Arizona and Muslims in Prison

A preemptive story on an upcoming dilemma if not managed right - some can relate to this immediately and find common ground of concerns.

Since post 9/11, Muslim prisoners have been closely looked at for ties to extremist or radical groups on the outside of prisons. This is no secret as the Department of Justice (DOJ) often reports on such findings through their annual reports on prison populations and radicalization trends. Since the Kingman riots in the first week of July, the Arizona prisons have been on the verge of imploding due to misunderstandings and misconceptions on Muslim needs or practices. Muslims celebrate Ramadan which in most cases, is a peaceful demonstration of their faith.

When there are cultural misunderstandings, disrespect or ignorance issues, there are always chances of conflict and that’s a management issue in teaching religious sanctities as well as cultural diversity training.
It is a foregone conclusion that the Muslim prison population will be looking for the courts to find relief and protection under the law. It will seek to expand their right to worship and practice their worship exercises in a more lenient manner than it is today.
Ramadan, a month long celebration is tolerated but often ridiculed or subject to bad jokes and offensive inconclusive misunderstandings. We should expect more lawsuits coming from the Muslim population within the next few months or at the very least, some legal backlash for the inconsistent manner Muslims are being treated today.
The writing is on the wall on that matter and many more. How does this impact the elected and appointed state officials who traditionally and politically been a proven interference or barrier to acquiring better living conditions inside prisons. Prisons cost money and special accommodations are just not on the negotiations table for Muslims to receive any more than the other groups inside prisons.
However, in general terms, even after the Kingman riots, none are being reported to be “threats” or “dangerous” at the moment and that’s a relief we can all live by today.  As the DOJ reports no significant evidence of such influences throughout our prison systems, it is fair to say Arizona is safe from any imminent threats today.
However, this does not mean the future is safe from radicalization or influences of Muslim propaganda and other messages designed to stimulate evolution and revolution in various means. One could venture to say, approach determines response thus if the prison systems approach these Muslims with aggression or biased perceptions, the according response would be fear, and resistive posturing accordingly to the approach intensity, cultural understandings and tone.
From here on, legislators need to begin to inform themselves of the Muslim religion and focus on facts, rather than myths or other misunderstood biases. There will be various and contradictory religious related type of competing events, which may shape looming disruptive elements if this matter is ignored.
The biggest inaccuracy of the Muslim world is fear – since post 9/11 the “fear of radicalization” has dominated the newspaper and television headlines and it will be hard to ignore such worries. This will result in political fear mongering by elected and appointed officials in charge of public safety. There won’t be any fact checking and policies will be based on biased perceptions rather than a qualified and quantize research effort to develop sound best practices related to the Muslim world inside prisons.
In other words, there will be a “lessons learned” approach rather than a qualitative and quantitive study. This would be comparing facts to propaganda and will insult those informed of the religious standards and create conflict. The prison system needs to heed cautious approaches to this topic and sensitive matter. It must avoid fueling a confrontation by not preparing staff in their responsibilities to be sufficiently trained to understand and communicate Muslim needs.
Moreover, they need to set aside the myths related to extremism and focus on the behaviors of the groups they are supervising and managing and not add any fuel to this matter by imposing predisposition or pre-determined biases to the environment. This may be interpreted as suppressive in nature and create a backlash which may cause violence.
The influence of poor policy writings and interpretation will be used essentially as oppressive and wrongful barriers towards the religion and given the opportunity to magnify any such ill written policies, prisoners may use this as a tool to organize and spread their individual religious ideology to others by showing a deliberate attempt to block or restrict Muslim religious leaders from practicing their faith.
The solution is better education and training for administrators and staff working the prison populations. Secondly, there must be a better organized effort to focus on religious pluralism inside prisons and connect those needs to the communities for pre-release considerations into the community once released from prison. This applies to all religions, not just the Muslim faction and groups.
Legislators must direct, through either a statutory resolve or a legislative order, direct Arizona prison administrators to recognize these strategies as being essential to the life cycle with broader correctional goals, including reducing recidivism and ensuring that healthy religious communities remain a source of support for prisoners and prison officials alike inside the institutions, private or public.

