An Old Timer’s Christmas Wish

An Old Timer’s Christmas Wish

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

Life in the late 50’s and early 60's was simple as there was a limited amount of income coming in for a lot of families who lived on the minimum wage. The economy was fair and crime was low but the pay for those lucky to be employed was low. The cost of living was rising and the only way one could survive is to have both parents working so they can consolidate their income to meet their needs.  Only a few families could afford to celebrate the holidays and then, on a very limited level. The cold war was looming and the air raid drills were real in school and in the city.

 

The holidays were always celebrated with vigor and blessings of all that we were thankful for either during the holidays or the entire year. Thanksgiving is a special occasion where we could express our appreciation for the good things in life and the ability to pursue our own version of happiness down the road.

 

Anxiously waiting, we could hardly wait for the arrival of Christmas.  The economy was so bad, it was hard to earn a dollar and more stressful just to make ends meet as jobs were hard to find and parents were struggling to make ends meet. Living on meager wages, we stretched the food thus it was urgently important that we saved every bit of scraps we had and make a meal from the leftovers the next day's supper. Money tight and clothes worn out, we made sure we had what we needed to get by for Christmas as we wanted this holiday to be special as we just had a baby girl in the family and she was a treasure to say the least.

However, when it came, it was a simple celebration focusing on God, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit.  Gifts were meager tokens of our appreciation for our blessings. We did not splurge or attempt to buy any more than we could afford. Times were tough and it was like that all over in America and not just in Ohio.

 

Growing up in the ghetto tenements of the south end of Columbus Ohio during the early 60's was ethnically challenging and a time for constant friction and controversy. Racial issues in our neighborhood continued to dominate our family's daily strife as the black and white environment we lived in was frequently falling short for reaching a harmonious relationship. Witnessing the racial wars and conflicts grew us closer together as we saw how cynical and ridiculous adults behaved related to the world being black or white. The deployment of the Ohio National Guard into our neighborhood heightened our awareness of how divided we really stood on life. Those who knew how to live in harmony were ridiculed and those who spewed hatred into every direction were martyred by their own in their respective neighborhoods.

 

Learning slowly the perils of mixing racial relationships in this side of town could end up inside a hospital emergency room waiting for the doctor to stitch you up after you just survived a razor blade attack on your body thinking to yourself "what did I do to deserve this".  

Thinking more of the offspring’s state of mind and personal wellness than the impact on adults, kids these days endured much harassment and bullying inside the school and playgrounds.

 

Life in the 70’s was not so simple as before as there was the end of the Vietnam war that left many homeless and traumatized because of the conflict and shock they were involuntarily inflicted by and sadly left untreated to fend for their own with no help from the government upon discharge of service. The music was rocking with big name bands and the mood was laid back as the world tried to find peace with the nuclear war still hanging over our heads and communism spreading like wildfires in Asia and Eastern Europe.

 

Life in the 80’s was much different from the 70’s as things began to come together and the world seemed to have settled down a bit. The economy seemed to have picked up and more jobs were available and more plenty in Ohio and other places. Moving to New Mexico to follow my parents, it was a new journey that allowed me to leave all my troubles behind and start fresh with a new mindset that allowed me to gather my thoughts and heal my aching heart for all the misery and pain I had left behind to start anew.

 

The 90’s brought more joy and the families I once knew to be far apart were coming together as we saw a new direction and new hope for changing some of the things that had happened in the past. Stability was a main ingredient and the ability to launch new ideas and new challenges grew into a reality unmatched by anything in the past.

 

The coming of the new millennium brought more opportunities and happiness. Children, my children, were growing into adults and having families of their own makes the heart fonder of the good things that happen in life with faith and hope coming from above. The world seemed to get better and the air was filled with fresh feelings of hope and prosperity for many.

 

But the happiness was short lived as the morning of 9/11 revealed that America was again engaged in war but this time, the war had come to New York City and the Twin Towers were assaulted by radical Islamic terrorist flying two large commercial aircraft into the gigantic and elevated skyscrapers making them easy targets to hurtle into with loaded fuel and innocent Americans unaware that danger had came from above and brought them immediate hell, death and disaster.

