Staff Safety in Arizona Dept. of Corrections

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, July 10, 2015

Staff Safety in Arizona Dept. of Corrections

Spears is a stand-up guy - he does not play games or tells tales or is an alarmist - he is one of the most level headed officers who ever worked for me and that says a lot for his character - if he says something, it’s the truth - if the DOC says something, it is either a lie, a deflection or non-truth, a distraction or a denial = those are the DOC tools in their public information warfare toolbox so you have to guess if they are lying to you, distracting you or bull crapping you, the taxpayer footing these outrageous expenses.
These men and women are the backbone of a great agency that once stood tall and proud and is now broken, weak and vulnerable to any large disturbance threatening the communities where they are located. You don’t have to believe the numbers for they don’t mean a thing unless you are working the line and the work is overwhelming, fatiguing or even wearing you / burning you out. Yes, the assaults are up and no, Wilder is telling the truth the data was changed to define assaults because the prior director sugar coated her statistics to lower the rates but in all reality, no matter how you define assaults, you have to see the face, the wound, the trauma and the tragedies experienced with every harmful event, injury or painful wound inflicted by violent inmates
I am not an alarmist and neither is Spears. He is a real tough officer who takes care of his troops unlike the agency director who feels “his officers” are expendable and subject to injuries, rapes assaults and other unlawful touching because the job they chose tolerates such unlawful activities so suck it up and deal with it.
Listen to Spears, he would not have spoken out and contradict the DOC if he didn't have the facts. There things the public needs to ask to keep our communities safe or safer as there are very high risk events coming up this summer which may jeopardize public safety. When DOC pulls 96 TSU officers from 4 complexes, it leaves those complexes vulnerable – that is what Spears is telling you – on paper, you have staff – on the ground there are big holes in the roster that is frightening under most conditions.
This DOC spokesman, Andrew Wilder, I heard he is a good man, although a well versed skilled communicator with great crisis management skills, this man no idea what an Arizona correctional officer endures daily. He does not know what correctional officers do each day to keep it together. He can tell you what they do out of the handbook but on the yards, it is a different world.
He does not experience the secondary post traumatic vicariously impacting our employees. He does not have an inmate in his or her face – he speaks boldly confidently and clearly about the DOC politically correct responses to inquiries because that’s why he is their spokesperson but he carries no credibility of what he speaks.
Heck, his boss carries no credibility of what he speaks. Those double dipping executives he personally recruited, hired and put on his executive team on the 4th floor haven’t worked a post for so long, they lost the reality of working the real line where sweat and blood is daily as inmates are becoming younger, bolder, riskier and more violent.
It’s more than staffing a post or carrying out an assignment and overtime is hardly a substitute for having rested clear minded employees on duty. It’s a life and death occupation with challenges most men and women can’t handle being unarmed and facing over two hundred convicted felons at a time when there is no back up to ensure your safety or the safety of others on duty.
Talk is cheap – the DOC administration needs to get back to basics and stop mistreating their employees and give them back their dignity, respect and pride. They deserve it for what they do every day with no tools or guns and just guts.
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