Death Investigations inside a jail or prisons - a Mickey Mouse investigation?

Death investigation inside a jail or prison - Mickey Mouse Investigations? -

A prison death related investigation is a complicated process, which involves a number of different members of the assigned investigative unit or department as well as other forensic disciplines working together towards the goal of solving the case and determine whether or not it was a suicide, homicide or a death of natural causes.

Unfortunately, crime scene inside a prison is not as meticulously performed as it is on the outside as there are many minor violations performed that tramples on the evidence gathered. The most common mistake is “communications” – the moment a body is found, the detention or correctional officer or first responder does not take into consideration it is a crime scene and results in serious errors made that may affect the outcome of determining whether or not a crime had been committed.

On the outside, the outcome of a case is determined by the active participation of first responders trained in crime scenes and how to handle evidence or other specific responsibilities. Inside jails or prisons, there is no such quality control or emphasis placed on such urgent needs to abide by specific protocols. Many don’t know how to preserve a crime scene according to the protocol established for best practices and or training of officers.

Compared to the participation of officers, detectives, medical examiners and forensic experts, a death investigation is hardly ever an elongated process and is rather short in all actuality. In reality, a homicide is almost treated the same as a suicide as there are simple investigative mistakes made that leads to the wrongful conclusions of such findings. Culturally speaking, due to the frequencies, the tone is mundane, and urgency is often lacking to commit in details.(Mind you, there are exceptions to this rule, as there are some good investigators out there who want to find the truth but are politically hampered to do so.)

One must wonder why the culture is so permissive in the manner deaths are handled inside jails or prisons and it really comes down to the ideology, the political will and the need to find the truth in order to summarize how a carefully a death case is completed. This is the vital key to any core value of the investigations conducted. The deliberate attempt to design a desirable outcome.

Mistake – Assuming the Case is A Suicide Based on the Initial Report – inside prisons, this approach carries a very heavy responsibility to ignore such initial reports. The truth is, there is a traditional bias established with all involved that causes a direct apathetic approach to the means to find the facts or truth related to the death.

Once the call is made it is a “suicide” the whole approach is changed and critical errors begin. An assumption begins a chain reaction that is rarely stopped long enough to reconsider the cause of death. In most cases, the criminal investigator called makes an assumption by the intimal report of an unqualified first responder or individual that the cause of death was a suicide.

This preconceived notion changes theories and hamper effective investigative tools. Any preconceived theories or notions are dangerous in professional death investigation. In addition to errors of assuming a “suicide” or natural death other preconceived notions may include deaths, which appear to be drug related and/or domestic violence. Inside prisons, there are no detectives available to handle the call – there are criminal investigators called who rarely have the special skills of a detective to determine a suicide, homicide, drug overdose or natural death has occurred.

With a 90 per cent chance of the crime scene being disturbed, this poorly-skilled investigator is already having to deal with a condition that markedly restricts one's ability to function physically, mentally, or socially as there are many barriers in place that would not be present in a similar situation on the outside of prisons.

First of all, there are usually more witness found or contacted in the free world than the imprisoned world and if there are witnesses in the prison world, culturally speaking, the art of snitching is unacceptable as a social cultural norm.

Secondly, the tampering with evidence, although in most cases, not deliberately, hamper genuine efforts to the fact-finding process.

Thirdly, the initial responders, including administrative personnel are quick to declare a death as a suicide to lessen vicarious liabilities involved and prepare to make reports of such in writing and gather the statement in the spirit of a suicide rather than the possibility it was a homicide or anything else other than a natural death.

Suicides are non-amenable offenses that are not recorded in same matter homicides are, therefore are considered less important than other events. Without a doubt investigators take “short-cuts” when they hear the word suicide. I have reviewed many suicide cases where it was apparent that the investigators did not take each point to its ultimate conclusion. Sufficient photographs were not taken and certain tests were not conducted. In some instances the deaths were suicides, but the incomplete and insufficient preliminary investigation raised legitimate concerns.

