Leadership versus Dominance - Power

Leadership versus Dominance of Mankind

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

 

“Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal”– Daniel Goleman

 

Traditionally speaking, men are social creatures in a most complex social world. What we do and how we do it based on numerous factors that make us a different kind of animal apart from the others in this world. Human beings are in many ways, smarter than most members of the earth’s inhabitants but for some reason, have engaged in continued conflict at the fundamental domestic levels or fighting wars with each other that will eventually decide the fate of their survival.

 

We must all admit there is a hierarchy and a pecking order in this world we live in that is undisputable a daily influence of our lives. We organize our social skills, needs and desires based on social influences along with cultures, traditions and customs.

 

The pecking order can be based on many factors that maintain a class order as well. These factors are well known but center on intelligence, strength, wealth and social position in society or government. Regardless of intent, the pecking order is established for one reason, protection; protection from others as well as themselves. Protection designed to provide either a means to be self-sufficient and independent or to avoid an unbalanced dependence on others.  Thus we have what is commonly known as a predator and prey situation.

 

Is such a pecking order appropriate or is it flawed? What is the basis of such a concept and what establishes the rules of engagement to make it orderly and fair or does it have to be fair. Is the pecking order consistent or is it open for a competitive comparison of nature thus competing with other force that coexists in the same dimension or continent? The answers aren’t clear without looking at this a little bit deeper.

 

Does the order posses aggression as a means or a tool? It appears that every pecking order has a balance of “master and subordinate” concepts. This is the key to the organizational purpose of a society.

 

How it functions, copes and manages daily living is based on a master and subordinate concept that develops other elements needed to stabilize this process. Once can say that differences in cultures or ideas will create different societies established with different rules as well as customs and traditions to meet their statutory and religious based views.

 

Thus this social arrangement becomes another reason to divide the human race into smaller groups or interactions setting up its own pecking order and reasons for dominance. As such society becomes a complex system of building blocks with each a different set of rules and social expectations.

 

So how does dominance play into societal development? Observations of human being has confirmed there are at least three types of people within a social organization, the leaders, the workers and the followers alas another hierarchy in place to establish order.

 

Dominance is a prevalent factor in many different scenarios in life. The fact is that when you observe humans you will observe this quality of dominance frequently as it plays a significant and prominent part of any social organization or setup. Therefore, it is fair to say that both the hierarchy and the act of dominance are relevant to our society.

 

Another relevant fact observed are the traits of leadership and dominant functions of humans that are observed taking a lead in an assignment or role within our societies. Therefore one may ask is leadership a major characteristic of being a dominant character or is this assumption that is flawed in some manner.

 

Dominance can be divided into several groups within society and within the human interactions as well. Dominance can police behaviors or resolve or create personal strife or stress. It can take charge of most decision making processes that include where you live, what you do for a living, who your sex partner is and whether you remain single or married with children. It also determines whether you are aggressive or passive and other personal traits well accepted to be human behaviors and characteristics.

 

These are all human developments of domestication and impact daily life to the fullest and are in constant need for guidance and quality of life decisions that impact all those decisions and lead a reasonable safe and comfortable quality of life. There is a need to prevent looseness or direction within the group(s).

 

Hence we identify the word leadership and its purpose within our social structures but part of the problem is that leadership in its own definition is vague and can be broken down to several types of concepts. However, for this purpose, we will focus on social leadership.

 

For example, social leadership can be defined as maintaining law and order between individuals within a group providing protection for some when faced with a threat or predation. It is this type of leadership that is most commonly identified with the concept of leadership or leaders.

 

Leaders that are either appointed or self appointed to provide control, management or guidance of those things that are important to use whether tangible or intangible items within our world. Along with this leadership must come a careful balance to avoid a volatile vision of being master and slave relationships within the social groups.

 

Leaderships must be composed of mutual relationships such as partnerships sharing the burden and maintaining control over those social interests within each group. It must rely on social input and diverse thinking to seek what is best for the group and not individuals.

