Saturday, December 13, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Monday, December 8, 2014
Please support the journey on mental illness awareness
We
have made progress. We are at 71 per cent success rate. We still have a
way to go and I am sure we will reach our goal set for the benefit for
others. This book will bring awareness to the mental illness needs of
those special needs people who depend on others for their survival and
safety. Please help us help others.
We
have made progress. We are at 71 per cent success rate. We still have a
way to go and I am sure we will reach our goal set for the benefit for
o...
www.gofundme.com
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Unconscious Bias in Prisons
To be honest
with you, I believe this bull about Eric Holder believing cops are affected by
an “unconscious bias” goes a little too far over the blurred lines but it does
give us some food to think about. The Attorney General feels police officers in
the case of Eric Garner’s death need to be examined for this type of bias
inside their heads because he feels they are infected with a decision making
process that may predict poor police interactions that are associated with race
and social class biases as well as the traditional lines of police work in
general.
One has to be
aware that with some level of certainly, this kind of a bias may appear to be
true in some cases but keeping it in content and context, so that these
assessments are not skewed or taken out of context. This value of unconscious
biases has been underrated and overrated by many studies and must be kept in
the parameters and environments that are real and within logical and rational
expectations and desired outcomes.
If such studies
do not take into account community demographics, culture, training and roles
provided, it can lead someone down the wrong path and draw the wrong
conclusions. It has been said that police have better results and less violence
in their interactions with those of a higher social class than those belonging
to a middle or lower social class.
Perhaps there
is a preference for cops to work in good neighborhood rather than working in
poor neighborhoods. It does seem to affect their perception to a degree. If this
perception guides their decision making, then what can be said about
correctional officers working in a criminal element and putting their own
conscious biases towards those they manage or supervise and what does that do
to institutional enforcement levels and use of force situations? The questions
are real but rarely assessed or researched.
We know there
is a distinct preference what custody levels officers prefer to work or engage
in with convicted felons. There is also reasonable grounds to believe officers
would rather work with those of a higher intelligence and better communication
skills than those who are slow at mental processing and speech. Their patience
wears thin and often results in frustration.
It may not be
based on race or other inequalities but it could trigger a modal response that
is hard to deny to exist and create a conflict in actions and interactions
based on their own perceptions and preferences. Thus it is reasonable to
suggest that a conscious bias may impair or place an effective barrier to the
desire to produce effective and safer solutions especially when some of these inequalities
are misunderstood.
Recent and past
work experiences have shown that implicit biases also exist among police
officers and correctional officers and are associated with perceptions and
beliefs about persons considered to be suspected criminals or convicted criminals.
One just has to inject a bias towards the nature of crime committed or accused
of to change the perception or outcome.
Together, such
a finding may suggest that the relationship between law and criminal may be an
important contributing factor to racial and social disparities in law
enforcement either on the streets or inside a jail or prison.
Additionally,
there are reasonable conclusions drawn from anecdotal experiences such biases
may be generated or reinforced during formal, informal, on the job training as well as educational resources and
may enable the design of interventions to address disparities in such
enforcement of law and rules.
Why Correctional Officers are not treated like Cops
To quote Paco Villa "Correctional officers do deserve
special recognition. They have an
important and dangerous job. They are
often subjected to all kinds of abuse by prison inmates. During their shifts they are confined to
almost the same degree as the inmates they are in charge of. Unfortunately the public does not hold correctional
officers in high esteem. They are
unappreciated and underpaid. But calling
themselves cops does not change any of that." This takes us one step
further and declare a fact how grand juries perceive our roles to be.
This controversy on how grand juries seem to always never
fail to indict a cop for anything – not for murder, assault or other crimes
whether serious or not, brings up the romantic relationship prosecutors have
with police officers but not correctional officers. This process of indicting a
cop is way different from indicting a correctional officer. There seems to be
no parity here whatsoever. In fact, there appears to be a pattern of behavior
that is very disturbing for the profession.
The facts are being revealed via the media how prosecutors
operate and run a grand jury. It makes you realize how a prosecutor can make
this group of citizens “see” what they want them to see. This alone should make
you aware that the system is broken somewhere along the line we tow as
correctional officers also charged with statutory enforcement within a
criminalized society.
How you recognize the difference is in perception, role,
culture and connection prosecutors have with cops and not correctional officers
is important. How they act in their role to indict or not indict should be a
key how they feel about the profession as well as the position correctional
officers’ play in the criminal justice system.
Can you see my argument? Are you aware of the difference in
professional courtesy and treatment?
Justice is served in the eyes of the prosecutor. There should be no
uncertainty how the prosecutors view correctional officers. We as a profession
are demonized by society, the media and yes, our own law enforcement community.
In short, we are the bad guys and bad guys do wrong. We are always guilty based
on our role in society’s eyes.
Experts say grand juries can reliably be counted upon to
deliver indictments the vast majority of the time, and available numbers seem
to back that up. Still, the key to success is the prosecutors and the
prosecutors have their own agenda except when it comes to working with cops.
They need cops to make their cases, unlike correctional officers who are deemed
to be expendable by the system.
The news site FiveThirtyEight.com reported that of 162,000
federal cases in which prosecutors sought indictments in 2010, grand juries
failed to deliver an indictment only 11 times. Also worth noting, however, is
that when charges against police officers are on the table, indictments are far
less certain. Again, this is not the case for correctional officers. They are indicted
at higher rates than cops yet they do the same difficult jobs inside a prison.
Where is the justice?
Why is that? Correctional officers, like our cops on the
street, have the authority to do things ordinary citizens do not, and that can
create some shady areas in interpreting potential crimes inside our jails and
prisons. The fact is, many are set up by these criminals who are going along
for a ride to “burn an officer.”
How can we show these grand jurors of this cultural dynamic
and influence different results; they may be more inclined to side with
correctional officers in any confrontation with an already convicted felonious
criminal if they set the prosecutors’ biases aside.
Little can be done to meaningfully change either of those
factors. But there’s also this: Prosecutors themselves can effectively rig the
process by not fighting particularly hard for an indictment against a fellow
member of law enforcement. They may be playing a political game, trying not to
anger police or their supporters in higher places.
However, they do no such efforts for correctional officers
left to defend themselves without any aid from the administration who let them
go because of potential embarrassment of a conviction among the rank and file.
They basically wash their hands the moment the allegation was made.
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