Friday, September 19, 2014

Someone’s Ugly is other’s Beauty




Is there a beauty bias out there today? Are we all so ignorant to realize that we are all beautiful in one way or another? What is ugly to one person is beauty to another. We are so biased today we can’t see the truth as it shows up before us in the mirror. Isn’t beauty skin deep and aren’t we really overrating it a bit for being beautiful is really convenient for those who have the good looks and get the compliments from strangers and friends. 

We are so politically correct these days we have forgotten the fundamental reason for life. Our life is designed to be filled with happiness. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and what we fail to recognize and understand is what beauty really is. When someone has a disfigurement because of war, fire, accidents or birth does that make ugly? Of course not but if you let your bias get in the way, you will not agree with me and argue the fact their looks have changed. 

How ignorant can that be? We are all born beautiful. Ask the mothers and fathers of their children and see how they respond. Being beautiful in an artificial way does not improve health, intelligence, demeanor or personality. It does not make you more competent and it makes false assumptions that you are treated better than others. There is no such thing as an ugly thing. Stop thinking of that word and change your vocabulary. 

Perhaps we have found the key to this dilemma as we see it to be a matter of personality, taste and preferential desires of what we want persons or things to be. How dumb is that?
Little do we realize that when we seek beauty we are offered a gift that is free. When you look around and see what has been created you must see the beauty in it and not the ugliness one can find if that is what they chose to do with their life. Laws protect people from discrimination but thinking there is a difference between ugly and beauty is discrimination as well, don’t you think? 

Being beautiful is not a qualification for work or profession. Being ugly is not a qualification for the possession of good personalities and skills. Yet people think if someone has the “looks” they are more qualified than the other but what they are really doing is looking past the facts and seeing what they want to see. Here is that ugly bias popping up its head again.

Beauty is just as much subjective as ugly. In fact they are both the same. Society and cultures have focused on the artificial things of life rather than the real and it has shifted our thinking towards this biased opinion that we should give the good looking ones preference in opportunities in life. When society looks at ugly and beauty in an objective manner they will see they are the same. 

Something else we don’t think about when we take those selfies. Does the photo reflect your inner beauty or does it show your ugly disposition on the outside while you are trying to look cool? What is my point? My point is there is no standard, no logical reason why someone should be called ugly when in fact, they are beautiful.

It is cruel to apply this politically correct bias on people and categorize them into ugly or beautiful. We have made intermediary categories such a cute, handsome, pretty etc. but you are missing the point. Why categorize them at all. 

Accept beauty a feeling or appearance for all people. Stop categorizing them according to your biased standard for they are likely not to be you see them to be. We call this bias a factor in relationships, dating and hiring practices as well as other decisions but we are only fooling ourselves. Likely if you date, hire or make decisions on such a bias, you are missing the most important part of your life. 

Recognizing that all people are beautiful. All land and sea creatures are beautiful and all of Mother Nature’s views are beautiful if that is what you want to see in your mind. Some researchers say that we might be able to tackle lookism like we tackle racism—by convincing people to admit they have a bias and to start recognizing it in their daily lives. But that'll mean changing the story we've been telling kids from very early on—that looks don't matter. 

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Put Your Guardian Angel to Work at All Times



Lately I have been tossing and turning a lot in my sleep. I know since the beginning in my life when I started paying attention to the things that I think about, dream about and then deal with after I wake up, there is a connection there somewhere. My mother used to tell me we are never alone. We all have a heavenly winged friend. A friend who is always with us and never leaves us whether we are awake or asleep. Once she joked and said my dad had two guardian angels because he needed twice the protection. 

We must do two things every day of our lives. We must thank God for this precious gift of having a guardian angel and we must also be aware that whatever we do, think, act or rely on in life, it takes the efforts of these guardian angels to make it come true. Knowing we have an angel on our minds keeps us from delving into sinful behaviors. It keeps us on our toes to know we are not alone even when we can’t see them. We have to rely on these angels to live a good life and prepare us for our eternal home – heaven. 

Angels are pure and intelligent. They are immortals and they possess God’s spirit but they cannot read our minds. Reading our minds is a consensual relationship between you and your angels as it is a necessity to get us through the day. We give permission through prayer. We communicate through prayer. As we pray our thoughts become known to them and they can help us. During times of stress it is not unusual to ask an angel to help us pray and find the right words to say to God. It’s a natural means to communicate and it pleases all. 

Our guardian angels are utilitarian in nature. They never rest, sleep or get tired. They are hard workers and they are committed to help you do the right things in life. Our guardian angels can help us in these important aspects of our interior intimate personal lives. 

