Open Letter to Richard Pratt, Arizona Department of Corrections

Dear Sir, 

I read your detailed response to Ms. Donna Hamm email dated May 2, 2014, and my heart sank as I looked at your responses. I knew you would defend the agency’s position on private medical care but I didn’t think you would compromise your own ethics while performing your duties as the health administrator for the agency. I had thought you were a better man than that. 

I am somewhat frustrated you would take such a bold step when we all know that eventually, in an open courtroom, your words will be challenged as being accurate and truthful. I understand your loyalty to the job but what about your loyalty to your oath? Have you forgotten what it took to make you successful and all the hard work you put into your career to overlook these issues as they are being delivered to your office for action? How you deal with these medical complaints is a direct reflection of your own conscious and your own ethics that will be challenged someday in the courtroom. 

What have you forgotten about your code of ethics? Do you expect all medical staff to follow your standards or those standards that certified you and others as competent professionals in charge and care of vulnerable human beings? Are you struggling with a real ethical dilemma because your job demands you stand firm on denying these conditions exist?

What about your personal feelings? Are you telling yourself and others “this too will pass” and conduct your job or responsibilities without feelings? Is there a real ethical dilemma here or are you so biased and prejudice about your “patients” you don’t give a damn anymore?

What about your work core and your support for others to do the job as trained and licensed to perform at the highest standards of care in the world. Do your words strengthened or weaken your work core values and those that you supervise or oversee? Are you moral values being compromised by your Code of Ethics? Are you making a difference in improving the situation or making them worse?

Are you asking yourself?

I am a professional and nobody should second guess my motive, decisions or my skills.

I care for every patient – no matter what they are like or what they have done in committing their crime(s).

What I do in this situation is more important than what they are doing while incarcerated.

I will do what is best for this patient no matter how he or she is acting understanding that one day they may return back to society and the communities where my family, friends and neighbors live.

Certainly, I am confident you know the rules. However, I am worried that the rules have changed under pressure of others that employ you. Who is responsible for the enforcement of these rules? I suspect you are. Are you setting an example for other doctors and nurses to follow in a positive and morally sound manner? 

In an intimidating situation like a prison setting it is natural to focus on how you are feeling and a need to escape the discomfort. Ethical practice, though, is to remain patient-centered in the interaction no matter what you are told by the director, by the contractor or by those who drive your incentive to perform at your excellence and how you were trained.

Respectfully, 

Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden

Arizona Prison Boss Charles L. Ryan, you have some choices

 

1.       You can start working on improving your agency through:

a.       Gradual bed space reductions methods and reducing capacity

b.      Bring your inmate to staff ratio comes back into a balance

c.       Begin to manage your medical and mental health contractual agreements and hold them responsible and accountable using fines to alter directions or neglects

d.      Revisit your modified classification matrix and rearrange your housing assignments based on new risk scores.

e.      Revisit you administrative segregation placements and reduce those max custody beds so you have space for those creating high PC situations on the yards and needing higher supervision levels and behavioral modification treatment

f.        Improve your STG and SSU performance levels and quell disturbances to reduce risks of life, property and public safety

2.       You can raise your hand and ask for help:

a.       Taking a chance you well be labeled a “bad” director but changing the culture and direction of the agency thus turn it around and be labeled a “good” director

b.      Showing you are addressing identified deficiencies effectively and boldly by changing policies in personnel matters, disciplinary and retention efforts

c.       Implement employee assistance programs to reduce stress and anxiety on the job without stigmas of weaknesses and helpless stereotyping therefore reducing turnover

d.      Hold your mid-level managers responsible for failures and performance deficiencies

e.      Hold your wardens and regional directors responsible for operational and personnel issues to an informal level and deal with them according to policy

3.       You can continue to “game” the system and

a.       Work yourself deeper in a hole

b.      Be out of compliance with your own strategic plan and mission statement

c.       Fall out of graces with those who have supported you since day one

d.      Increase the number of lawsuits and other legal action based on medical grievance

e.      Account for more deaths, gang violence and attacks on employees

f.        Allow history to show those paying attention to your track record you have failed in your performance as the state prison director

A Open Letter to Peggy Plews and the Kaibab 21 - Part V

In response to an inquiry of my intent to report racially motivated mismanagement styles by the Arizona Department of Corrections, I wrote a letter to clarify my previous comments to abolitionist  Peggy Plews and the Kaibab 21

I am comfortable in saying you are not a new prison gang based on the criteria that your sole function is to be disruptive or violent. 

I am certain that your rules are based on civilized behaviors and self-defense of principles and ideologies that may find controversy to some and offensive to others. I endorse and embrace human rights and wish you well in your endeavor to educate and unite all brothers and sisters of your belief.

What I do see is unified effort to come together as a “nation” to become involved in improving prison and community conditions reading your WOMMB pledge and statements.

I don’t expect you to trust me…………. Yet. I have been a career cop for many years and I do not condone violence including violence amongst each other due to political differences or racial grounds.   

For the record, I am an outspoken critic of the DOC. I find every way I can to get my message out that the system is broken.

The information about the Mexican Mafia and conflict with Blacks in California and now infiltrating the BOP and ADOC is not limited in knowledge and is shared by many STG gang researchers on the internet and at law enforcement gang meetings in California, Arizona and Texas. 

The connection, if any, between where you guys were when it went down in Kaibab and now in SMU I is purely coincidental of other external dynamics in the communities. 

You guys never mentioned any other gang or persons in your letter to me. You only referred to DOC policies and gross injustices of the system towards the Blacks as well as other minorities and majorities inside prisons. 

My interpretation is this. You are all a group of people seeking justice and the birth of a “nation” that stands for united causes outlined in your WOMMB. I respect that. I can’t speak for others. I can only speak for myself.

This is a short explanation of your intentions to those I shared the first post with. I owe you that much. There will be no “jumping to conclusions.” There won’t be any jumping. What you write or what you express will be for the benefit to formulate a position paper for your group to grow within the ADOC.