Carl ToersBijns, Sr. Advisor

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Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council

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LEOAC Biographies

At LEOAC, we believe it is important for donors and recipients to know the background of our team so you know a little about us. Links to our biographies are located on the right.

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Carl ToersBijns, Sr. Advisor

Carl R. ToersBijns is the author of the book Wasted Honor written in 2009 but not published until 2010. This book is an abridged reflection of his life and his experiences as a soldier, correctional officer and a deputy warden in New Mexico and Arizona correctional systems. . Carl is considered by many an expert in the field of prison security systems and 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. His visionary and extraordinary insight of prison operations and its challenges allows him to be instrumental in providing top-security prison related recommendations and consulting strategies that are essential to provide a safe and secure environment for the public, the staff and the inmates. "My prison philosophy is all about the safety of the public, staff and inmates," Carl said. "I believe my strongest quality is that I create strategies that are practical, functional and cost effective."

Wasted Honor 2 Underground Power, released upon his retirement in 2010, is a realistic and honest arrangement of how some of our prison systems work and he is not afraid to push the envelope of being controversial on matters that are very political and sometimes embarrassing to those in power. Carl said, "to tell the truth in corrections that is rarely shared with others outside these prisons as the code of silence prevents others to talk about such things due to the political ramifications involved and the power structure they work for inside these prison walls."

His new book is a combination of personal experiences and actual critical incidents he was either involved in directly or served as an advisory capacity to resolve those matters at hand and doing damage control so the opportunities for inmates to escape, commit violent crimes towards staff or other inmates are minimized and staff are safe in their work environment. His designs and strategy plans are historic in part due to the successful gang step down program at the Supermax in Arizona, the implementation of a realistic and practical mental health treatment center in New Mexico and other internal strategies to supervise inmates more effectively and safely so injuries to staff are reduced and the public is safe due to the practical containment of violent offenders plotting or planning a prison escape into the community and potentially harm innocent victims while on the run. It was his unbridled creativity, vision, experience and knowledge that led to the conception of many prison programs successful today. As a graduate from the school of hard knocks Carl has decided to share his story with his readers sharing the facts he learned from some of the best corrections professionals in the business. Like a true professional, he would not settle for anything less than perfection in his designs, strategies or decisions. Through many long, arduous hours of enduring this political environment, he retired with a polished shield mounted inside a frame of honor presented to him by those who matter the most in this business, his staff.

Carl invites you to read his first book Wasted Honor to grasp the basic events, the emotions and the realities faced working inside a prison where the events are horrific but real and this book where he elaborates with the political angle on how these events are managed and how corrections officials endure the constant pressure of serving at the pleasure of the director with dire consequences of being dismissed if not politically correct or deemed unfavorable regardless of their professional ability or qualifications. Also a contributor for Yahoo Associated Content he has published well over 200 articles and has been reviewed for his work by over 13,000 readers since he started this part time hobby to write short stories and articles related to his life experiences, Arizona politics, prison events and national current events or news to express his own opinion and add facts to those matters at hand.

Since his retirement in April 2010, Carl has been performing the role of an activist in the area of public employee assistance regarding disciplinary, grievances, work performance evaluations and other employee support roles as a managing partner with the Thunder Rolls Inc. non-profit group that supports state correctional officers and employees.

Carl's experience consists of spending two years as a combat medic in Vietnam during the years of 1967 to 1969. He earned the Combat Medic Badge while engaged with the Americal Infantry Division in the I Corps region near the DMZ, Da Nang and Chu Lai areas. As a soldier, Carl earned an Honorable Discharge and received the National Defense Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry Medal with Palm Unit Citation,

Reviewing his professional career as a correctional employee, he started with the New Mexico Department of Corrections in the year 1985. His experience working inside the New Mexico prisons spanned from 1985 through 2005 when he re-located to Arizona to go work inside the Arizona prisons from May 2005 through April, 2010. Working five years inside the Arizona prisons, Carl went through the ranks of Associate Deputy Warden grade 21 to the position of Deputy Warden of Operations grade 24. Retiring as a deputy warden of operations, the position that is considered to be the right hand of the complex warden, his administrative skills consisted of strong knowledge and abilities to manage investigations, report writing, interviews and interrogations, Internal Affairs and employee misconduct reviews. Loss control assessments. While in New Mexico he was appointed as the Chief of the Basic Training Section at the New Mexico Training Academy in Santa FE where he performed select duties as a staff development specialist that was in charge of developing lesson plans, certified firearms instructor, training for staff instructor training etc.

