There are multiple reasons for his personal demise and
professional punishment to occur. He has been a pivotal political figure in
Arizona prison strategies since 2009 and has not taken one speck or share for
the poor accountability and responsibility how his administration has failed to
protect Arizona citizens and its employees. His inactions to diminish violence
inside the prisons towards staff and inmate on inmate attacks will draw
opportunistic attacks from those candidates that disagree with his management
style and will use the pulpit to express such a ruins.
Once a tough talking director that came on board with
promises to reduce prison violence on staff and control inmate misconduct, he
has pretty much thrown in the towel in succeeding in this mission and has been
focusing heavily on making sure that expanding beds becomes a thriving business
for the private prison contributors. His statistics indicating failures has
grabbed the news headlines and summoned him to the Capitol more than once. It is
clear the governor does not want the prison system to become one of her biggest
political controversies and if it doesn’t come under control soon, it will be
her worst nightmare since taking office.
Tampering with legislative approved rosters / charts and
allocated full time employee staffing patterns he chopped these rosters down to
the bare bones. Claiming and blaming the prior administration for such cuts
worked for a while but then, he started his own butchery and now these
facilities are running with skeleton crews on graveyard and severely shorted
days and swing shifts with the inmates outnumbering them at two hundred and
fifty to one on any given day of the week. This meddling was not just focused
on staffing as he directed staff to alter or modify risk assessment policies
and inmate classification systems to meet the needs of private prison beds and
maximum custody beds in solitary confinement where he is currently planning to
expand this custody level to another 500 beds in Lewis Complex.
I remember how he deliberately and methodically demolished
the existing inmate employment system and what we called the capacity program
under the previous director. Reducing educational programs, mental health
treatment, and eliminating inmate jobs led to large unemployment conditions
that allowed gang activities to enlarge and cultivate. Idleness, lack of staff
and overcrowding are the three main ingredients for a riot and this man ignored
each and every one of these elements.
Selected and nominated by private prison supporters to
embrace and nurture the private prison growth in Arizona, he has now become the
talk of the town amongst his own supporters and likely has become a liability
in their eyes. In fact, some are pleased to see this man get a bit of
southwestern comeuppance as his records begins to reflect failures rather than
successes. Unfortunately there is no suitable replacement for this man that
will keep the private beds growing as Charles L. Ryan has.
Some will not forgive him for his mistakes and others will
call for his resignation in public even after the next catastrophe coming soon.
Although I expect him to apologize profusely and announce that everything is
under control, he has weathered a tough road beginning with the baking of a
prostitute in the blistering Southwest desert when she was left in the scorching
sun and 120 degree red-hot weather without any shade or supervision by staff
and died there from a heat stroke.
Strangely even with the media pounding him on this horrific
death and revision of policies concerning the use of outdoor recreation holding
enclosures, there were several instances within the next few months that
resulted in staff being disciplined for not following new policies regarding
the length of stay inside such closures and the requirements for such placements.
Then the weakness and vulnerability of the Kingman prison
illustrated poor judgment by the prison officials to send convicted murderers and
high risk offenders to a facility that was designed to hold DUI offenders and
not hard core criminals that have links to violence, drug dealing, gangs and
murder. It was a nightmare that Kingman residents briefly endured because the
escapees (all three of them plus their female accomplice) hijacked a semi-truck
and left Arizona as soon as they could heading East to New Mexico where there
was a double homicide committed to carjack their truck and camper. Even after
the capture of all three escapees, it became evident that Kingman was an easy
escape trick.
Gang violence has been escalating and nothing has seemed to
stop their blatant disregard for law and order. Although expected, there has
been weak counteracting measures taken to stop their predatory behaviors. Now he
is facing numerous staff attacks and a racial war that is so volatile a single
spark will ignite the entire state within hours. The riots have been minimized
by censoring the news but mostly by the inmates themselves as staff don’t have
the numbers to quell any disturbance until all resources are gathered statewide
to fight the containment and melee. So far, Arizona has been spared a race war
but the flames are growing and the hate is mounting.
Since taking office he has not taken one step towards rehabilitation
or increased programing to avoid idleness inside his prisons and make his front
gates to the prisons accessible for drugs, cell phones and other contraband. In
the course of neglecting gang activities he has empowered these thugs to run
the yards with the acknowledgment of administrative officials impotent to stop
their recruitment and fierceness. Since his appointment as the director, he has
eliminated staffing at points of ingress and egress making the introduction of
contraband easy for anyone allowed to enter the premises – staff, visitors or
contract employees.
He has increased the role of community corrections but has
failed to encourage the criminal justice system to use alternative programing
for the severely mentally ill and those first time offenders found guilty of
substance abuse and other controlled substances. His silence on offering alternatives
to incarceration has cost the state’s prison budget to exceed one billion
dollars and more expenditures are expected in the next legislative request for
prison funds.
Charles L. Ryan has not been held accountable for these catastrophes.
What he has done is shuffle his own personal circle of influence and friends
around the state to put them at the helm sort of speak and made them wardens to
suit his own personal needs and control. Closing these warden’s offices to the
selected few ensured him a tight control on communications and disciplinary on
staff and keep the prison run the way he has set up his personal agenda since
taking office.
His modus operandi has been simple – punish those that fail
him –promote those that show loyalty and get rid of those that oppose him. Needless
to say, time will tell if this strategy is enough for him to survive or if this
becomes part of his comeuppance. He has demonstrated a bully pattern. Through his
ultimate wisdom he fought for new hires to come on board as at-will employees
which gave him the ability to hire and fire at will if these individuals did
not possess the qualities he sought to operate his prisons. He changed the
disciplinary due process and created opportunities for staff to be disciplined
and sanctions based on confidential information, innuendos and rumors.
Reflecting and citing his inability to control violence,
gangs, drugs, homicides, suicides, accidental deaths and serious attacks
[including a sexual assault or rape] inside a medium prison] the prison system
is going to hell. These incidents are proof that once again the most dangerous
place on the earth today is the Arizona prison system. Will these scandals
affect his job? Will he be removed by the Governor before her term is over? How
damaging is this to Governor Brewer and what will she do?
I strongly suspect
she will leave him alone until her term is expired at the end of this year. I strongly
suspect that litigation will be overwhelming in the Parsons versus Ryan
lawsuit and that the state will lose or settle that case to avoid further damage
or costs. Eventually the truth will come out and illustrate how bad this
director performed his job as a state appointed public official. I have no
doubt about that.
His criticism will be overwhelming but nothing good can be
said about those who kept their silence in check as they endorsed his dwindling
performance. I suspect the federal government will launch an inquiry and see
what was done to mirror violations of civil right laws within the prisons and
healthcare. I strongly expect his critics and opponents in ideology and
correctional practices to really dig at him as they are his real nemeses.
Regardless of the end, he will get his comeuppance as when
it is all said and done – he owns this mess and fixing it will cost the state
much more than what they have invested to tear it down like they have in the
past five years. The reversal of the damage done will bring to the attention of
the gross neglect that occurred under his watch and how many people, citizens,
employees and inmates suffered needlessly because of inattention to his duties
and sworn oath to keep Arizona safe and protect those that serve him and the
state in the capacity of correctional officers or correctional employees who
have always given their 110 percent to keep things going when the support from above
was oblivious and non-coming when they needed it the most.
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