 

Recovering from the Twin Tower disaster was most difficult for Americans. Their own sovereignty had been endangered by small groups of radicals preying on large commercial ports of entry and landmarks that represented America’s power and influence throughout the world and Christianity. No longer safe inside the own territorial borders, the new Homeland Security Agency promulgated policies that would invade the privacy of our lives forever as new technology advanced body [scans] searches and the detection of weapons and other contraband determined by the TSA coming onboard aircrafts.

 

Moving to the Grand Canyon state in late 2005 brought a new element of hatred into our lives. The subject of illegal immigration had invaded Arizona politics and statutory legislation as well as regulations.

 

Suburban and rural neighborhoods were once again divided and many left to avoid the persecution of laws that focused on legal and illegal residence status that had been ignored by the federal government for years if not decades and now making a political impact for those running for elected office.

 

Families became divided under SB 1070 as the law demanded ICE detainments and eventual deportations and compliance with the laws of the land. Congress offered no resolution as states drafted their own immigration laws to control their sovereignty and borders within their control.

 

Then almost inconspicuously, some of the old ideology from the 60’s crept back into our lives and on television and newspapers. The country elected a black president for the first time and the world [as we knew it] inside America rocked with a renewal of racism as many could not understand, accept or conform to the new ideology created by those born in earlier decades that all men are created equal regardless of race, creed, color or nationality and that anyone could be president if they get the electoral votes to win the office.

 

The likes of the infamous Klux Klux Klan were reborn geographically and demographically as the hatred spewed up everywhere with provocation to incite racial hate crimes through written dialogues and detestable language and social media cartoons. Muslims sought shelter inside their mosques as they became targets of a new generation of haters and degenerates. Gangs grew inside our large cities and crime took a rise that would fill our prisons to the brim of hell’s own periphery of insanity and madness. Black killing blacks and inter-racial killings that had no boundaries or honor.

 

There was also a significant change in the way we celebrate our holidays nowadays. Compared to the old ways where we focused on Christ, the angels and the celebrated music as our means to find happiness and peace with God, we are losing the bonds we established so hard in the past. Commercialism invaded our ideology of celebrating the holydays focusing on gifts and other self fulfilling presents that were meant to please oneself rather than others. 

 

The spirit of giving had changed to the spirit of receiving and ignoring the giving aspect of a most worthy cause to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It appeared the word “reborn” had taken a new meaning as it again divided our neighborhoods through extreme ideologies and biases. Xboxes and large screen televisions invaded the homes as the Holy Bible was put on pause and stashed away in a drawer somewhere collecting dust and ignorance by those who chose to cast it aside for personal pleasure and addictive entertainment. Technology was swallowing life into a vacuum that would be difficult to recover from if at all.

 

After every Thanksgiving after 2001, the mood on the street never changed, it was naïve to believe that with Christmas nearing and only a few weeks away, there would be peace and joy throughout the world and angels singing hymns to bring the faithful gathers together for a song or two. Caroling in our streets during Christmas used to be a common event but is hardly happening anymore, anywhere in America today.

 

The economy was so bad, it was very hard find a good job and to earn top dollar for good work done. Life was becoming more stressful just to make ends meet as jobs were hard to find and parents were struggling to make ends meet. Savings accounts depleted and Wall Street taking a deep tumble into corruptive practices and financial troubles, the earnings of a life’s savings disappeared for many Americans.

 

The newly elected president in 2008 ended one of the Middle East wars and promised to end another in Pakistan. These senseless wars have been fought for decades and as these fine and honorable young men and women came home, they found empty hearts and pockets leaving them at the mercy of a struggling economy and high unemployment rate. Many experienced PTSD from the war and received no assistance for such service as they were discarded and many left homeless for service to their country and injured in the line of duty. Many came home broken in spirit and mind as they suffer irreparable harm to their wellness

 

After the elections of 2012, fifty states have filed petitions to secede from the union. A re-elected president ponders how to heal the nation. The citizens’ viewpoints are different than those elected in Washington DC and wish to rule their own way of life began to appear in society just like it did before the start of the notorious American Civil War. Although symbolic in nature, they represent the truthful feelings of the many as they struggle with the social and political conflict that impairs them daily to be productive and gainfully employed as the economy and debt has faltered to a new low each day we go on.