Angels are like best friends for they do what is best for you and protect you from evil. They know how to bring you help when you need more strength, wisdom, perseverance or energy and because they can sense your bodily needs, they know when to summon other angels to help you. They are all instruments of God and prompt us to forgive, confess and live the good life without submitting to temptation. 

Angels are there to keep from falling into the hands of the devil. Their heavenly splendor will guide you with the avoidance of mortal sin as well as recognizing the graces of God. Sometimes they come without their wings and look like humans. They come and meet us when times are in despair and manifest themselves in your presence to give you hope. You may not recognize an angel at the moment of anger, despair or anxiety but when the crisis passes over, you know the angel was there.

Rocky bumpy roads are part of the journey traveled. He who walks with angels fears not death or evil for they are in the company of the Holy Spirit that will guide them and protect them fiercely forever and forever. Hand in hand they will walk with you until you reach the narrow gates of heaven.
God is magnificent and whatever God touches or creates is beautiful and covered with His grace. His love for the human race is undoubting. His heavenly virtues; the mountains, the earth, the rivers, wind and forest, the plants and all the living creatures of land and sea harmonize together by the efforts of our angels who direct them to the common end. 

Our Guardian Angels see God. They possess a pure intelligence and a pure will. Many spiritual writers contend that our angels shield themselves when we commit sins, seeing as they do the horror that each one of our sins imposed our God.  All the more reason for us to ask our Guardian Angels to help to keep us from even the smallest sins so that we can grow in holiness rather than sink into the mire of hell.

Our Guardian Angels stand ready to help to prompt us to say our prayers. They stand ready to help us to avoid sin and to cooperate with the graces won for you when Jesus Christ bled His most precious blood. They stand ready to help us to view our own lives and the events of our lives in this mortal world through the eyes of the true Faith. We are never alone. We have a Heavenly friend who is always with us and who wants us to rely upon his help.

Reducing the Cost of Incarceration in Arizona

Photo: MASS INCARCERATION IN ARIZONA -  By Carl ToersBijns -

Reducing the Cost of Incarceration in Arizona - 2014

This paper is written to simplify the current prison crisis which has been draining the state budget for the last ten years. It is not a politically correct nor a politically accepted concept as it offers alternatives to incarceration via traditional and evidence based programs but since the culture in Arizona is “tough on crime” the feasibility of making changes depends on the leadership of the state. 

It is a common fact that prisons have grown exponentially in the United States and Arizona. There were major contributors to this growth including the war of drugs, veterans being discharged after serving in war, homeless populations roaming the streets, mentally ill persons incarcerated because of the lack of state hospitals or treatment facilities and many more. This has been accepted as fact and is not challenged. 

What should be challenged is the fact that penal policies have shifted focusing on sentencing and doubling their sentence of confinement. As a natural consequence of such actions, the prison population exploded and has been growing ever since the implementation of such policies. The reality posing the state today is the fact this current policy is no longer affordable or sustainable with budgets facing decreased revenues and higher expenditures not just in prison costs but in education, healthcare, children protection needs, public safety etc. 

Prosecutors are concerned about crime rates as this is a legitimate concern for public safety. The public is concerned about the cost of public safety and growing prison spending and this is also a legitimate concern today. A silent and hidden factor is the social and racial inequalities involved in the process of incarceration leaving families, children and communities damaged and dependent on public aid funding. However, we must focus on the social justice of incarceration and address the alternatives to reduce costs and populations. 

The reality is that this paper only reflects the work that has already been done to reduce the incarceration rates. It merely mimics those recommendations and provides the reader with thought provoking ideas that break the bias of being “tough on crime” and offer a strategic viewpoint to reduce incarceration without impacting the crime rate and work on reducing imprisonment costs. 

It is believed the point is not “something needs to be done” but rather we need to develop a strategy to seek reduction in prison costs through sound means and courses designed to reflect best practices. This paper is for the policymakers who appear to be restricted or hampered by political influences and a misunderstanding between incarceration rates and crime rates. 

Thus they are taking the cautious approach about reducing incarceration for the fear of meddling or contributing to an increase in the crime rate. Making assumptions the connection between incarceration rates and the crime rates is flawed based on a constant factor that plays into these dynamics of what is called the “iron law of prison populations.” This principle applies two factors: the number of people put in prison and the length of time they stay incarcerated. 