Carl held positions of a Correctional Officer I, II, III [Captain] Chief of Security Mental Health Treatment Center, Program Director, Associate Warden, Deputy Warden of Administration & Operations. He served as the Interim K 9 director at the Santa Fe penitentiary and performed and participated in the Tri-County drug task force strikes in Santa Fe and Rio Aribba Counties assisting the local police agencies and the drug enforcement team of Santa Fe County and Rio Aribba County in 1992 as well as manhunts for escapees and fugitives.

Carl brings his extensive correctional experience to the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council (LEOAC) where he has been appointed to the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. As part of this committee, Carl will be assisting LEOs who face unjust prosecutions that are politically motivated. He will be a key spokesman on such issues and how they affect law enforcement officers who are employees and inmates.

Carl has an Associate Degree of Arts – Criminal Justice Administration w/ honors from the American InterContinental University and graduated with a 3.66 GPA in 2006. A native of Columbus Ohio, he graduated from the South High School, Class of 1966, and was a member of the school’s track and field team and varsity football.

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War Veterans in our Prisons - PTSD effects

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Death Penalty - My personal viewpoint on it~~

The Death Penalty


After listening and reading the pros and cons of the death penalty one particular thought came to mind as I remember what God had said to Adam and Eve about disobeying His word and not eat from the Tree of Life and Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. He said to them that life was perfect the way he created it and if they were to disobey Him and eat from this tree, they would face death. But of the” tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2-17

Thus the forbidden tree represents all that is good and well within the harmony of God’s will. Therefore “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption could have no power, for the works of justice could not be destroyed, according to the supreme goodness of God.” Book of Alma 12:32

Now once Eve took a bite out of that apple, the declaration for such a sin was a penalty of death. This most severe penalty was to reduce the temptation to do the forbidden things in life and live a live void of carnal passion, deception and transgression from the words of God. Thus when Eve took that very eager bite into the apple, the obvious winner was Satan who tempted and enticed her to commit the first sin of the new world and Creation.

Since then, the evil spirits have escaped the good and the world has been in turmoil ever since. Satan and his band of evildoers are out there drawing together their strength and demonic energy to overwhelm a person with thoughts of evil and wrongdoing that benefits his expedition for the conquest of Heaven and everything God has created. Some, unwilling to join Satan and his demons or fallen angels are suffering with daily temptation to join the darkness and commit both major and minor wrongdoings in their lives. Whether tempting them in dreams or in real life, Satan scornfully prepares his workers daily for penetration and unwilling compliance to his way of life and breaks his silence to eventually be the sole owner of Paradise.

Thus we are at the cusp of an apocalypse and a war for Heaven. We will have to fight the evil dragons in our minds and on the ground to resist falling to the Devil. We know that revenge is a powerful motivator and that time is not on our side as from the very first person on Earth, the coming of the end is certain.

Day in and day out we fight the darkened foe. Inflamed with rage and looking for new victims daily he injects his evil thoughts into persons to commit sin and crimes along the way. His moral snare is hidden and his lure is mortal. Thus those who choose to follow his ways and refuse the words of God have chosen to live with hate and passion to inflict a wrecking on the innocent and sometimes frail men and women who are sometimes endangered with crime and temptation that results in their death or permanent loss of their humanity.

Therefore, as an accuser of the agent that represent Satan, I say that if men are to engage and act for the cause of the Devil and share his mortal snare, he deserves to die and suffer at first battle the loss of his life and an eye for an eye decision that rids this Earth of this mortal evil. This I say with a clear and awakened conscience. Whether you agree or disagree with my theory or thoughts, God has made it clear that the Commandments are His way of Life and that stepping out with the Devil has its mortal consequences and a change of place – Hell.