 

The world appears to be riding on the shoulders of Satan and Judas as it has been turned upside down in morality and tranquility. The lyrics sung in the past have been replaced with slogans of war, violence, corruption and power as the government struggles to meet the solutions to its humongous debt and our burdensome fiscal cliff is ready to fall off into the ocean and drift towards the economically dominant Republic of China that today holds our debt as collateral and owns what we once had as our own. Our national security and defense at jeopardy, we pray change will come from Congress and reshape our journey to financial and economic independence once again.

 

The spirit of Christmas has dwindled down to a silent wish for hope. Hope that America will wake up from this nightmare and turn it around with those same ingredients our founding father had to birth this nation. A dire need to re-birth America will require strength and courage by those elected as leaders as we journey and navigate these dire straights to hell.

Negativity is ascending as hope dissipates into thin air. It appears the electoral vote is now in direct disagreement with the popular vote and people are upset their candidates lost. So in the end I have a Christmas wish that would end all the fighting and all the misery inside our country and in our neighborhood.

 

My wish is to restore the faith in God that built this great nation. Allow the pledge of allegiance to return back to the classrooms and stop banishing the words of in “God we Trust” from the lips of our children. Let us find the courage to again place our hands crossing our hearts as our Flag passes by and represents what is the greatest nation on earth, indivisible and under God. Reestablish patriotism as it was once before and bring home our men and women in uniform and keep them safe with support to assist them back into civilian livelihood and become good civilians again.

 

My wish is to rebuild and rekindle our spirits that allowed us to feel good about ourselves and others as friend and neighbor rather than enemy or foe.  Stop the fighting, the racism, and the hatred and become good neighbors again. Let our children live in peace and love each other unconditionally.

 

My wish is a return to good economics and stop sending jobs elsewhere around the world to allow us to prosper again and make us free. Free from the slavery that these conditions impose on us as we must follow involuntarily the whims of those in power that benefit from free labor of men and cheap products that need to be replaced often to increase the profits.

 

My wish is an end to these chains of entitlement feelings and give each man or woman an opportunity to work for a living and support those whom they love. Free those enslaved and dependent on government services and put them back into the hands of themselves so they may become self-reliant again and earn and learn the meaning of self-responsibilities, self-efficiency and self-support.

 

My wish is to heal America and bring us all back together again. Stop the violence and bring a level of sanity back into our lives. Allow each one individual the rights conceived by our Constitution and let no man or woman alter the meaning of our “Bill of Rights” to shadow and destroy the main fiber of our nation.

 

My wish is to stop the congressional bickering and unite this nation as a one party family that will heal all wounds and bring us together again and bring our nation back into a resolved condition and strength with reserves independent from foreign powers or influences.

 

My wish is to bring peace, hope and faith into our lives and allow us to be a nation whole once again and without the division we have today. Bring back contentment and allow us the bliss we so desire in God’s name and spirit and bring us together into one accord.

 

 

Proactive Policing vs. Reactive Policing in Corrections

Proactive Policing vs. Reactive Policing in Corrections

By Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman, Florence, AZ

In most cases, the Arizona Department of Corrections Officers and administrators have to react to a variety of critical incidents, situations and scenarios in an ad hoc manner due to lack of planning or preparation for such events. What we have when such events occur is total havoc of organizational resources misused and abused rather than efficiently or effectively deployed and able to manage the situation in a calm and orderly fashion.

Thus it is fair to say that there are minimal efforts made to avoid a proactive approach towards the prevention of criminal activities within the prisons and lack of effective measures implemented to prevent such criminal acts to occur. Although there are common approaches [best practices] available to deal with this issue, the ADOC chooses to manage by crisis as this is their main and only ideology to ineffectively manage crime, their prison’s security functionality, technology and the majority of their incarceration policies.

Rather than being proactive this current administration chooses to be reactive in nature and frequently fail the public’s trust in their efforts to aid both the public’s safety as well as the safety of those incarcerated and assigned to work inside of our state prisons today.

