Arizona is a difficult place for politicians to hide from
the media or other sources willing to criticize public servants and services. Flying
under the radar appears to be a tricky quest for many but not for prison
director Charles L. Ryan. He has managed to remain silent and unnoticed for the
past six months even though his agency is under constant barrage of criticism
and lawsuits for poor custodial care, wrongful deaths and security concerns
related to public and staff safety.
He is now a more prominent member of the Brewer
administration. He has served her every whim and every demand has been
fulfilled under his term. Apart from feeling the heat by the media he has
remained cool and calm under duress as if whatever is said doesn’t matter to
him as he has been assured by those that put him in power, his job is secure as
long as he serves loyally and focuses on the expansion of private prison beds
under his command. He has certainly earned his dark wings from them.
Ryan has faced many drawbacks and has caught more flak than
any other director from the past and rightfully so. His resilience is mastered
only by the strings attached to the governor’s office that clearly fronts every
decision he makes. There are no counterparts, no competition for his job and he
is well situated to do more of the governor’s bidding.
He is neither the point man nor the major decision maker for
the agency and takes this role in stride. All signs point to the Chief of Staff
for the governor as being the shot caller but that may be offset by the
legislative influences of the private prison lobbyist that put money in their
pockets. His low key approach and staying away from television cameras is
paying off.
He has managed to go unnoticed in public and has not drawn
any attention to his agency’s numerous failures and investigations into medical
delay litigation, personnel criminal activity and other well controlled
failures and flaws hidden under the disguise of being “under investigation”
drawing a no comment status.
The perks for this lower profile has become clear – he is a
direct benefactor of the private prison lobby group that will receive a large
and significant endowment of funds from state government for beds filled and
unfilled. The advantages were negotiated in their contracts and appear to be self-assuring
of making a significant amount of profit for 2014 and 2015 and maybe as far
ahead as 2016.
As chief executive of an ailing agency he has decimated its
wellness into a state of chaos. He has consistently refrained from granting
interviews citing litigation as the reasons. Although he used to be like a
magnet of bad news since the Kingman escape, he has succeeded to stay low and
still serve point man for the cause of privatizing prisons.
His demeanor shows not compassion or kindness to anyone. His
cold and ruthless manner of operating the agency is reflected by a high number
of staff assaults and excessive deaths within the prisons. He continues to
resist building a more open and transparent relationship with state media
outlets as well as regulators that appear to be interested in his management
style of Arizona prisons.
In the meantime, through his personal relationships with
former mentors and bosses now with the private prison groups, he is adopting a
more conservative tone with them and has not apologized for anything they have
done since he took over as director.