As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Positive Attitudes in the Workplace

Workplaces can be very negative and very challenging at times. Your place of work was created by past and present cultures, customs and practices, thus exists through its own influences, creating with it a lack of enthusiasm that is sometimes difficult to deal with. This will often frustrate those employees coming through the door unprepared to perform in such a potentially volatile or stressful environment. They have to learn and cope with this flawed encounter of procedural inconsistencies in practices or techniques of training. Most likely, these false expectations of the job or personal disappointments were created by pre-conceived beliefs, expectations and perceptions. After all, many employees expect to work in a predetermined organization that is consistent in character of their own beliefs and are extremely disappointed to find out that there is a discrepancy between their own beliefs and behaviors and those of others who appear to be doing things their. Almost instantly, newly assigned or transferred employees are looking for a change in their daily routines to find consistencies with their own style and practices. They are challenged almost immediately to change their own perceptions of pessimism that surrounds them and change them to positive thinking. Subconsciously and rarely confessing this to be the truth, they want to get rid of those pesky and intruding negative thoughts that impair their ability to perform up to their own expectations. Patience is the key to the right timing and being at the right place to make this change in the correct manner. The “core focus of cognitive psychology” is on how people acquire, process and store information. Cognitive research shows there are methods that can improve one’s memory, increase decision-making with a higher degree of accuracy and structuring educational curricula to enhance learning or development of skills associated to the job and career steps. Block the negative thoughts and prevent them from developing into permanent thought provoked patterns. The rookie or the transferee has to create a mindset to take control of the thinking and created better thoughts with improved patterns of behaviors that reinforce the good things of the job and makes the day worth while as you meet these extremely difficult work problems head on and with good spirits. The first thing you need to do is find those individuals who are positive and good performers. Surround yourself with those who share your values, your outlook on job and observe the way they make decisions to cope with the difficult surroundings. Therefore, in plain English, spend some time with those you consider good role models and mentors. Don’t settle for mediocre when you can excel or do better than others. Consider every situation carefully and examine what choices you have to make the right decisions and proper practices in place. Don’t let conflict between you and others lead you down the path of frustration and self-imposed morale-busters. In other words, you control the situation and avoid letting the situation control you. Many employers consider this as a “reality check” and often do little or offer any help to adjust in this area. It has been said that in order to avoid poor morale, an organization must promote a positive culture of commitment, high expectations and encouraging healthy relationships. There will be times where you won’t be able to eliminate conflict but realistically, you can attempt to reduce or minimize your own feelings by holding onto the beliefs and staying with good choices. Focus on your decision making abilities and capabilities and try to change the conflict to work to your advantage. Seek mentors who have demonstrated similar values and the willingness to share their experiences with you. There are three key strategies to reduce your work negativity or frustrations. They all require persistent internal intestinal fortitude [guts and courage] and confidence that these strategies are needed to be learned in order to avoid becoming a whiner or complainer that are the very same people you dislike or abhor when it comes to getting the job done. The first strategy is to focus on your supportive thinking and approach the problem open minded and with fairness. Secondly, reduce the importance of the conflict and handle it with the required attention to detail according to your training and directions provided in the academy and the workplace. Lastly, when you find the conflict to extreme or disproportionate of your own values or beliefs, find a way to minimize your feelings without changing your values, your judgment or your personal evaluations of the situation. Practice dealing with this matter every time you realize there is a conflict and work on it with tact and diplomacy. Don’t dwell on such keywords as “nepotism, favoritism, poor communication, out of touch management, non-supportive, unfair and inconsistent, bad attitudes and non-listeners.” Pretty soon, you will have improved your ability to recognize the situation faster and better, thus making your decisions more accurately to avoid becoming overwhelmed or involved with the problem and not making it your problem. Remember that whether good or poor, morale starts with you! Source: http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/dissonance.htm

~~~~Wasted Honor – the truth ~~~~~

Since writing my three books, I have been asked by many people that have read them – “what is missing?” The question is most certainly loaded and it bring to the front page a deliberate indifference in the media and by the media to eliminate or refusal to cover the entire span of control of the Arizona Department of Corrections focusing on civil rights and life preservation efforts. Many have said that I have taken this stance on the agency personal. To tell the truth, it appears that way but isn’t at all accurate. What I have taken personal is the constant hiding and lack of transparency the agency provides to its citizens whenever a serious incident “kicks off” and since I have accumulated over 24 years of experience while working in corrections, I always wanted to do something about this culture to “cover up” the truth and expose their failures seeking repaired efforts to correct and balance for the agency to work together with the media and demonstrate ethical and professional accountability of their mission, their staff and their programs. When people die as often as they do inside Arizona prisons, there is something wrong with the prison system and it’s the responsibility of the media to investigate and find the truth.