In Arizona some things remain constant since 2009. In policing there is no change. The Department of Corrections is not a focused group as it fails to learn from lessons in the past and continues to mishandle major flaws with little or no change in management styles. Only in those areas where there is a federal grants involved do they improve their services in order to gain access to this dangling carrot that provides them funding for essential services.

However, even in those federally funded programs there is room for improvement as it is merely set up to meet minimum standards and often weakly enforced to show nothing but the desired results on paper rather than making an intentional or practical change in operations or behaviors.

The PREA Act is one example as the ADOC continues to punish those who report sexual abuse or misconduct and allows the victimization of both lesbian and gay prisoners’ rights to be violated and ignored by staff. Not only is there a need for policy change but in a cultural change as well.

Another example of mismanagement is the manner the ADOC handles the severely mentally ill persons. It allows and condones a high number of suicides, self mutilations and death inside its prisons with no effective counter plan to intervene, reduce or prevent these events as it ignores the problem rather than handling it with today’s technology and methodology used by other states to create safer and more orderly therapeutic environments for those needing stability and programming for mental health treatment.

This agency has been unsuccessful particularly in learning and adapting to new correctional techniques and behaviors. Instead of focusing on a reduction in prison population, they plan for expansion of beds. Instead of hitting the bricks for prisons corrections, they ask for more prisons to be built.

Talking to people working inside these prisons, it is obvious that there is no priority in reducing spending and reducing the violence that is occurring on a daily basis by inmate gangs that are running open yards and charging taxes and other levies to those that are doing their time but have to either join a gang or pay to coexist on one of these yards. To refuse payment is a sentence for excessive physical punishment that often results in hospitalization or medical treatment for injuries often not reported for fear of relations.

Policies haven’t changed and it’s likely they won’t until the death count exceed those tolerable limits set by the directors in Phoenix as manageable and normal. In the meantime, drugs rule the yards and run amuck. Assaults are increasingly common and more severe as correctional officers risk being harmed or killed by those that enforce the gang rules inside our prisons.

This agency could be more successful if it adopted the guidelines of the S.A.R.A model that is considered to be a process that is workable and logical when applied to problem solving measures and it works. The main obstacle of this concept is the resistance by those who refuse to “buy in” on the concept and insist on doing it the old way of lessons learned and taking reactive measures to avoid dealing with it again but not taking into consideration other variances of other major problems that may occur.

The ADOC needs to implement a proverbial buy in order for it to work. Without this embracement of change policies will remain ineffective and antiquated in content and unable to provide guidance to those working the line and keeping the peace.

The bottom line is if you want the ADOC to be successful, the department has to implement this model in all their prisons and allow the process to exist, grow and expand to the levels it can reach if fully integrated into the policy making process that is lacking the right elements to fulfill effective policy making today.

The SARA Model

A commonly used problem-solving method is the SARA model (Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment). The SARA model contains the following elements:

Scanning:

• Identifying recurring problems of concern to the public and the agency.
• Identifying the consequences of the problem for the prisons and the agency.
• Prioritizing those problems.
• Developing broad goals.
• Confirming that the problems exist.
• Determining how frequently the problem occurs and how long it has been taking place.
• Selecting problems for closer examination.

Analysis:

• Identifying and understanding the events and conditions that precede and accompany the problem.
• Identifying relevant data to be collected.
• Researching what is known about the problem type.
• Taking inventory of how the problem is currently addressed and the strengths and limitations of the current response.
• Narrowing the scope of the problem as specifically as possible.
• Identifying a variety of resources that may be of assistance in developing a deeper understanding of the problem.
• Developing a working hypothesis about why the problem is occurring.

Response:

• Brainstorming for new interventions.
• Searching for what other communities with similar problems have done.
• Choosing among the alternative interventions.
• Outlining a response plan and identifying responsible parties.
• Stating the specific objectives for the response plan.
• Carrying out the planned activities.

Assessment:

• Determining whether the plan was implemented (a process evaluation).
• Collecting pre– and post–response qualitative and quantitative data.
• Determining whether broad goals and specific objectives were attained.
• Identifying any new strategies needed to augment the original plan.
• Conducting ongoing assessment to ensure continued effectiveness.

 

November 18, 2012

Morality Issues ~ Which one is right for You?

