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.
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