Mistake – Failure to Conduct Victimology as it pertains to both suicide and homicide investigations is significant in ascertaining motives, suspects and risk factors. In suicide cases, this becomes paramount in determining Motive and Intent.

Does the victim fit a “Suicide Profile?” Was there any evidence of marked depression or suicide ideations? Did the victim have both short and long term plans? However, the major element of a ‘suicide profile” is whether or not there is a mental health history documenting prior attempts or suicide ideations documented in the file.

“Victimology” is the collection and assessment of all significant information as it relates to the victim and his or her lifestyle. Personality, employment, education, friends, habits, hobbies, marital status, relationships, dating history, sexuality, reputation, criminal record, history of alcohol or drugs, physical condition and neighborhood of residence are all pieces of the mosaic that comprise victimology.

The bottom line is “Who the victim was and what was going on in his or her life at the time of the event.” The best sources of information will be friends, family, associates and neighbors and that will be the initial focus of the investigation. In this case, this step is frequently or deliberately omitted and rarely actively pursued as other inmates interviewed related to his behaviors prior to his time of death, will not talk about it and spend their time watching television, sleeping, working out or listening to headphone and not paying attention to what is happening around them.

When such information appears, the case becomes streamlined and the “assumption” of suicide speeds up to the delivery of the report and unless the coroner or medical examiner concludes differently, the case is closed. The failure to consider other options become automatically moot and causes an apathetic mood to continue this case. This often results in a lack of effort to find a weapon, re-examine the injuries or wounds, or the existence of a motive or intent on the part of the victim’s cellmates to take a life.

Since a suicide is often a prefixed conclusion on mental health history or recent reports of being desponded or depressed, the emphasis to look for evidence contradictory to a suicide is almost never done. Injuries and wounds in suicides may be very similar to those observed in homicides. However, certain observations that the wounds found on the body are consistent with homicide or suicide should be made.

Remember: It’s not the number of wounds that are self-inflicted, but the lethality of these wounds and what particular organs have been impacted. In a logical deduction, there are several things that need to be done in order to avoid wrongful assumptions in deaths.

This includes the failure to properly document any suicide notes, or obtain samples or the victim’s writings to make sure the note was really written by the victim and then determine if it was written voluntarily and with suicidal intent. Since the entire investigation is based on a below par investigator in most cases, the concentration of cause is often misplaced or misunderstood.

The major hindrance of the application of a “Psychological Autopsy” might be useful in drawing conclusions but only if the information obtained for this instrument is taken concurrent with the event and not after people have formulated an opinion. This is what separates adequate death investigations from mediocre or shoddy ones.

Special notation –

“It should be noted that the final determination of suicide is made by the medical examiner/coroner after all the facts are evaluated. However, the investigation at the scene and an inquiry into the background of the deceased may indicate the presence of life threatening behavior or activities that suggest suicidal intent. Of course, the medical examiner/coroner is supposed to avail him or her of the input of the investigators, who were present at the scene and conducted the death investigation.” Thus the possibility of a predetermined cause of death is contagious to the official report of the medical examiner finalizing the case forever.

Reference materials:

Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S. Homicide and Forensic Consultant
©2013 Vernon J. Geberth, Practical Homicide Investigation
Originally published by Law & Order Magazine, Vol. 61 No. 1 January, 2013 pp 54-567

Hiding the truth in plain sight

Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight

The art of hiding the truth in plain sight is a strategy many government and big corporate powers use to isolate the people from the truth. There are many self-serving mechanics at work within mainstream media as well as government that telling the truth has become a mechanism to serve as a means to relieve them collectively to any liabilities for creating any emotions or disproportioned reactions to what they report. Hence it serves as a vicariously vent to diffuse any negativity involved in the matter and it seems to be working.

 

This permeated and premeditated treatment of the public diffuses anything they government feels could potentially initiate real revolt against increasingly oppressive government practices e.g. law enforcement or prison managements and softens the public image of any wrongdoings. This is manipulated so carefully, they have hired artists to do the writings for them.