Situational Morality in Correctional Officers

By Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman, Florence, AZ

 

Situational morality is a 24 /7 issue and concern for those that are exposed to opportunities to do something wrong whether on duty or off duty. I agree that being human is a major element of the formula but the resolution or answer lies in the manner you were brought up and with what values you base your right or wrong on and how it impacts your behavior under certain situations.

 

We all have to take personal responsibility for our own actions and being human does not excuse you from deviating from your values, the laws, your professional oath or your personal principles.

 

Compromising your personal moral values and workplace ethics leads to other major flaws in doing your job. Compromising any task, role or decision impedes your abilities to perform according to your oath as a peace officer puts other people in danger.

 

The consequences outweigh the need to do so in most cases but that does not appear to stop some from committing the act. The severity in receiving possible sanctions e.g. suspension, termination, conviction of a misdemeanor or felony crime should halt you in your tracks but as it has been demonstrated many times over, it doesn’t seem to stop those who take the risks of breaking the rules and disregard the purposes of such rules.

 

First off, one must distinguish the difference between absolute morality and situational morality. Being human is being mortal thus room for error is given as humans. It is fair to say that to obtain “absolute morality” is impossible as a human being. It’s a concept that can be vigorously debated but is likely to reveal flaws in the concept or expectations since it would require humans to be flawless in nature.

 

The main difference between absolute morality and situational morality is the fact that situational concepts deals exclusively with an individual’s dealings with life and its temptations. What is valid temptation for one is another one’s vice and deterrent to stay on the straight and narrow sort of speak. It is fair to say that as humans, we will act according to how it benefits us.

 

The key to this scenario are the words such as “however”, “but” or “unless” that makes morality a situational one for individuals and allows their minds to justify the acts although they can be contrary to common sense or internal moral feelings. Hence the words “greed” and “corrupt” comes to mind and the scenario has been changed where the act to permit an act is justified by the means and the need self-imposed by the individual or a group of individuals.

 

One could argue that our moral values are infused or originated by the moral inclinations of our cultural upbringings. However there is a distinct difference between cultural morality and situational morality issues as one is basically a socialist viewpoint or values and the other is based on personal or righteous viewpoints thus they could be in conflict with each other as one occupies the same space of the other. One can see how this conflict results in a disagreement and the difference between right and wrong. Therefore, it could be said that situational morality is or can be a derivative of the moral conditions in every sense of the word and can be copied.

 

Politicians use this concept of situational morality to cover the “good for all or many” while in fact, it may be self-serving and criminal in nature.

 

Correctional officers may use this scenario scheme to justify the use of force or develop a relationship with an inmate that breaches the security of the facility thus under certain circumstances, they are “right” in their own mindset at the time and fail to see the rational or irrational misbehaviors other see.

 

Therefore it is the personal gain or outcome of such situational moral confrontations that determine whether it was right or wrong and not the basic human instinct to follow individual societal or personal philosophies, principles or ethics is such cases.

 

It has been said often that if it makes you happy “do it” but then, this rule should be followed up with “what makes you happy” should conform with your personal values, ethical obligations and principles developed over your lifetime.

 

Hopefully these basic instincts, feelings, inferences and ideas are instilled by good parenting, educational experiences, basic and advanced job related training and development skills and trainers or mentors that shaped or guided your thinking into the positive light rather than the darkness distinguishing the difference between right and wrong with a clear line rather than an invisible and blurred one.

 

November 16, 2012

The merging of public police powers with private security agencies

Hybrid Governance – Police Powers and Trust

 

Today’s police officers are under tremendous stress and are dependent on good agency policy making, public relations with the community and adherence to many mandatory standards involving the use of force, arrest powers and detainment issues that are closely scrutinized by citizens to ensure no civil rights violations have occurred.

 

To begin an analysis for developing a concept where public police powers are merged with private entities is unavailable due to the newness of this concept to blend or merge these resources together in order to perform a public safety function for our citizens. We must first begin this analysis with the fact that there is sufficient evidence today to show there are problems in the public trust in our police officers as they perform their civic duties as law enforcers. Thus this merger of power will definitely upset the balance of power and accountability / transparency process for our citizenry.