The truth be told, Arizona corrections has many problems as it soaks approximately one billion dollars a year from the state budget. They [politicians] would rather spend these funds on prisons then paying for improving our schools and other wellness programs that helps stabilize our future and our children’s growth. It is my opinion that if the state were to be placed under a federal court order to “clean up” its act there would be less violence, less “natural deaths” and less suicides within these prison walls while at the same time, students would improve their grades, reduce gang activities and avoid more drop outs throughout the state.

Coming onboard in June of 2005, I fell into an abyss of darkness and draconic prison conditions that put my ability to manage back at least ten years compared to the New Mexico prison system. I suspect because New Mexico was under a federal court decree called the Duran Consent Decree, it improved rapidly under the scrutiny of lawyers and judges that held administrators accountable for several itemized conditions ordered by the court. The truth be told, Arizona has not made one inch of improvement since 2005 in my opinion and has rather chosen to regress rather than progress as their problems remain to be at a critical stage and considered by many a “disaster area” in need of federal funds and interference.

I make these comments because I believe that I was a highly successful administrator who participated, planned and strategized important programs to reduce violence, deaths and misconduct. I have seen the positive results of building positive programs to manage prisoner behavior and conduct. I have been involved in programs that increased individual responsibility skills, improve motivational conditions to learn and listen better and allowed prisoners to act and live under near normal conditions in a lockdown setting at SMU II now the Browning Unit. The reason for wanting to improve the conditions inside Arizona prisons is not personal nor is it religiously motivated although it is my strong belief that religions play an important part of the prisoner’s life and tribulations daily to control their own behavior and respect of others.

Since my retirement in 2010, it is for sure that I could no longer be involved in the mechanics of such change thus I must appreciate the works of others dedicated for change and improvement of the prison complexes inside Arizona. Since writing my books I have been criticized, ostracized and condemned for speaking out against an industrial complex that was organized for one purpose and one purpose only – mass incarceration to make profit of human lives that belong to the state and other entities.

Although I can no longer do the work, I appreciate the work of many others who continue to seek change and reforms in this arena where human lives are at stake. I bear no responsibility for the outcome or any credit for any change. I am a strong advocate of sentencing reforms and other alternatives that offer persons a chance to stay out of prison or county jails. I know there are good state representatives working on sentencing changes that could reduce the prison population thereby reducing the burden of keeping our large prison complex from growing into a conglomerate that has been designed by many in the past that include prosecutors, legislators, special interest groups and private prison lobbyist.

My feeling about the way prisons are run has no bearing on the truth or seeking the truth. The current destruction of sound prison programs that began to crumble in early 2009 puts the prison administration without redemption or hope to ever return the programs due to lack of funding or personnel to operate such programs. Today, newly committed prisoners are doomed for failure (a design that allows more prison beds to be requested or allocated) since the focus of changing the culture from a punitive environment to a healthy and productive environment is not likely to happen anytime soon under the current executive leadership in the Capitol or on the fourth floor on Jefferson Avenue. Today, the prisoner and their families have been decimated by the sheer political power and brutal machine that dominates their lives and creates harsh and toxic prison conditions under the current philosophy and correctional practices. They are no better than organized crime that does not care about human beings or their hardships as long as they make the profit anticipated.

In the meantime, this political machine has dealt the employees a terrible blow of confidence and faith in their leaders.

It is difficult to express the mistrust and frustration that exists within the prison system as employees are used as pawns to cater or barter prison employee rights and benefits for the sake of prolonged mass incarceration methods. Employees are not at fault for the dismal performance of this agency. They are just as much victimized as the prisoners and face a reliance on their legislative representatives to pull them out of this chasm of division and conflict. For the prisoners, this has also brought frustration, loss of faith in the system and hopelessness that they will be able to return back to society a better man or woman without being returned back to prison because of lack of training, educational efforts or pre-release opportunities to reduce recidivism thereby reducing the financial burden on the state and citizens.