Obviously there is a link between the incarceration rate and the crime rate but it is misunderstood and has created a “fear” level of being too soft on crime. It has been determined you can reduce captivity rates or populations without a “substantial” negative impact on public safety. Thus this paper proposes a set of penal changes that would cut the population and costs respectively. If used accordingly and abiding by the previous sets of rules before the prison population boom, we could return the prison management element to a restored status and focus on alternatives to prison time given by judges and recommended by county prosecutors. 

FACT: It takes a crime to convict someone to serve time in prison. If crime rates rise so does the imprisonment rate. We expect the crime rate to fall but we see it occurs on a very small scale thus we have a mild correlation that can be addressed and politically tolerated if the mindset changes to accepting alternatives to longer sentencing. 
Therefore a consensus is built that the impact is modest compared to other factors on crime. 

FACT: When one person is locked up another person comes along and replaces him or her maintaining the crime rate. This is especially true for drug related crimes. This represents the fact that a prison conviction will increase the prison population but it does not decrease the crime rate. Another fact gathered over the years is that the length of time does not change the risk of recidivism thus sending to people for shorter periods would not impact their propensity to commit crimes upon release from prison. The exception to this rule would be in prisons were to release a disproportional number of persons from prison as it would have an impact on crime rates. 

FACT: People released from prison are still high risk of committing new crimes however, they commit only a small fraction of all crimes reported. Taken into consideration prisoners are not less likely to commit crimes upon release after serving more time in prison and given the fact the contribution is small the risk is relatively small. Hence increasing the prison release rate would serve no advantage to this process since it has already been determined some prisoners will commit crimes upon release. However we can assume these prisoners would commit a crime anyway. 

FACT: When the number of persons going to prison drops, the number of inmates released from prison will also drop. Hence the corresponding “new” crime committed rate would drop as well. Based on the research that the length of stay in prison has no relationship to rate of recidivism and going to prison in the first place it does not reduce the likelihood that the criminal offender will be a repeat offender and make it marginally higher. 

FACT: This analysis shows that the size of the prison population and the amount of crimes committed are related but not as strong as assumed. Since the duration of time prisoners are released from prison is not related to their likelihood to remain crime free it suggests prisoners can serve shorter sentences without triggering an increase in the crime rate. 

FACT: Policymakers misunderstand how prisons grow and confuse rehabilitation with punishment. The same goes for judges who think they are sending people for rehabilitation. Remember the “iron law” which states two factors: how many people go to prison and how long they stay. If either of these factors changes, the size of the prison population will also change. The corollary to this iron law is equally important: There is no way to change the prison population without changing either the number of people who go to prison or how long they stay there.

FACT: There were three deciding factors in prison growth – sentencing policies restricted the use of probation as a sentence for felons causing an increase in the number of people going to prison; enhanced penalties for felonies committed increased the length of time to serve; a backlog of people serving time (overcrowding) serving longer sentences. The result is today’s dilemma to reduce prison growth and costs. 

Despite efforts to address alternative sentencing laws, the idea of sentencing reforms did not impact the length of sentence but rather focused on the probation periods and conditions. These reforms were basically sabotaged by technical violations that resulted in persons going to prison anyway. These revocations impacted the population and created a failed system to reform the problem. Hence the intention to provide non-incarceration alternatives turned into incarceration due to a lack of incentives on the community corrections side of the justice system. 
Thus the laws changed for an alternative to serve but due to revocations it was not effective and there was not a single new law designed to address the change of length of time or reduce restrictions on probation sentences. Far more important are the emphases on reentry, alternatives to incarceration, and the philosophy of rehabilitation, a problem that can be addressed only with a focus on the iron law's two elements.

Political obstacles are in place to resist rehabilitation programs in Arizona. Because there are misunderstandings between punishment and treatment, the debate has caused a standstill in the process to address this issue. The focus on either penal strategy is understood but one serves an entire different purpose than the other. 

FACT: Some judges will say that they send people to prison for rehabilitation purposes. This is not the accurate purpose of such sentencing. They are being sent to prison for punishment since treatment programs are severely limited inside prisons. Best case scenario are alcohol abuse, substance abuse and anger management programs available at a limited scale to the population and only as mandatory conditions of incarceration but this is not rehabilitate in nature since the prison environment is more dominantly counter-treatment than successful treatment outside of prisons. 

FACT: To achieve a true rehabilitation prison program for treatment the system would have to be increased to scale of the population for everyone to attend. This is unrealistic and very costly done. In the end, rehabilitation is the right thing to do but it does not impact mass incarceration. 