 

Leadership can develop during critical responses or daily and routine tasks and functions of society.

 

Thus it is fair to say that leadership is prompted by the need for an initiative or action to do something to either protect someone or maintain control or acquire something that is needed to exist, to survive or to manage in order to maintain the most human needs of our lives.

 

It could be concluded that leaders do not have to be dominant or sitting at the head of the table type of positions but rather, a characteristic that is mutually and co-operative in nature and acceptable in all social formats that exist at the time of need or purpose.

 

 

December 11, 2012

Hoarding the Power ~ Charles L Ryand and Arizona Prisons

Arizona Corrections ~ Ryan, Hoarding the Power

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

 

If we were to look into the future and look back how the Arizona prison system grew and floundered under the leadership of Charles L. Ryan you will undoubtedly find a conclusive description of what can be said is a compulsion to hoard power and build a base of power within that resembles a dictatorial and adversarial method of prison management. Unfortunately, he did this for the sake of evil rather than the good for many. Surely this qualifies him to be unprecedented in such accomplishments of power grabbing everything within his reach or span of control.

 

This is happening as the criminal justice system is cycling hundreds and even thousands of prisoners through its prison system without any inquiries or curiosity by elected officials nobody is asking how this agency spends its billion dollar budget.

 

Daily, he seeks ways to set up control within every aspect of the agency’s individual departmental responsibilities that ranges from custodial care to medical and mental healthcare provisions ruled under one man and one rule.

 

In other words, Mr. Ryan makes decisions for every aspect of custodial, medical and mental health care as well as contractual services rendered and prison policies. He is the sole decision maker that writes his Director Executive Orders whether he is qualified to make these decisions or rarely seeking advice from others more qualified in such special areas.

 

Working with what can be described as an unprecedented amount of money provided by the legislature and the governor, Ryan has managed to set up a power base that spans from controlling and expanding public prison beds, commissaries, food and medical contracts to private prison beds and other profit making schemes. One would think this strategy was done for the best interest of the state but rather the opposite is true.

 

The public has been hoodwinked into thinking their prison system is well and intact but in fact it is dilapidated and in dire need of attention. Nobody has noticed the growth as they feel it is just and unworthy of criticism as well as oversight.

Ryan has hired and re-hired former colleagues and hand-picked friends to control the tight niche circle of power as well as maintaining a silent and firm control on all internal environmental issues with effective damage control at the correctional officers’ expense through unwarranted discipline and compromising their safety.

 

As their staffing patterns dwindle, their bed capacity increased. Double bunking without adding staff is a dangerous practice especially at level 5 units where the propensity of violence and misconduct is the highest.

 

Mr. Ryan has abandoned all practical and safe correctional practices for the sake of expansion and more prison money allocated to a system that is already demonstrated to be weak in security and public safety. Specific by-products of this management style are more violent offenders, higher death rates, increased suicide risks and continued staff assaults with and without weapons.

 

Correctional best practices are waning as a thing of the past as good security is now rare and vanishing quickly. Today, the prisons are run by those in orange jumpsuits rather than those wearing the badge, the brown khaki shirts and BDU pants.

 

His latest project of expanding maximum custody bed to construct a Special Management III in the Lewis prison complex is the latest example of his expansion plans.  Asking the governor for $50 million dollars to build a complex for Level 5 inmates is hardly necessary if Ryan would allow the prison management team to do what is called the inmate classification process. Meddling with the risk assessment tool, he has altered the entire population by ignoring risks and threats within.

 

Since day one he took over, he has focused on locking up and locking down prisoners with discretionary powers to hold them at the higher levels for reasons that are based on repetitive misconduct charges that elevates the custody score and increases risk to the general population setting.

 

He has effectively manufactured a higher risk group through administrative means and justifies asking for more Level 5 beds through his own self fulfilling prophecy of increasing detention beds and max custody beds over the last three and a half years.