 

Without this public trust in our police officers, it must be more complex or difficult to understand how private enterprises could equally perform such tasks and responsibilities without the proper authority to do so and operate on “police by consent” of the agency in charge of the jurisdiction in question. It is with a certain amount of conclusive outcome that such a task is nearly impossible. One would suspect waivers or changing regulatory / statutory requirements would be changed to accommodate the design and function.

 

Today’s emphasis is on community policing and the benefits of having a close association with the citizenry to build trustworthy resources that will allow a closer examination of police actions and dispositions so that the public can be assured that their performance is agreement with police policies and procedures as well as structure and priorities in public safety and performance.

 

Perhaps the merging of such resources is premature and done without the proper template to assure compliance with all oversight and regulatory requirements as well as training and certification of specialized functions e.g. SWAT, K9, DUI and other specific fields that may result in detainment, arrest, incarceration or conviction within the criminal justice system as it is designed.

 

At the present time, most police officers belong to a union or association that is labeled as organized labor and is normal or routine within the law enforcement community. On the other hand, private police entities are not unionized.  Merging forces could result in a weaker union or association as tasks and responsibilities become shared and leverage is no longer on the union’s side when it comes to bargaining for better benefits down the road.

 

One might also make a case of the matter of “conflict of interest” if civilian police forces were to merge with public police forces and determine the exact sanctions and violations committed to further invoke their private interest in prisons for profit and incarcerate these offenders in privately owned detention centers or prisons.

 

Last but not least is the matter of liability and risk assessments related to issues such as:

 

• Sovereignty of Roles in crime control & prevention responsibilities
• Recruitment, Hiring and Selection criteria e.g. professionalism
• Training and Certification in basic and advanced special skills
• Statutory authority for powers of arrest, detainment and searches
• Contents of Mutual Assistance & Understanding role agreements
• Funding and budgetary concerns & Reimbursements of services rendered
• Discretionary Scope of decision making with local authorities
• Immunities provided and Waiver of Liability and Responsibilities
• Risk Management applications

 

November 8, 2012

Racial Profiling ~ hurts our communities

Racial profiling exists only in the mind of those who make it their own agenda either con or pro compliance with the laws and their own personal believe that it is happening to them or others. Therefore, conditionally, it does exist. It is not a universal concept applied by everyone or every police agency since we are talking about cops.

It is conditional in every sense of the phrase and subject to many moral values as well as existing laws and norm values in our society. This can be defined by demographics as well as geographical histories, customs, practices and traditions but nevertheless, a negative input on how we perceive things in our head.

What we have here is two arguments. The first finding the objective definition of racial profiling that includes compelling reasons that it does exist in content and context given. The second is what "we" believe is racial profiling. The truth lies somewhere in between and whenever you are subjective about any issue, then the power is swayed towards that "believe" and that you are right no matter how the law or truth is read. However, this is not a method of compelling reasoning and is flawed severely.

Contextuality expresses the fact that an action does not exist in a vacuum. When we examine an action, we cannot ignore that the action takes place in a given context. This context is necessary to evaluate the consequences of an action, because it informs the values that are affected by the action. Unlike the phrase “a picture tells a thousand words” there should only be one inference or understanding of what really happened and how it was created. This is called a finding. This is where the facts [hopefully objective in nature] come in to rationalize the event or behaviors and explains the truth in objective and clear sense rather than emotional or irrational in manner.

It is important here to understand that while values themselves are objective in all ways, their specific implementation differs from person to person and from culture to culture thus what may be normal in one setting may be abnormal in another setting. Hence each case is different and must be examined for facts, not feelings or believes one is telling the truth.
Community policing is effective when the police officers are culturally diverse and trained in recognizing these values as norms thus avoiding stereotyping when responding to a call or incident whenever possible. Police policies may differ from region to region, district to district and is applied by the officer's knowledge of such direction. It does not imply racial profiling per se but can come under scrutiny if there are acts or words said that warrant a closer look at this incident to acquire a truth statement or finding.

In order to win an argument that racial profiling existed during the event, the officer or the subject [or witnesses] must effectively prove or disprove “objective moral facts” in this type of case and provide a compelling reason to believe they exist within the statements provided making their statement more powerful and truthful in the end than the other person’ strong believe that was based on their own or individual subjective matter and personal values rather than facts.
In other words, racial profiling hurts law enforcement as it disconnects the community with those who are there to help them.

Unfortunately, the perception of truth may be distorted by the subjectivity involved on either side when the persons involved are viewed to be racist as this kicks in the defensive mechanisms we depend on for survival and self-defense. It is hard to convince another person you are not being a racist when they have already made up their minds that what you [cop] are doing is based on their believe you are profiling them on race hence the confrontation,relationship is heightened to a new and volatile level.

 

Hybrid Governance in Arizona Prisons and other public services

Hybrid governance with Prisons

By Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman, Florence, AZ

The age of hybrid governance is already upon us. Arizona today has made a clear decision to allow private prison contractors to occupy vital middle ground between our public-owned prison system and numerous and various private-sector organizations. The ideology is capitalistic and powerful as is has already established firm roots in the daily practice of running our prisons today.

 

What hasn’t been talked about is the parasitic nature of this relationship and how it is designed to absorb more government functions as time goes by. No longer an emerging market, private prison contractors have established the practice and future of public governance based on lessons learned from the past and have merged sizable government stakes, subsidies and management decision making that reflect a practice of preferential treatment in more than many ways.

 

There is no doubt that this merger has compromised those leading elements of the public sector’s regulatory environment as they evolve existing regulations to meet the new hybrid status between government and private industries.

 

This changes the traditional roles of the past and created an infusion of ideologies beyond the traditional division between labor and market demands. In fact, this merger is almost invisible and when active to the fullest extend, will remain blurred creating confusion to the taxpayers as to what actual role the government plays versus the role of private business in our state.

 

There is no secret between the cooperative levels of this state’s governor and elected officials towards private prison groups as there has been significant wealth distributed between the two parties.

 

Today, Arizona is witnessing a massive agenda of proliferation in the number of new contracts and business dealings with new parastatal entities around the state as well as outside the state. It impacts the entire criminal justice system including the administrative and judicial elements of law with little or no scrutiny of how business is conducted under this new hybrid process.

 

Public authorities have been compromised to be managed privately and secretively based on private enterprise standards not subject to open meeting laws or other regulatory requirements.

 

Power diffusion is the key in this methodology as more decisions are conducted in the shadows of corporate strength and weaker public infusions to the table. Operating in such a closed market with little scrutiny will change the integrity of government and allow growth or development of mediocrity in performance and corruption for many who are willing to ride this train as a parasite leeches off the body.

 

Thus on the pretense of improving state run agencies and reducing inefficiencies, the privatization of public service will be handed over to those corporations that can meet the productive needs of this market.

 

Power diffusion continues even in the shadow of strength. Recent decades have witnessed a gradual revival of parastatals that foreshadowed their present surge. They gained access to international capital markets and have leveraged investment to expand operations.

 

By floating shares on exchanges, contracting with auditing firms, establishing independent boards of directors, restricting subsidies from the government, and improving recruiting standards and managerial incentives, parastatals have been able to make themselves competitive with the private sector justifying their creation and existence by those that praise the concept.  

 

Today there are very few, if any, areas of governance that have not been placed in the custody of parastatals entities that undertake commercial activities on the government’s behalf. They range from public transportation, medical care, economic and logistical support of state utilities down to the smallest micro purpose of government services such as the maintenance of parks, recreation and other support agencies.

 

There are reasons for this transition.  First and foremost, state governments are broke. They lack funding and in fact are unable to manage current needs as they exist. Frustration has led to exploring alternatives and aside from the traditional practices of raising taxes or other fees they have considerable needs to improve the infrastructure and manpower requirement to meet the full demands placed on them by law and other regulatory mandates.

 

In short, parastatals are the entities everyone wants to do business with because in places where politics is an opaque void or a byzantine labyrinth, they “get things done.” Collectively, these types of parastatals have been crucial for rising powers to capture the commanding heights of personal wealth and finance.

 

Their recruitment of top investment-banking and private-equity talent and riskier investments are a major departure from decades of more conservative asset management by central banks allowing hybrid governance to coexist in many places.

 

It’s a sign of the times and Arizona is smack in the middle of such financial relationships, endorsements and futuristic expectations of spreading this hybrid governance concept to other states in due time.