To reduce mass incarceration we must entice the criminal justice system e.g. prosecutors, judges to place offenders into community programs rather than incarceration including the intensive probation programs for drug treatment diversion programs. The same can be said for the mentally ill and other special needs however, in todays’ political world, these programs rarely replace incarceration thus doing nothing to drive down mass incarceration rates. 

There are two main reasons for this. First it is not politically feasible to offer alternatives in Arizona as the politicians run on and are elected by the people for being “tough on criminals.” this results in having higher rates of incarceration and more  “technical” revocation failure rates.  Second, this strategy promises not to impact public safety or risk thus the system forgoes dealing with the serious violators and deal with those lawbreakers who would not have gone to prison anyways thus doing nothing for the incarnation rates. 

In order to reduce incarceration and prison costs we should look at evidence based: 

Re-entry programs 
Sentencing reforms
The number of persons going into prison (including violators)
Mandatory sentencing 
Technical violations of probation and parole 
Length of incarceration 
Impact of mass incarceration rates 
Impact of the crime rates

References: 

Harvard Law & Policy Review Summer, 2009 -Confronting the Costs on Incarceration Todd R. Clear James Austin Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; Todd R. Clear, James Austin


This paper is written to simplify the current prison crisis which has been draining the state budget for the last ten years. It is not a politically correct nor a politically accepted concept as it offers alternatives to incarceration via traditional and evidence based programs but since the culture in Arizona is “tough on crime” the feasibility of making changes depends on the leadership of the state.

It is a common fact that prisons have grown exponentially in the United States and Arizona. There were major contributors to this growth including the war of drugs, veterans being discharged after serving in war, homeless populations roaming the streets, mentally ill persons incarcerated because of the lack of state hospitals or treatment facilities and many more. This has been accepted as fact and is not challenged.

What should be challenged is the fact that penal policies have shifted focusing on sentencing and doubling their sentence of confinement. As a natural consequence of such actions, the prison population exploded and has been growing ever since the implementation of such policies. The reality posing the state today is the fact this current policy is no longer affordable or sustainable with budgets facing decreased revenues and higher expenditures not just in prison costs but in education, healthcare, children protection needs, public safety etc.

Prosecutors are concerned about crime rates as this is a legitimate concern for public safety. The public is concerned about the cost of public safety and growing prison spending and this is also a legitimate concern today. A silent and hidden factor is the social and racial inequalities involved in the process of incarceration leaving families, children and communities damaged and dependent on public aid funding. However, we must focus on the social justice of incarceration and address the alternatives to reduce costs and populations.

The reality is that this paper only reflects the work that has already been done to reduce the incarceration rates. It merely mimics those recommendations and provides the reader with thought provoking ideas that break the bias of being “tough on crime” and offer a strategic viewpoint to reduce incarceration without impacting the crime rate and work on reducing imprisonment costs.

It is believed the point is not “something needs to be done” but rather we need to develop a strategy to seek reduction in prison costs through sound means and courses designed to reflect best practices. This paper is for the policymakers who appear to be restricted or hampered by political influences and a misunderstanding between incarceration rates and crime rates.

Thus they are taking the cautious approach about reducing incarceration for the fear of meddling or contributing to an increase in the crime rate. Making assumptions the connection between incarceration rates and the crime rates is flawed based on a constant factor that plays into these dynamics of what is called the “iron law of prison populations.” This principle applies two factors: the number of people put in prison and the length of time they stay incarcerated.

Obviously there is a link between the incarceration rate and the crime rate but it is misunderstood and has created a “fear” level of being too soft on crime. It has been determined you can reduce captivity rates or populations without a “substantial” negative impact on public safety. Thus this paper proposes a set of penal changes that would cut the population and costs respectively. If used accordingly and abiding by the previous sets of rules before the prison population boom, we could return the prison management element to a restored status and focus on alternatives to prison time given by judges and recommended by county prosecutors.

FACT: It takes a crime to convict someone to serve time in prison. If crime rates rise so does the imprisonment rate. We expect the crime rate to fall but we see it occurs on a very small scale thus we have a mild correlation that can be addressed and politically tolerated if the mindset changes to accepting alternatives to longer sentencing.
Therefore a consensus is built that the impact is modest compared to other factors on crime.

FACT: When one person is locked up another person comes along and replaces him or her maintaining the crime rate. This is especially true for drug related crimes. This represents the fact that a prison conviction will increase the prison population but it does not decrease the crime rate. Another fact gathered over the years is that the length of time does not change the risk of recidivism thus sending to people for shorter periods would not impact their propensity to commit crimes upon release from prison. The exception to this rule would be in prisons were to release a disproportional number of persons from prison as it would have an impact on crime rates.