 

There are truth-tellers and there are paid professional liars hired to pretend to be truth tellers. These pretending truth writers are hired to work on press releases or investigative bulletins that are designed to keep the populace content, sleeping or comatose, and so dumbed down for the masses, it basically is a tone deaf document that meets the need of a report, yet it fills nothing of the truth.

 

Governments hired propaganda machines to protect their own selfish interests. They know the masses rarely ever respond to the truth and aren’t smart enough to questions its content thus it satisfies the need to know what is given with no follow ups or questions. They do not fear rebroadcasts of their reports because it essentially contains nothing that can harm them thus they are throwing the truth out there in the open where it is safe. It is a fact, the masses never respond to the truth. By mere design, and suspicious designed, it is very effective and therefore used quite often.

 

The masses only respond to deception and other crap written or reported. Using the laws of attraction, they are cleverly hyped with facts that actually takes the attention away from the problem being reported. For example, a suicide press release can be reported effectively to the masses as a person dying in prison who committed various degrees of felonious assaults, murder or other crimes. The attention is on the criminal’s background, not the suicide. Factual in content, the masses are satisfied.

 

Luring the audience away from the problems is to create a distraction, deflection or another situation. This takes a sharp person to write another hype and tell crafty lies disguised as the truth as it is mixed in with the truth. Most of the masses are dumb so these reports are dumbed down to satisfy their needs to know but not to cause a reaction.

 

The fact is, the worst the news, the better it is to sell to the public. Negative news can easily be turned into a positive event with a few well-placed words here and there to guide the reader into some level of satisfaction. The better the news, the less interesting it is to make come a story thus it is hardly ever printed. Thus in order to control any political damage, you neglect the positive stories and focus on the negatives while trying to spread the truth inside the story to make it swell into a better story.

 

The most skillful liars hire the most skillful writers to cover up their lies with the truth and since the truth has a lacking interest by the public, it has no receptiveness or backlash. That is damage control at its finest. Remember, the best liars use obvious, politically correct truth their listeners readily accept to serve as camouflage for their lies.

Arizona's complex and myth of the senseless mass assaults on staff / inmates

Arizona’s complex and myth of the “senseless” mass assaults

There is something distinctly wrong in our Arizona prison system and it’s bigger than anyone can imagine. Its functions, infrastructure and gluttonous design has outgrown its ability and capabilities to be managed effectively.

Bringing the masses together under one sphere of control (a centralized autonomy) has been failing us for some time now and it’s time to re-evaluate the management styles used to impose the will of the executive teams and statutory requirements on its populations. It has in fact, bred mass assaults with no immediate end to the violent tends.

Weekly assaults on staff and inmates has demonstrated a coliseum of gladiators, young and middle age, willing to come together and fight these uniformed employees in a most sacred and dark tradition. Our prisons have been marked with bloodshed, severe trauma and multiple injuries that has damaged more than the body, as it also impacts the mind. There are troubling patterns what is just as disheartening of what is happening in our communities as these two settings are linked whether we like it or not. Marked by frequent mayhem, the tone of the prisons are vicious and out of control.

Intensity has been mounting. There is never a good reason for senseless violence yet, even without just causes or triggers, it keep on rising. The prisoners’ rabidly views on these kind of cowardly attacks have become traditional and cultural expectations that have no color lines and often created bonds to fight in unity against a common enemy, the correctional officer.

Mood assessments are lacking and if done, would reveal many attacks were provoked without a legitimate cause. Attacking without a cause indicates root problems that are emotional and psychological in terms of these individuals striking out at these representatives of law and order inside the prisons. It makes them [officers] prime and perfect targets just like the cops are on the streets today.

Even more alarming is the rise of drugs and weapons proliferating inside our prisons at an uncontrolled pace added with the complexity of contraband items that include cell phones used to conduct drug transactions or worse, create a formal hit list of employees enforcing the rules and making the drug deals a little bit more difficult than if they looked the other way. It is these drugs and their rampant availability that makes these attackers so extremely erratic and demonstrates behavior that is unpredictable and often not picked up through normal vigilance or other management styles.