 

He accomplished this plan by executing a three stage process that first included segregating all severely mentally ill prisoners at a higher custody level mixing them with anti social behavioral prisoners so that the chaos and violence would increase and the justification would show good reasons for such placements thus justifying the means at the end. This method allowed him to classify Arizona prisoners as more violent than ever before.

 

Second he destroyed the inmate employment program and reduced both work hours and wages through an austerity program leaving thousands of inmates idle and without a job to earn their commissary or other costs. In other words, he effectively destroyed the prison economy and created the same conditions that exist in the free world where crime is based on the need or the greed of individuals with a criminal mind. These created an unbalanced and predatory living environment to cope within as it became the “only the strong survive” culture and the weak pay for protection.

 

Lastly he eliminated self help programs and substance abuse studies that effectively created an uncontrolled drug infested prison environment unprecedented in modern penology and Arizona prisons and allows the presence of drugs to maintain the instability to keep the prisoners divided and the staff in danger. This created a drug infested culture that became more violent and more addicted than ever before posing threat to the staff that work there and the public safety.

 

He has facilitated this growth in drugs through his permissive attitude of allowing prison gangs to exist. He has forsaken good and effective searches to find the drugs and has basically allowed the “inmates to run the asylum.” This reduction in the inmate’s income resulted in more misconduct that included theft, assaults, gang violence, extortion and other criminal behaviors.

 

His goal is simple; infuse more money giving him more power. No matter. The taxpayers are picking up the tab for this most volatile environment as the prison system, although not managing what they already have, keeps growing and becoming more unstable in unbelievable epic proportions statewide.

 

Taxpayers have no idea how these “covert” ideas has fragmented the agency and don’t seem to care how their tax dollars are being spent. In fact, it is safe to say even the legislators haven’t the faintest idea what it actually costs to accommodate Ryan’s plan and the governor isn’t interested in asking either.

 

In the meantime, you pocketbook will continue to write blank checks and receive nothing in return.

At a cost of over one billion dollars, you would think that somebody in Phoenix government would be keeping an eye on how this money is spent and how many lawsuits have been paid out to avoid bringing this horrific prison management situation to the attention of the public.

 

December 11, 2012

Complacency ~ the Evil Influences on Correctional Officers

Complacency ~ the Evil Influences on Correctional Officers

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

Correctional Officers today are well trained and professional in demeanor and performance. To a great extent, they are representative of a law enforcement professional in modern day penology that emphasizes on self-confidence and self assertion to be able to perform their job that is dangerous and unusual to say the least. 

Their role inside prisons characterizes moral as well as political thoughts but carry with them traditional sound and ethical moral ideals and social forms that continue to seek a safe and secure environment as well as proper custodial care of our humanity.

Every day these men and women walk this most perilous beat as they go inside these gates of Hell with thoughts of “trust thyself” and maintain the integrity of their own minds as they were trained and how you carry their moral values.

Working within a prison means living side by side with the Devil. A demonic spirit that reigns in this man-made Hell-hole and that refuses to submit to the perfected ideals and principles to do the job with the intent to be fair, firm and consistent with those that live here in Hell.

Thus it can be said that working inside this Hell-hole is in fact a rebellion against sanity and God’s sovereignty as it is quite wicked in here and temptation is abound. In addition to its darkness, it is quite real and demonic in existence and pride that emphasizes wrongful deeds and dishonored thinking.

This is the sentiment to overcome as you walk through those gates to Hell and leave all the sanity and reality behind as the heavy metal gates shut you in until it is time to end your shift. 

As you walk through these gates of Hell your voice inside your head tries to reassure you that all is well and you are ready to face yet again a fresh challenge with evil lurking around every corner of this place.

