Budget Cuts makes Prison Management Risky Business

Although we haven’t heard a peep out of our state correctional officers union or associations, there are ripples in the water that carry a message of unstable and turmoil prison conditions that will severely impact the safety of officers and the inmates inside our prisons. In fact, it is not a great exaggeration that people and public safety are being put at risk as the population inside our public and private prisons reach unstable and unsustainable levels in regards to overcrowding, cut back in programs and a severe shortage of staff available to supervise inmates.

It has been said that our prison population has been holding at about 40,000 prisoners with no real increase in the last few months however, this is about to change as the job market, returning military veterans coming home, the increase in homeless and mentally ill as well as a rising recidivism rate will soon surge again just like before the lull and continue to rise over the next few years.

Anticipated increases in convictions and other criminal justice events will trigger a severe overcrowding that will cost the taxpayers more with less state prison bed space available and more bed space being offered by the private prison contractors. State prisons are at the point of badly needed maintenance and offer shoddy physical plants to provide the essential services needed to maintain an efficient operation. 

Other factors in our communities have influenced this surge as street gang violence is up and jails are overfilled with inmates waiting to go back into prison after violating their probation or parole terms. It appears that the economy has entered into another phase of recession and the funding for prison operations will be severely cut back in the next few months.

Prison officials should be prepared for riots as the triangle of misfortune has become more prevalent than ever before. The three conditions of the riot triangle are basic sparks that can ignite insurrections are overcrowding, short staffing and no programs. Every major riot had these elements in their post action comprehensive review and time is not on our side to correct these conditions.

Prison management cannot sustain safe and secure prisons as the potential risks are mounting in the areas of prisoner healthcare, mental health treatment, food costs, higher phone bills and higher commissary prices. Also included are the dwindling resources for proper training equipment and safety devices that have become sacrifices in those states where the shift is on schools and education rather than prisons.

Budget cuts impact living conditions severely as it becomes tough to find the money for personal hygiene items as simple as toilet paper and toothbrushes and soap but there are other normal accommodations that will be at risk such as television programs and the potential loss of cable in many prisons and the CCTV educational, substance abuse and other rehabilitative self-help resources for many to occupy their time with educational and vocational courses via the television channels will be  terminated.

It is this loss of what has been a standard certified accommodation that will in turn cause the prisoners’ anger to worsen as their accommodation levels dwindle below today’s delivery standards. The more idle time prisoners have the more likely they are to be engaged in wrongful or criminal activities inside our prisons that include gang recruitment, extortion and assaulting other prisoners for power plays in the control of drugs and other contraband.

There will be more double bunking of inmates without expanding washing facilities including showers and toilets as it barely meets today’s capacity inside medium and lower custody level correctional facilities. At the same time, many prisons have already implemented staffing patterns that reduce the number of officers on the floor causing less surveillance and vigilance of those offenders housed inside these overcrowded units.

Today there are not prisons inside Arizona that are running a full complement of staff as designed and approved by the legislative budget committees as the DOC is streamlining every roster to re-allocate their officers to other areas where there are critical areas to be maintained including non funded positions such as hospital duty, transports, admin support and medical escorts.

The cuts have led to redeployment of staff in prisons up and down the state. We are coming to a very volatile moment. It is reasonable to believe there's a serious risk of rioting because of the curtailment in staff numbers, the manner the administration has ignored the safety needs of staff and the likely dissention of the prison population when they lose those privileges that they have maintained over the last decade or so and expect them to remain no matter how much the state is suffering in finding the fiscal support to keep prisons running.

Open Letter to Chad Campbell

Dear Minority Leader Chad Campbell,

 

I just saw you the other day on television and you appeared to be enraged about what you saw in Wendy Halloran’s television report aired on Friday night. This report was just the tip of the iceberg as the Arizona Department of Corrections is infiltrated and dominated with a culture that is harmful to staff and inmates within the system. Not judging them or even casting stones at them for a most difficult job they have in running a prison system I do criticize them to the fullest my Bill of Rights give me.

 

I criticize them for ignoring human decency and human rights. The willful ignorance of denying a human being from being treated fair and square under the rule of law should not be an acceptable methodology to run prisons anywhere. Strangely we were all shocked at the Abu Ghraib scandal but when we reveal our own scandal here within Arizona prisons being run by the same man that was instrumental in setting up the Abu Ghraib prison mentality and culture, it is most acceptable and without a peep of outrage or disgust.

