A laundry list of prison failures
By Carl
R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman, Florence, AZ
Ever notice how the director of the Arizona
prison system always declines to appear on television to refute or deny any
wrongdoings reported by the media in the last three years?
Do you think that this is a deliberate tactic to
assassinate the public confidence in our prison system?
Knowing how arrogant and tenured this man is, I
am surprised he has not taken advantage of his public image to respond to the
number of failures occurring while under his watch. It almost appears as if he
has waved the white flag of surrender or pushing the fact that he doesn’t care
enough about these flaws to respond to them in a most constructive and
competent way. As it is, he is the only man in Arizona that can actually tell
all of us the truth and what is really being advertised as a failed prison system
today.
That being said, you must be aware of the impact of such an apathetic
attitude and how this is impacting his credibility and leadership qualities.
His refusal to address all matters in a public forum is one of his basic calls
as a public leader and explain the appropriate action is being taken to correct
all these flaws.
Perhaps he is relying on the department’s actions to speak for itself, however,
that would be a fatal mistake for the public perception and opinion of his
leadership has been dwindling quickly over the years.
It is logical this era must end soon. It is also rational that mistakes
have to be corrected and failures must be reversed into success stories. It
seems today, everything is wrong with Arizona prison management as the list is
too long to print and historical data is revealing failure after failure since
2009.
Subvertly, he has eluded that things are wrong but refuses to address them specifically and publically. Shifting his policies constantly to address these shortfalls, his reactive approach is being noticed by lawmakers and law breakers.
Today his challenge should be clear. Repair those issues on this lengthy laundry
list that need fixing.
This is our challenge for the next two years he should focus on:
- Controlling
spending and stop private prison growth in Arizona
- Reduce the
prison population and make the officer to inmate ratio safe again pre-2007
- Take
proactive assessments to protect the public from escapes, disturbances, excessive
liabilities and needless costs incurred because of negligence or poor
performance
- Focus on
staff safety and public safety and make them priority one
- Restore
staffing patterns and correctional officer positions in maximum custody
lost since he took over in February 2009
- Cut the
political power, intimidation and fear factors of his administrators and
reduce the administrative size of his agency
- Reduce prison
deaths and suicides as well as natural deaths
- Restore sound
and practical medical and mental health care in practice and delivery of
services
- Reduce prison
bed expansion growth and false bed space projections for more maximum
custody beds in the future
- Restore the
classification system for inmates to be housed in their appropriate
custody levels and limit overrides to accommodate bed space and eligible
transfers to private prisons
- Restore the
promotional and disciplinary policies for all employees to allow career
growth and opportunities
- Restore the
human resource policies that allows employees to remain classified under
grade 20 and not uncovered making them subject to willful termination or
dismissal for political reasons
- Open up a
respectful and meaningful relationship with the media and allow
transparency to exist to demonstrate compliance with rule of law and
departmental policies and procedures
- Open up a
respectful and mutual relationship with organized labor and allow input
and feedback to be included in executive decision making
- Expose
detrimental practices that incur the loss of life, limb or danger to all
that work or live inside a prison
There are other actions required to bring these failures to the front of
the agenda. He must work with the legislature to develop and organize an
independent oversight committee to track prison business and transactions as
well as changing these corruptive policies in place today.
He must turn the tables on the politics and tacit approval that exists
within this culture of death now infested inside this prison system and take
the opportunities for these “lessons learned” and turn them around.
He can do all this and still turn loose the dogs and appropriate use of
force on those that challenge his changes in every way possible. Eradicate the
gang controls that exist today and make prisons safer than ever before.
December 6, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment