children, our families, our neighbors and our friends that may be in need of help.

 

Today, more war veterans are being incarcerated than ever before. They are victims of our country’s war policies and are often ignored once discharged from the service leaving them on their own to cope and function with various service connected disabilities that range from extreme psychotic episodes, flashbacks, anxiety attacks and more including PTSD. We owe it to our veterans to find a solution and we owe it to our behavioral disabled to keep them out of jails and prisons for the rest of their lives.

 

They are not demons possessed by evil but rather human beings that are imprisoned, either physically or psychologically, into a black hole where they will be morally depraved of their civil rights and sentenced to be harmed, killed, tortured or imprisoned for life. Today’s tolerability of zombies and vampires makes this condition even more morally acceptable than ever before.

If this sounds like the ideology of the Dark Ages, it should because today viewpoints are exactly the same as those of the 15^th Century to many people who propose to “lock them up and throw away the key” just they did before.

 

It is true that “mass deinstitutionalization” is the primary cause for prisons filled with the severely mentally ill. When government stopped funding state hospitals and removed this treatment option from the public, the prisons became a proxy for those who needed to be hospitalized for treatment but were rather incarcerated for psychiatric care that was nil in existence or availability. Limited resources today still do not meet the requirements needed to appropriately treat those who are severely ill.

 

As financial resources dwindled in a poor economy, these prisons were left defunct of required resources to maintain treatment and stabilization programs for these persons. Incarceration instead of hospitalization became the standard for treatment of the mentally ill and once inside prisons, they were ignored or neglected providing them poor skills to cope and function but also provided them no support to prepare themselves for reintegration back to society making them high risk repeat offenders with no hope of ever staying out of prison.

 

To do nothing is “unacceptable” and time is not on our side. We have to stop blaming these behaviorally disabled persons for the commission of crimes or mistakes in our communities and help them cope and function in a free society and not inside a prison.

 

It is time to change the way we think, we act and the way we isolate the mentally ill persons today in Arizona. We need change and they deserve it.

 

Source:

http://davidshopeaz.org/documents.html