Staff are afraid to challenge prisoners. These deliberate perpetrated acts towards them and threats to their families has caused high turnover and comprising behaviors that allows the drug dealers leverage when it comes to the delivery of their drugs or other controlled substances and contraband.

This has caused a notable amount of concern for staff working there and with little support from the administration, they are very vulnerable to be subjugated by the coercion and intimidation that allows wrongful conduct to go unnoticed or unpunished, depending on the individual involved and their social status within the prison race and culture at every location.

For now, the administration is unwilling to challenge the drug interdiction and the associated rising rate of violence due to lack of human resources and other tools. The vacancy rates are atrocious. Overtime does not offset these vacancies as fatigue is factored in when an officer works longer than his or her 8 hours or 40 hours a week.

The present administration has dropped the ball on many basic ‘best practices’ functions of security and since day one in 2009, unwilling to take action when the trend began, making it possible for gangs to form, drug dealers to become more powerful and attacks become more frequent. Perhaps when you look at it from this perspective, these attacks aren’t as senseless as we thought they were.

Blessed are those......................

Blessed are those whose way is blameless

 Profane are those whose way is to point the finger of blame

 Blessed are those who walk in the law and spirit of the LORD

 And keep their testimonies true to their word

 

There are those who seek the truth with a whole good heart

 There are those who hide away into the dark setting the truth apart

 Those who hide the truth believe they do no wrong

 So their true lies are often, deep and voiced oh so strong

 

They cannot walk the way they talk, for that, it will put them to shame

 Unable to keep their word diligently, its how they play the game

 Commanded broken rules, they seek to do harm with a darkened heart

 Ignoring all the statutes and letting all the good things around them, fall apart

 

They possess nothing like an upright heart like the good book says, no praise, no shame at all

 Instead of keeping with the statutes or commandments from above

 They forsake it all for the fallen stars below, for success is all they want although in the end, they will have nothing to show

 A steadfast journey that has no walls as they step on toes against us all, we watch patiently as we watch these dominos fall

 

So how does a man or woman keep their way of pure

 How do they guard their souls, and look themselves in the mirror

 As your lips declare, you become aware, that faith is not in your heart or your corner

 For you have wandered away from the commandments and have no pace to restart your heart.

Rejecting Change - looking at it from another view

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”

The process of change can be painful or beneficial. It depends mainly on the preparation and circumstance for the need of change. Some changes can be approved, while others should be looked at and if not appropriately prepared or explained, tend to be rejected. Change rejection happens too often in corrections. The hesitancy or reluctance to bring change, is simply not justified in most cases and should be addressed by someone who makes policies and decisions.

Most of the time, change is rejected due to ambiguity put into the decision and making the statement without a proper foundation of facts or other relevant information. One needs to learn how to execute change properly. In order to acquire an acceptance criteria, you have to work hard to put the matter at hand out there for criticism and feedback.

Before it is rejected, one should take the time to explain the purpose of this change and how it will impact culture, organization, performance, productivity, accountability and other relatively personal issues. One does have the option to postpone change or a decision.

One does not necessarily have to reject a proposal until all the criteria or concerns are met. If it is simple, you can make a deal to move forward and gain the approval when all the missing elements are available and delivered to you for your final presentation and approval by the decision maker.

Acquiring the appropriate level of confidence, performance or integrity for such a decision must be done with due diligence and if urgent, you need to reschedule the discussion just so you can gain an approval to proceed upon completion of the project or change maker.

However, make it clear to those involved and coordinating this change, that by not having everything ready the first time, they use more time of everyone involved, than it is really necessary and risk losing the momentum for positive change to occur. Success is based on preparation and taking into the full account of the human factor.

Being organized and implementing change through positive steps or stages can be difficult and time consuming but in most cases, change can be positive.

 

Another Open Door -What is his next move?

Another Open Door -

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.

 

 

 

Open Letter to Governor Doug Ducey, A gathering storm

Open Letter to Governor Doug Ducey – A Gathering Storm

There is a lot of furor out there. It may have little to do with our own personal lives but in all practical pretext, aren’t we all just innocent or uninvolved bystanders. Not really. We are all aware of the seething anger out there. Keeping silent about it is not helping matters either. When it is all said and done, people feel they are under attack by government and other socio-political groups. I know you can feel it too.

