Wasted Honor -

Carl R. ToersBijns is the author of the Wasted Honor Trilogy [Wasted Honor I,II and Gorilla Justice] and his newest book From the Womb to the Tomb, the Tony Lester Story, which is a reflection of his life and his experiences as a correctional officer and a correctional administrator retiring with the rank of deputy warden in the New Mexico and Arizona correctional systems.

Carl also wrote a book on his combat experience in the Kindle book titled - Combat Medic - Men with destiny - A red cross of Valor -

Carl is considered by many a rogue expert in the field of prison security systems since leaving the profession. Carl has been involved in the design of many pilot programs related to mental health treatment, security threat groups, suicide prevention, and maximum custody operational plans including double bunking max inmates and enhancing security for staff. He invites you to read his books so you can understand and grasp the cultural and political implications and influences of these prisons. He deals with the emotions, the stress and anxiety as well as the realities faced working inside a prison. He deals with the occupational risks while elaborating on the psychological impact of both prison worker and prisoner.

His most recent book, Gorilla Justice, is an un-edited raw fictional version of realistic prison experiences and events through the eyes of an anecdotal translation of the inmate’s plight and suffering while enduring the harsh and toxic prison environment including solitary confinement.

Carl has been interviewed by numerous news stations and newspapers in Phoenix regarding the escape from the Kingman prison and other high profile media cases related to wrongful deaths and suicides inside prisons. His insights have been solicited by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and various other legal firms representing solitary confinement cases in California and Arizona. He is currently working on the STG Step Down program at Pelican Bay and has offered his own experience insights with the Center of Constitutional Rights lawyers and interns to establish a core program at the SHU units. He has personally corresponded and written with SHU prisoners to assess the living conditions and how it impacts their long term placement inside these type of units that are similar to those in Arizona Florence Eyman special management unit where Carl was a unit deputy warden for almost two years before his promotion to Deputy Warden of Operations in Safford and Eyman.

He is a strong advocate for the mentally ill and is a board member of David's Hope Inc. a non-profit advocacy group in Phoenix and also serves as a senior advisor for Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council in Chino, California As a subject matter expert and corrections consultant, Carl has provided interviews and spoken on national and international radio talk shows e.g. BBC CBC Lou Show & TV shows as well as the Associated Press.

I use sarcasm, satire, parodies and other means to make you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
































































































































Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Correctional leadership- Why some fail


It has been mentioned frequently and routinely whenever there is a change in mission or strategies there must be an effective leadership program in place to facilitate organizational culture and expectations. For years there has been much attention, time and funding dedicated to improve the capabilities of new leaders from within. It seems an endless task as so many fail coming onboard and tackle the organizational strategies and objectives to improve the workforce and prepare new leaders from within. The key word being “within” and not outside the organization.

Needless to say this has wasted much time and money and not met the challenge to improve the capabilities of managers and nurturing and mentoring new leaders. Today much like yesterday, leadership development is a number-one concern. This has created a void of enough good leaders and hinders the performance and expectations of many organizations including the prison management complex.

Other than the obvious negative dynamics created by favoritism and nepotisms we have identified four common mistakes made in the development of new leaders. This suggestion to look at these four areas is an attempt to bring awareness to gain more production or development from organizational leadership and meet the demands of the industry as it stands today. In addition to this void, there is much more to work on quality versus quantity in order to merge the right people with developing technologies and disruptive uncertainties within the workplace.

Overlooking context -

Overlooking context - Context is a critical component of successful leadership. A brilliant leader in one situation does not necessarily perform well in another. Too many training initiatives we come across rest on the assumption that one size fits all and that the same group of skills or style of leadership is appropriate regardless of strategy, organizational culture, or in some cases the top person in charge’s mandate. This is where cross-training and rotating assignments come in beneficially and positively.

In the earliest stages of planning a leadership initiative, companies should ask themselves a simple question: what is this program for? If the answer is to support an acquisition-led growth strategy the company will probably need leaders brimming with ideas and capable of devising winning strategies for new or newly expanded mission changes or challenges. If the answer is to grow by capturing potential opportunities, the company will probably want people at the top who are good at nurturing internal talent. Context is as important for groups and individuals as it is for organizations as a whole.

Decoupling reflection from real work - When it comes to planning the program’s curriculum, many agencies face a delicate balancing act and are often restricted by statutory, funding or staffing limitations.  The answer sounds straightforward: tie leadership development to real on-the-job projects that have a business impact and improve learning. But it’s not easy to create opportunities that simultaneously address high-priority needs. The ability to push training participants to reflect, while also giving them real work experiences to apply new approaches and hone their skills, is a valuable combination in prison management.

There, the gap between urgent “must do” projects and the availability of capable leaders presents an enormous challenge. In such environments, companies should strive to make every major business project a leadership-development opportunity as well, and to integrate leadership-development components into the projects themselves.

Underestimating mind-sets –

Becoming a more effective leader often requires changing behavior. But although most companies recognize that this also means adjusting underlying mind-sets, too often these organizations are reluctant to address the root causes of why leaders act the way they do. Doing so can be uncomfortable for participants, program trainers, mentors, and bosses—but if there isn’t a significant degree of discomfort, the chances are that the behavior won’t change. Promoting the virtues of delegation and empowerment, for example, is fine in theory, but successful adoption is unlikely if the program participants have a clear “controlling” mind-set.

It’s true that some personality traits (such as extroversion or introversion) are difficult to shift, but people can change the way they see the world and their values. Take the professional-services business that wanted senior leaders to initiate more provocative and meaningful discussions with the firm’s senior clients. Once the trainers looked below the surface, they discovered that these leaders, though highly successful in their fields, were instinctively uncomfortable and lacking in confidence when conversations moved beyond their narrow functional expertise. As soon as the leaders realized this, and went deeper to understand why, they were able to commit themselves to concrete steps that helped push them to change.

Failing to measure results –

 We frequently find that companies pay lip service to the importance of developing leadership skills but have no evidence to quantify the value of their investment. When businesses fail to track and measure changes in leadership performance over time, they increase the odds that improvement initiatives won’t be taken seriously.

Companies can avoid the most common mistakes in leadership development and increase the odds of success by matching specific leadership skills and traits to the context at hand; embedding leadership development in real work; fearlessly investigating the mind-sets that underpin behavior; and monitoring the impact so as to make improvements over time.

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