 

Source:

http://www.mckinsey.com/features/government_designed_for_new_times/the_rise_of_hybrid_governance

Managing Change

Managing Change in Our Prisons

By Carl R. ToersBijns, former deputy warden, ASPC Eyman, Florence, AZ

 

 

The psychology of “change management” suggests there are four (4) basic conditions are necessary before employees will change their behaviors:

 

• Justification for change (reasons and current events)
• Role modeling and embracement of new practices (leadership)
• Reinforcing mechanisms to support proposed change with existing and new resources (support mechanisms)
• Capability improvements e.g. training and skill abilities to make the desired changes (cultural diversity)

 

It has been said that most change programs are prone to failure. It is also said that if one takes the time to develop a sound concept that is well rounded and balances, a rational change in environment or operations can happen.

 

Change must have its own merits that can stand alone and withstand criticism and opposition to such a new concept. It is very important not to disregard the most important element of change management alas human beings involved in the change.

 

Justification for change (reasons and current events) – the justification for change must include:

• Motivation – this change must motivate your employees as it must bring past shortcomings to the front and detail how change would turn this around to be most beneficial to the “good of all” rather than any individual within the organization.
• Turnaround – this action must reflect short-comings of following standards on prison management and how these new changes would allow the organization to grow and survive external criticism [community growth) as well as provide career success opportunities (paycheck, promotions, benefits) for the workplace.
• Ownership of the change – When we choose for ourselves, we are far more committed to the outcome and should be important for management to accept this for maximum impact of the proposed change.
• Creating positive energy – take an approach that deflects blame and wrongful performance but rather embraces positive designs with a positive destiny and allow employees to take the risks of leaving the past behind with aspirations of gaining something more than they currently have.

 

Role modeling and embracement of new practices (leadership) - Leaders believe mistakenly that they already “are the change.”

• Commit yourself to personally role modeling the desired behaviors
• Change in behavior and role modeling should be based on external factors and not those within themselves. Being what others want to be or see is more effective than what you want to see.

 

Reinforcing mechanisms to support proposed change with existing and new resources (support mechanisms) –

• Emphasize the importance of reinforcing and embedding desired outcome or changes in the organizational structure, systems, goals and objectives, and incentives. Incentives can be anything that includes money or better salaries, job survival and prolonged durations of successful delivery of benefits and performance motivational logic.
• Competition can be used as a motivator but be careful as particular care should be taken where changes affect how employees interact with one another within the organization creating fragmentation rather than unification.

 

Capability improvements e.g. training and skill abilities to make the desired changes (cultural diversity) –

Change-management outlines should emphasize the importance of building the skills and talent needed for the desired change.

• Managers attempt to drive performance by changing the way employees behave; they all too often neglect the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that, in turn, drive behavior in the wrong direction causing failures.
• Good skill-building programs usually take into account that people learn better by doing than by listening. These programs are replete with interactive simulations and role plays, and commitments are made by participants regarding what they will “practice” back in the workplace.
• Make enhancements to traditional training approaches in order to hardwire day-to-day practice into capability-building processes.
• Training should not be a one-off event. It should be ongoing with a “field and forum” approach should be taken, in which classroom training is spread over a series of learning forums and fieldwork is assigned in between.
• Create real fieldwork assignments that link directly to the day jobs of participants, requiring them to put into practice new mind-sets and skills in ways that are hardwired into their responsibilities.
• Assignments should have quantifiable, outcome-based measures that indicate levels of competence gained and certification that recognizes and rewards the skills attained.
• These fieldwork assignments must be observed and evaluated by supervisors to allow growth and self-development based on feedback by those in the field.

 

Good intentions aren’t enough. This lack of follow-through from the tip of management to the lowest point in the workforce is usually not due to ill intent: it is because nothing formal has been done to lower the barriers to practicing new concepts, new behaviors and new skills.

 

The time and energy required to do something additional, or even to do something in a new way, simply don’t exist in the busy day-to-day schedules of most employees but should be included as part of the overall commitment to excellence it is this failure to create the space for practice back in the workplace dooms most training programs to deliver returns that are far below their potential or expectations.

 

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