For this and other reasons you focus on your safety as well as the safety of others. Taking “the six” and backing up your teammates carries with it a tremendous amount of responsibility that exceeds all others for the next eight hours or so. Working inside this Hell-hole has serious consequences and being lax is unacceptable under any terms or conditions.  

 

Your mind is focus on every move and deepest threat from within. Working with pride and self confidence are basic ingredients that allows you to walk the beat with self assurance as you battle the afflictions of the “demon of acedia” because this is the most dangerous evil one of them all.

“Acedia [Latin] or the “noonday devil”” is most common inside these prison Hell-holes and thrives on the souls of those that have submitted to the seven sins of heaven and have become careless and without care how they perform their jobs and responsibilities.  Some blame fatigue while others blame the need for power and greed.

 This “noonday devil” brings you nothing but pain and sorrow as it cites your ideals and moral values into new conceptual traditions that allows the devil to rule and misfortune, harm, violence and death to exist. While under the influence of this “noonday devil” you will feel sadness or idleness in your purpose and submit to his evil ways without thinking about it twice.

 \For all practical purposes, this complex and spiritual state of mind defies all simplicity in content and context as well as mindset definitions. Because this demonic influence fosters a lassitude and despairing mood, it overwhelms your own spiritual and moral capacity and feelings and transforms your performance into stages of idleness and laziness that also creates a dullness of the soul.

Your heart becomes dry, with a sense of bareness that creates tasteless decision making as it bares your soul. It induces you into stages of waning confidence and produces a lack of motivation that leaves you in a state of mind resembling an attitude of “what’s the use” and “it is what it is” and allows you to dip into temptation to not do your job and lift you into a stage of thinking what you are doing is pointless and futile to say the least.

This ““noonday devil”” phenomena slips into your mind as you begin to tire and feel a lack of commitment, support and despair about why you are busting your heart out to do a job that has no real self serving purpose or gratitude from those you serve.

Thus you will slowly or eventually  succumb into a stage of temptation and decide  to relax a little and let things go with the flow that in fact threatens the safety and security of where you are as well as those you are sharing ground with while being here in Hell.

Acedia, then, is a real threat, a deadly sin doing its deadly work in the presence of those who trust you and respect you.  Its demonic presence can be detected rather clearly in the way you are acting and the way you are working inside this most demonic culture that has no remorse or sanity attached to it.

It breeds contempt for rules and following instructions as well as truthfulness and routine ethical decision making. It separates you from your cultural context and evolves into an irresponsible culture and morality that establishes critical distance between right and wrong.  You no longer worry about your own beliefs and practices that would normally stand for human decency and moral rectitude as it now all seems silly and pointless.

In most cases, the basic strategy of instruction is to step back and allow your normal ethical and honorable judgments to return back to normal through patience and meditation. It is important to clear your head and realize that you have to be doctrinally consistent with policies and procedures as well as unified in thought with those working around you.

You can’t let the negative influences of this “acadia” events overwhelm you and corrupt your thinking; you must resist any negative preconceptions to foster or continue to exist inside your head. At the same time you must reach in deep of your own soul and heart and allow your passion to bring you back on track and keep you focused on the possessions you attained through diligent training and positive experiences as you prepared yourself for this most challenging job.

 

You have to break this cycle of change and step back without stepping back from your inherited duties and responsibilities as well as the oath you took when you accepted this job. How you undertake these responsibilities will decide how long you will last in wearing a badge of honor within this man made Hell-hole called prison.

Your general commitment while at work is to ensure public safety and reduce the chances or opportunities for others to commit additional crimes or misconduct. Your job is to prevent the infliction of needless or preventable pain or harm by predators seeking the weak and making them submit to the evilness around you.

The final assessment to this phenomena call “acedia” is that if you choose to accept this as your new chosen standard of care and your moral code to perform you are in fact discarding all of your own moral and social standards that existed before you walked through those gates.

In fact, you have allowed the devil, this ever present evil spirit to invade your soul to set a new standard for your moral and social standards now considered by you as a virtue rather than what you once thought was evil and wrong.