 

I criticize them for ignoring sound correctional practices being used throughout the United States but not inside our own prisons. It appears that the lack of statutory regulations on how a prison should be run is being left up to the discretion of one man appointed by the governor in a political situation rather than a justified and ethical one.

 

I criticize the legislature for allowing free rein of the prison system without oversight and levels of accountability as they encourage the cloak and dagger scenario of non-transparency and ask no question on its business.

 

I criticize the Governor for her hands-off attitude and letting the director destroy a good penal system single handed and decimating staff morale by implementing personnel and disciplinary policies that create low morale and high discipline unjust and unwarranted as it is politically motivated as it sits on paper.

 

I criticize the people of Arizona, myself included, for allowing the high number of deaths and violence [mostly gang related] to exist and not lift a hand to stop it. I am appalled by the apathy and nonchalant attitudes that prevail when we talk about prison abuse and staffing patterns that induce severe public safety issues as it creates severe gaps of safety nets once in place to control the prison systems effectively and efficiently.

 

I criticize and blame the lobbyist of private prisons and other entities enlisted to bring more hybrid governance with our government for the wrong reasons. Instead of saving money we are spending more. They foster and influence this mentally to lock people up for longer sentences for minor crimes to district attorneys, county prosecutors, judges, sheriffs and correctional administrators that to lock people up is good for business not realizing the money flow will stop one day.

 

Most of all, I criticize the growth and the wealth of the private prison business, the food business, the medical and healthcare business, the telephone business, the commissary business, the agriculture business, the fabrication business, the furniture business and the slavery [cheap labor of inmates] and the business of paying off legislators so they will embrace and endorse more growth in prison related activities within Arizona.  These jobs could in fact be filled by those unemployed in various communities.

 

I applaud those that stand alone in their will and refusal to join these gatherings of vultures [corrupt political leaders] that have sold their soul for a penny here and a dollar there. Their greed and lust for power, influence and control has been transferred to the director of the prison system so he can rule autonomously without following the rule of law. They are literally picking the flesh off the left behind of those that died.

 

This is why Arizona prisons will soon fail and explode into a revolution that will result in personal harm or death, destruction of state property and jeopardize the safety of all those communities wherein these prisons are located until the local and state law enforcement agencies can re-take control of these facilities and conduct a comprehensive and factual after-action review that will glean every detail I have just criticized.Video of Lawmaker Enraged

Charles L Ryan ~ the Enabler for the GOP

Why the GOP want to keep Ryan the agency director and their “Enabler to Profits”

Reason one – he controls the purse strings to spend and allocate where he can do most destruction from within ignoring state buildings but asking more $ for private beds.

Reason two – he can accommodate contractual expectations without oversight and give the impressions we are saving money but in fact spreading the wealth to contractors via the taxpayers

Reason three – he can facilitate the money made on private contracts of prison beds, services, commissary telephone etc making it look like there is less government function. And put money in his political allies’ pockets.

Reason four – he can make more money per capita for the contractors and make it look like public safety and lesser threats of disruptive behaviors by inmates cherry picked for the private prison while endangering his own state run prisons by neglect.

Reason five – has a high concentration of legislators backing him to push corporate influence maintaining capital cash flows and expanding prison growth

Reason six – has decimated personnel rules to serve at will for new employees destroying morale from within while embellishing accomplishments of the private prisons for comparison while intimidating his own employees into silence and compliance or lose their jobs under newly implemented disciplinary process. Short staffing patterns create hazardous work conditions and jeopardize staff safety and inmate safety but most of all ~ public safety

Reason seven – has ensured continued funding and payment of prisoners returning to prison for the private prisons as these are already schooled and not problematic for these contractors to handle through high recidivism rates. An experienced inmate is cheaper to keep and a better profit margin for the private prisons. Recidivism is a tool to keep prisons full for CCA MTC GEO and others willing to do it.

Reason eight – he pays private prisons 100 % bed costs even when empty beds are there due to contractual agreement to pay minimum base for housing inmates without medical or psychological needs.

Reason nine- he controls contract monitors to report favorable conditions from the private sector

Reason ten – he makes society and the majorities, state conservatives feel safe and is tough on criminal ala Joe Arpaio and lets them think we have smaller government.

Correctional Problems inside AZ