Another Open Door
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When Governor Ducey ordered a “full probe’” of the Kingman
riots by the Arizona Department of Corrections, it kicked off a whole new
battle on prison management and all those priorities and principles attached to
the governor’s agenda. He was supposedly in favor or privatizing prisons but this
action could in fact, begin a war that could be won, if pressure is maintained
and applied at all the right places. Private prisons are silently
self-destructive in nature and damage control can’t stall time from telling the
truth.
Although he quickly followed up with comments reassuring his stance
on expanding private prison beds, it signaled a possibility that there were
major hurdles to clear in order to make this goal happen like he wanted it be
as it was so neatly outlined in his playbook, designed by his fellow
politicians and lobbyist friends from the private prison world. For certain, it
delayed the procurement of additional beds another sixty days or so it seems
and that itself was a battle won.
The goal of this playbook was to hide all the realistic
horrors associated with running private prisons for profit. The key word being ‘realistic’
and a contrived effort to side step ugly things that are directly blocking his
plans to expand their bed size during his term. Dealing with everyday
atrocities was not part of the plan. The agency was supposed to have been a
quiet giant, a sleeping hulk, and not making a sound. Fire and smoke, along
with the destruction and expense of moving over a thousand inmates to other facilities
disrupted that hibernation wish and brings the issue right back on the front
page where the governor would rather not see it or deal with it right now.
Like the Kingman escape from 2010, all the way through the
recent Kingman riots of late, the media and various taped exposes of
privatization failed methods, it started a media war, a war he might be able to
win but lose some battles along the way. Periodic arguments by attorneys,
reporters, critics and families makes defending these failures difficult and
draws conclusions that these methods used are almost as bad as the methods used
to argue their existence.
Combined with the horror details of gruesome medical procedures
and delays of the ACLU Parsons vs. Ryan lawsuit, the public is beginning to see
something more sinister than before. Mistakes are being made and those involved
are talking about it in front of the wrong people. There are racial tensions,
social injustices and other negative dynamics brewing inside these prisons,
private or public and the governor is about to have his hands full with
questions why he allowed chaos to run rampant and give the asylum to the
inmates to run while his rapid deployment teams are gathered throughout the
state to quell yet, another riot.
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