A Declaration of Corporate Beneficial Manifestos

A Declaration of Corporate-Beneficial Manifestos

Every political party has their own inclusive, diverse and for a lack of a better word, open-minded approach to mass incarceration. Some stay within the lines of reasoning while others venture or stray outside these boundaries of best practices and created blurred lines in their own ability to control the events and sanctioned debates on such matters.

In Arizona, these boundaries of discussion are imposed by executive power and an apathetic press corps that allows and watches how state government stoops to bullying the press, the people and the legislators into accepting their manifest of denial and change when it comes to prison management.

The governor has elected to choose his own agency leaders who are proponents of prison growth and the establishment of private prison beds to supplement their own statutory needs to house prisoners. It [Arizona Department of Corrections] has so far, lacked a far reaching vision on their plans to implement prison reforms and have been taking a bold but irresponsible approach on offering no alternatives except to build and construct more prisons in Arizona. There are no current plans to transition back to common sense and find fiscally sound alternatives to the prison problems.

Although this is a preexisting crisis, the governor has ignored sound advice from various experts on how to reduce prison populations. I presume that this is his prerogative but he is spending money and energy we don’t have to spare. It is indeed, imperative, we get on track and find better and leaner ways to run government services like prison management and do it quickly as time is not on our side.

This is no means a leftist or socialist manifesto to overthrow capitalism. This is a common sense appeal to institute a fiscal and responsible evolution and revolution to bring the crisis back under control. Throwing millions of dollars into this ‘money pit’ has not served this state well and evidence shows, privatization is has not worked any better than government services.

This is not a smear job on the governor’s plan – it is simply an appeal to reason and think about the state’s future. No reasonable pragmatic state elected politician could entertain his manifesto unless they own stock into the same vision and same game plan. It’s a matter of record and that can’t be disputed.

His policies are flawed and dangerous. He is debating the reform circuit without saying a word except that he is not changing anything anytime soon. He likes the control he has over the systems as governor and has demonstrated a suspicious personal interest into the promotion of private prison enterprise in Arizona neglecting other serious issues such as education, child welfare and protection, funding clean environmental projects, health and child care.

Instead he has been silent on all those issues and expects support from the donations and lobbyist who helped elect him to office. While governor, I do not expect him to raise taxes on corporations, the wealthy or eliminating any further foreign trade deals. He has made his own agenda very clear to all of us. Basically, he is telling his constituents the hell with your needs and focused on a complete and financially beneficial transition toward his own goals and expectations.

This has impacted not only the prison systems but also the economic growth of the state, the social democracy of our governmental needs and services and efficient energy management. 

There is no practical or science based vision – only his own political vision is engaged here - there is no hope for him to change his mind. Standing steadfast and pleasing those who donated money to him, he would rather see systems collapse, deal with catastrophic crisis happenings and head in the sand ideologies. In other words, his approach will collapse the wellness of our state in time, whether it is this year or in the next decade, his decision ride a tsunami wave of disastrous proportions. 

Soon the state will be gripped in catastrophes created by man and flawed strategies. We will spend the next decade undoing the harm of today. Any changes under the current system seem inconceivable and although reasonable, out of reach due to political will and personal and business related prospecting.

The stakes are high and change is needed more now than ever. This roller coaster ride is irresponsible and will lead to defunct funding in the near future. It will break most of the state’s systems in place and already fragmented. Today, there are more ordinary people in tune with the state’s needs than the governor himself and all his advisors combined. His manifesto is seriously flawed and I urge him to change it as soon as possible to turn things around.

I know the governor can be bold and let go of his political aspirations. He has the courageous inside him to break the chains of bondage towards his contributors and support base but he needs to do it now, and not wait until he is a lame duck in his second term as our leader. The need for public austerity is severe; alternatives are possible and no matter how much hysteria there is around such changes, it will foster growth, trust in government and prosperity for the ordinary person as well as the businesses located in the state as the policies will attract outside interest into settling in Arizona as a wholesome place to raise a family, get a good job and be treated with civility and dignity.

In the end, this is not about the corporate greed or their controlling interest in the governor’s office today. People are regaining control of the election process and are not blind to the direction we are headed. He needs to lay out more progressive policies that are lean management principled, best practices and alternatives to today’s ways of doing business.

Leaving business interests behind or dividing their interest equally and focusing on people’s needs or hope should be his next priority – this would improve his position with the voter’s base and strengthen rather than weaken the public sphere when they see him working on solutions and not creating more problems or contributing to the corporate manifesto he has currently adopted to run on.