 

December 7, 2012

The Noonday Devil

Beware the Noonday Devil

By Carl R. ToersBijns

The Church's monastic tradition sees as one of the most dangerous enemies of the spiritual life what the psalmist calls "the noonday devil" (Ps 91:6). The monks took this phrase as an apt description of the lethargy or fatigue they battled at about midday. Today this phrase can lead to thoughts of how corrupt public leaders have become wrongful influences in our lives and morality.

These noonday devils preached a “what’s the use” attitude that precipitated apathy and pointless bickering. This approach is designed to tire you out and wear you down as you are worn down to conforming to the devil’s wishes. We all know when you are exhausted, you begin to compromise and compromise leads you to defeat.

Thus this is a plea to stay awake and be alert of the noonday devil. Don’t listen to his words as he corrupts your mind and heart. Ask for strength to resist his words and evil deeds as you face temptation and to fall asleep mentally.

This noonday devil preaches hate, discontent, laziness and sloth like manners. It desecrates the value of life and brings death as a normal situation to be in as all that live will eventually die.

This devil brings sadness and sorrow. There are many side effects that are too numerous to bring about but nevertheless a reality we must face each day of our lives.

Remember God’s goodness and don’t become bored with God’s wisdom. Do not respond to the noonday devil and his evil ways. Instead respond to God’s love, wisdom and goodness as His works are wonders of this Earth.

Do not fall to the symptoms of laziness and fall into the pit of fire because you made no effort to heed this spiritual warning. Fill you time with the goodness and not the evils of life. Face the world with optimism and hope that all men are created equal and deserve the pursuit of happiness as we focus on the important things in life.

Do not rush into the devil’s arms by being unaware of these evil pitfalls and surround yourself with those who are going to lift you higher. Surround yourself in a culture that embraces the good things in life and have faith in what you believe in.

Most of all, do not be so busy that you are asleep to the very things that mater. Don’t ride the fast lane of life and forget all that you have been taught about reflection and thoughts that bring hope and happiness to those that seek the word that is so divine.  Do no avoid the reality as it exists to avoid giving your heart and soul to humanity and not what is evil.

 

Help wanted - Apply here

A laundry list of prison failures

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

 

Ever notice how the director of the Arizona prison system always declines to appear on television to refute or deny any wrongdoings reported by the media in the last three years?

Do you think that this is a deliberate tactic to assassinate the public confidence in our prison system?

Knowing how arrogant and tenured this man is, I am surprised he has not taken advantage of his public image to respond to the number of failures occurring while under his watch. It almost appears as if he has waved the white flag of surrender or pushing the fact that he doesn’t care enough about these flaws to respond to them in a most constructive and competent way. As it is, he is the only man in Arizona that can actually tell all of us the truth and what is really being advertised as a failed prison system today.

That being said, you must be aware of the impact of such an apathetic attitude and how this is impacting his credibility and leadership qualities. His refusal to address all matters in a public forum is one of his basic calls as a public leader and explain the appropriate action is being taken to correct all these flaws.

Perhaps he is relying on the department’s actions to speak for itself, however, that would be a fatal mistake for the public perception and opinion of his leadership has been dwindling quickly over the years.

It is logical this era must end soon. It is also rational that mistakes have to be corrected and failures must be reversed into success stories. It seems today, everything is wrong with Arizona prison management as the list is too long to print and historical data is revealing failure after failure since 2009.

Subvertly, he has eluded that things are wrong but refuses to address them specifically and publically. Shifting his policies constantly to address these shortfalls, his reactive approach is being noticed by lawmakers and law breakers.

Today his challenge should be clear. Repair those issues on this lengthy laundry list that need fixing.