FACT: People released from prison are still high risk of committing new crimes however, they commit only a small fraction of all crimes reported. Taken into consideration prisoners are not less likely to commit crimes upon release after serving more time in prison and given the fact the contribution is small the risk is relatively small. Hence increasing the prison release rate would serve no advantage to this process since it has already been determined some prisoners will commit crimes upon release. However we can assume these prisoners would commit a crime anyway.

FACT: When the number of persons going to prison drops, the number of inmates released from prison will also drop. Hence the corresponding “new” crime committed rate would drop as well. Based on the research that the length of stay in prison has no relationship to rate of recidivism and going to prison in the first place it does not reduce the likelihood that the criminal offender will be a repeat offender and make it marginally higher.

FACT: This analysis shows that the size of the prison population and the amount of crimes committed are related but not as strong as assumed. Since the duration of time prisoners are released from prison is not related to their likelihood to remain crime free it suggests prisoners can serve shorter sentences without triggering an increase in the crime rate.

FACT: Policymakers misunderstand how prisons grow and confuse rehabilitation with punishment. The same goes for judges who think they are sending people for rehabilitation. Remember the “iron law” which states two factors: how many people go to prison and how long they stay. If either of these factors changes, the size of the prison population will also change. The corollary to this iron law is equally important: There is no way to change the prison population without changing either the number of people who go to prison or how long they stay there.

FACT: There were three deciding factors in prison growth – sentencing policies restricted the use of probation as a sentence for felons causing an increase in the number of people going to prison; enhanced penalties for felonies committed increased the length of time to serve; a backlog of people serving time (overcrowding) serving longer sentences. The result is today’s dilemma to reduce prison growth and costs.

Despite efforts to address alternative sentencing laws, the idea of sentencing reforms did not impact the length of sentence but rather focused on the probation periods and conditions. These reforms were basically sabotaged by technical violations that resulted in persons going to prison anyway. These revocations impacted the population and created a failed system to reform the problem. Hence the intention to provide non-incarceration alternatives turned into incarceration due to a lack of incentives on the community corrections side of the justice system.
Thus the laws changed for an alternative to serve but due to revocations it was not effective and there was not a single new law designed to address the change of length of time or reduce restrictions on probation sentences. Far more important are the emphases on reentry, alternatives to incarceration, and the philosophy of rehabilitation, a problem that can be addressed only with a focus on the iron law's two elements.

Political obstacles are in place to resist rehabilitation programs in Arizona. Because there are misunderstandings between punishment and treatment, the debate has caused a standstill in the process to address this issue. The focus on either penal strategy is understood but one serves an entire different purpose than the other.

FACT: Some judges will say that they send people to prison for rehabilitation purposes. This is not the accurate purpose of such sentencing. They are being sent to prison for punishment since treatment programs are severely limited inside prisons. Best case scenario are alcohol abuse, substance abuse and anger management programs available at a limited scale to the population and only as mandatory conditions of incarceration but this is not rehabilitate in nature since the prison environment is more dominantly counter-treatment than successful treatment outside of prisons.

FACT: To achieve a true rehabilitation prison program for treatment the system would have to be increased to scale of the population for everyone to attend. This is unrealistic and very costly done. In the end, rehabilitation is the right thing to do but it does not impact mass incarceration.

To reduce mass incarceration we must entice the criminal justice system e.g. prosecutors, judges to place offenders into community programs rather than incarceration including the intensive probation programs for drug treatment diversion programs. The same can be said for the mentally ill and other special needs however, in todays’ political world, these programs rarely replace incarceration thus doing nothing to drive down mass incarceration rates.

There are two main reasons for this. First it is not politically feasible to offer alternatives in Arizona as the politicians run on and are elected by the people for being “tough on criminals.” this results in having higher rates of incarceration and more  “technical” revocation failure rates.  Second, this strategy promises not to impact public safety or risk thus the system forgoes dealing with the serious violators and deal with those lawbreakers who would not have gone to prison anyways thus doing nothing for the incarnation rates.

In order to reduce incarceration and prison costs we should look at evidence based:

Re-entry programs
Sentencing reforms
The number of persons going into prison (including violators)
Mandatory sentencing
Technical violations of probation and parole
Length of incarceration
Impact of mass incarceration rates
Impact of the crime rates

References:

Harvard Law & Policy Review Summer, 2009 -Confronting the Costs on Incarceration Todd R. Clear James Austin Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; Todd R. Clear, James Austin