Living in Lockdown Times

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, December 22, 2015

Living in Lockdown Times

Living in Lockdown Times

We are living the unthinkable today, compared to ten years ago. We are trying to survive in a world filled with multicultural and global turmoil, hate and fear and our elected politicians are not helping the situation any by their reckless behaviors, rhetoric and demands for more war and more troops on the ground to support an air war in the Middle East that is being fought for all the wrong reasons.

While I am proud of our troops and their courage, I question the reason we are at war over there. The government has been busy storytelling us why we are killing each other and what motives the jihadists carry with them as the world fears their terror. In the end we all know war makes profits and people die for corporate greed. Another aspect of this war is religious pandering of extremism and how a major religion views the world they seek to dominate and control.

Troops fighting terrorism is not new to our society. It has been done for centuries and the costs are enormously in both human lives and plant destruction. Terrorism rules the world today. It has become the world’s most powerful weapon aside from nuclear warfare. It has created a lockdown world for millions of people who live with fear. Fear in our schools, malls and movie theaters. The thoughts of violence, whether guns or knives or other weapons, is fresh on the minds of many.

Even the exposure to explosives has become a common thought after the FBI revealed the numerous homemade explosives found in the Redlands home of two terrorists who went on a killing spree in San Bernardino. Even when the county had completed their regularly scheduled lockdown drill in the Inlands Regional Center, the real massacre of fourteen people shook the country with horror.

The term lockdown used to be applied to prisons or jail settings only. It has expanded from jails to airports and reaches out globally from country to country as public places are targets for terrorists’ hell bent and drawn to violence and mass killings to spread their hate. This preoccupies many mindsets especially our children.

Our precious children are becoming innocent targets of radical extremists who have no value for such precious cargo or audience. They come home and describe how they were gathered into a large group, herded down the hallways towards a pre-destined location in the school where they remain for the lockdown seeking refugee during such lockdowns is frightening.

During our time, the most urgency we experienced were civil defense drills for nuclear war shelters in our school and at home. Those days are no longer practiced as the violence has found their way to most vulnerable places and the world feels unsafe.

Today, lockdowns of many places are more common than the routine of going to work and taking a long trip or vacation which in many ways, also accounts for some psychological adjustments to avoid being trapped in an ambush or terror filled event now threatened to become more frequent and intense.

It makes me angry to see this. It makes me angry our country is not doing enough to protect us as their response has been reactive more than preventive in nature. Even when the San Bernardino police acted so quickly to find these killers, these two-gun toting terrorist managed to clear the crime scene and conduct other activities before being caught. There have been some plots revealed and suspected terrorists have been arrested but in general, most violence still occurs spontaneously and dangerously in our community.

Living in California, the state with the strictest gun laws, does not make me feel safe. People who live here are scared and fear another attack. The terrible sound of gunfire, explosives and other means to destroy us, has awakened a giant nation of its vulnerability to such acts. Lockdown drills and lockdown police mobile command centers intensify those fears and expectation that somebody is about to die.

Gun-free zones make it easier for killers to murder innocents and the presence of cops is lacking due to various reasons beyond our control, Lockdown drills whenever kids talk about them, adds anger they have to go through this trauma. Most are scared of lockdown drills. They shouldn’t have to practice surviving a mass killing at one of their favorite places during the time they are in school.

America should wake up and reject any further assimilation attempts by the government to forcefully merge cultural and religious sects or groups against the natural laws of the land. Congress should put their foot down on immigration laws and restructure them to provide national security and confidence in the law enforcement systems corrupted deliberately by those who take our personal safety for granted and allow slipups to occur due to political interference and deliberate tampering of our laws and regulation concerning our well-being and preservation of life.