It appears our personal identities, culture, heritage, religion and our basic values are all being mocked or criticized, even made immoral or criminal. In the meantime, we are dealing with leaders at all levels, state, local and national, who appear to be arrogant, or demanding changes that may not be in our best interest.

For example, on the matter of private prisons, you, our governor remains cloistered, smug and firm on not providing alternatives to our expensive prison system. I think you are wrong in closing that door to reforms. What you don’t seem to realize is that what is happening on the outside of prisons is also happening inside of prison.

After all, these two societies are connected and linked a lot more than you may realize. When we deal with things that are visceral, irrational and confusing, it means something bad is going to happen. Hatred can boil over quickly and without warning. Kingman was a sample of a boil over. Based on the damage done, you can tell the mood of the moment infuriated these prisoners to no end. Private prison can co-exist but it must be a balanced environment.

Certainly we all know they don’t prefer to live this way with chaos and disorder around them causing pain, suffering and consequences that are severe in nature. I value public safety and staff safety. I also favor inmate safety for when inmates feel safe, they are less prone to be violent or strike out to attack someone. Let me for a moment, take the time to deliver an objective lecture of some sort- I hate liars, I hate deception and I hate distorting the facts. A lot of people are like me, they hate people who deceive others.

What is the anger or hate about? It’s about social injustice, fairness, racial hostilities, muffled discussions on border security and immigration waffling, etc. The hate and anger pervades the prison systems today. It’s about perverse policies that have no legal standings but enforced because they can be done with the kind of rancor used to force changes. It creates mistrust, suspicion and detestation of the systems in place. A perfect storm is forming and nobody is talking about it.

Due to high vacancy rates, the agency is hiring the incompetent individuals who have no clue where they are working. This creates tension and more hatred locally and results in our prisoners, [whites, Hispanics and blacks] fighting each other as well as the other races, challenging each other for control and power of their limited territories. It includes burning property and brutally attacking each other as well as the officers, assigned there in sparse proportions and working hard to protect them. It is an asylum today and growing.

Whatever it is that is causing this hate, it is growing in exponential proportions.  It wasn’t this way, but it is now. It is getting worse. But there is far more than race. We now are compelled to live tense times with a heavy finger on the trigger. Day after day, we endure the silence that hides the light in the darkness. We all thrust our faces into a make believe utopia and pretend everything is all right. It isn’t all viciousness. I don’t think anyone wants to deliberately want to persecute other people. Sometimes, our leaders are not as bright, productive or aware like they would like to be. They depend on others to give them the scoop of what is going on in their world. It’s a vicious circle and endless tedious world with concerns.

But they have to be bold, they have to avoid the tragedies and mistakes that takes human lives to the edge of insanity or desperation. This can be done, it can be natural if you let your instinct or your gut feeling guide your intuition better than before. Trust yourself a little bit better and listen to those who criticize a little bit more. Don’t be afraid for failure. One should be aware of the rights and wrongs under their watch and do the best they can following their moral compass and their grassroots values.

 Our prisons [state and private] are spiraling out of control. Soon, the two worlds inside and outside prison will have something in common. Both will be filled with hate, mistrust and resistance to change. Nothing will be accomplished and nobody will be safe from blame. Right now, as we speak, the prison population is winding up like a tight spring. A wire so jumpy it could snap any moment and break loose, stoking the flames of chaos and release steam like a pressure cooker under fire.

We need to know what we are playing with and that is an unending ever-tightening failed systems and mechanisms of control where control is not the only problem. It’s more of an inner management issues than control. It’s every aspect of treating humans like people and understanding what they need.

You need to solve the problems related to the social justice inside of prisons that focuses on grievances, disciplinary, staff abuse, medical care and mental health care as well as substance abuse treatment opportunities. One way or another, they are going to make us toe the line. Either under a federal consent decree or some other outside mandate by the courts. Tick Tock Tick Tock…. Tick.