In ending this comment, the State of Arizona must change its ways regarding the way they run prisons and the way they are condemning the educational and other sound human resource systems within the state. The focus should be on rehabilitation and reforms while funding the schools in sufficient fashion to better educate our kids keep them out of gangs and reduce the terrible drop out rate within the state today. Legislators know this to be true but ignore the symptoms of this disease. This state government, from the top of the ladder to the lowest rung, their contribution in keeping the media involved in prison operations has faltered on purpose for both fear and retaliation for speaking or seeking the truth. They believe that the majority of people inside this state do not care about improving prisons and reforming our school systems. They fear personal persecution and labeling of being “disgruntled” and ruination of their personal careers.

For them, there is only the hope that one day they will realize their silence has ruined the moral fiber within their own bodies and mind and make a change in their approach, their thinking and their actions to redeem themselves and join the others for reforms and change in the current political status quo in Arizona.

Have you even opened up a can and found out that it was something you should have perhaps not opened but your ethical and moral values drive you to do it anyways? Well, saying what you need to say and doing what you need to do sometimes dri...ves a person to do just that - open a can with contents unknown and hard to deal with.. thus, I fall back on what I have said all along... you don't know what you can do until you do it.. Peace and enjoy life with all its happiness that is found by being your own guide and your own person following your own dreams and your own destiny..

Evolution of the idea of SHU’s from both sides of the cell door.

. Here is a history lesson I just read.


http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95nov/prisons/prisprog.htm

March 1922

Prison Progress

by Brice P. Disque

…about twenty per cent will turn out to be hopeless, hardened, and deliberate criminals. Their presence in the place will greatly increase the difficulties of developing good results. Their example and influence will be bad on the other men, some of whom may be wavering between weakness and strength of will-power.

Additional restrictive and disciplinary measures will be necessary to guard them, and it will be desirable in every way to segregate them…

I would, therefore, send the hopeless, hardened, and deliberate criminals to a third sort of institution, in which they would be forced to earn their own living, and from which there would not be the slightest possibility of escape, except after unquestionable evidence that they had qualified for the B institutions again. Not many of such fellows would qualify, but all should have a chance, and be encouraged to try. If they never take advantage of that opportunity they should remain in the third class for life, regardless of the sort of crime of which they were convicted.

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/95nov/prisons/whyriot.htm

An inmates view observations on the subject.

October 1955

Why Prisoners Riot

Maybe it is time, now that everyone else has had his say on the continuing problem of prison riots, that a former convict should make some

…some general conclusions that seem to have escaped most of the people who are trying to find out how to cure the epidemic of prison riots.

1. Convicts…are generally not mature, fully developed people; …they are truncated personalities–a separate breed whose natural habitat is prison and who find an outlet for all of their limited facilities in prison surroundings. From a therapeutic view, the important thing is to find and to concentrate all corrective efforts on the relatively small percentage who are complete human beings capable of assuming the responsibilities of free citizens.

2. …the greatest threat to prison order always lies in the small group of violently unstable men, usually at least mildly paranoid, which every prison holds. It is equally clear that convicts of this sort respond to specific kinds of treatment in a quite predictable way. They will respect strict discipline and not much else. And with absolute dependability they will interpret kindliness or a softening of discipline as a sign of weakness to be exploited. Obviously, then, the first requirement of prison management is to curb this element–vigorously, using whatever means are necessary.

3. But in a general, all-purpose prison, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The disciplinary standard of any prison has to be geared to the requirements imposed by the most troublesome element in the total group–and one man’s discipline, after all, is another man’s repression. It is obviously neither just nor wise, from a morale or security view, to impose on tractable prisoners the relatively severe disciplinary measures necessary to whittle the paranoiacs down to size. It doesn’t seem enough, then, merely to suppress the style-setters of anarchy. As soon as they are identified they should be shipped off, bag and baggage, delusions and pretensions, to a separate, maximum-discipline institution. And if no such institution exists–as in the case of all one-prison states–it should be provided.

4. This would mean that the old technique of inmate classification would have to be relied on–but with a difference. Maximum-discipline prisons have always existed, but they are regarded as a special preserve for escape risks and “bad men” who for security reasons need closer watching. It is a perfectly safe bet that there are several prison wardens in the nation today who recognize (perhaps belatedly) that it is less disastrous that an occasional convict should escape, if it comes to that, than that his prison should go up in flames at the hands of a flock of bobby-soxers. And the danger signs are easy to spot. It is the convict who swaggers in his walk, who shoulders a guard out of his path, who makes a theatrical production of his contempt for authority and not the convict who gets caught with a pair of bar-spreaders in his mattress, who is the real threat to prison security.

…an uprising needn’t have any element of good faith or good sense about it. Too often it hasn’t had. The goal of sensible convicts, after all, is to get out of prison, not to run one.