This is our challenge for the next two years he should focus on:

• Controlling spending and stop private prison growth in Arizona
• Reduce the prison population and make the officer to inmate ratio safe again pre-2007
• Take proactive assessments to protect the public from escapes, disturbances, excessive liabilities and needless costs incurred because of negligence or poor performance
• Focus on staff safety and public safety and make them priority one
• Restore staffing patterns and correctional officer positions in maximum custody lost since he took over in February 2009
• Cut the political power, intimidation and fear factors of his administrators and reduce the administrative size of his agency
• Reduce prison deaths and suicides as well as natural deaths
• Restore sound and practical medical and mental health care in practice and delivery of services
• Reduce prison bed expansion growth and false bed space projections for more maximum custody beds in the future
• Restore the classification system for inmates to be housed in their appropriate custody levels and limit overrides to accommodate bed space and eligible transfers to private prisons
• Restore the promotional and disciplinary policies for all employees to allow career growth and opportunities
• Restore the human resource policies that allows employees to remain classified under grade 20 and not uncovered making them subject to willful termination or dismissal for political reasons
• Open up a respectful and meaningful relationship with the media and allow transparency to exist to demonstrate compliance with rule of law and departmental policies and procedures
• Open up a respectful and mutual relationship with organized labor and allow input and feedback to be included in executive decision making
• Expose detrimental practices that incur the loss of life, limb or danger to all that work or live inside a prison

There are other actions required to bring these failures to the front of the agenda. He must work with the legislature to develop and organize an independent oversight committee to track prison business and transactions as well as changing these corruptive policies in place today.

He must turn the tables on the politics and tacit approval that exists within this culture of death now infested inside this prison system and take the opportunities for these “lessons learned” and turn them around.

He can do all this and still turn loose the dogs and appropriate use of force on those that challenge his changes in every way possible. Eradicate the gang controls that exist today and make prisons safer than ever before.

December 6, 2012

Symbolism is sometimes truthful like in this video

The Chair

Overcompensation - Situational Assessments

Is Overcompensation Confidence or is it Arrogance?

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

It has been said often there is a thin line between being confident and being arrogant. Although the differences may be hard to tell you have to look closely to find what you are seeing is either overcompensation of feelings, ideas or tones and volumes motivated for a real unwarranted and raw materialistic or emotional power grab for control.

Some behaviors for example describe confidence such as being loud, expressive and in your face attitudes seem to reflect for many positive attributes of a person’s personality, characteristic or confidence.

Conversely, some feel that people who demonstrate their will, intelligence and voice silently, and in a cooperative manner can also display confidence but in a lower key manner that can be described as being aloof or other stereotypical comments that describes people.

The fact is that both are broad generalizations and must be applied to different situations. The main issue is whether or not either style attempts to draw a response of the subject at hand thus approach might deliver the desired response.

There is nothing mysterious about tone or volume associated with communication and behaviors. There are those persons who have a quiet confidence and there are those that possess a loud arrogance. The message is delivered in the manner desired for the situation.

Thus it is important to be able to distinct the different behaviors for different situations and conclude the difference between confidence and arrogance.

Realizing that some people can go about and take care of business in a quiet diligent manner yet draw the appropriate response and respect is another way to seek the proper attention for the occasion. Thus we have a quiet type versus the all mouth that is often described as being “all mouth and no action.”

Interestingly, people in general, either through their own social skills or indoctrinations or educational levels will resort to some sort of adjustment of approach to maintain an objective mechanism and control of the subject discussed or debated. This is where you need to have the ability to observe and look for superficiality and relate to the person’s motive or desire in such occasions.

So you must always ask a few questions about the situation as you wonder; are controlling people overly dominating because they actually feel out of control of the thing/person they are trying to control? Does this thing/person that they are trying to control scare them a little bit? Is this a matter of insecurity rather than being confidence or arrogance? You have to figure out just what the real deal is here so you can adjust your situational assessment and maintain control of what you want to say or do in such instances.

There is one rule a person must never forget. Whenever a person feels they are at a distinct or known disadvantage, they make try to manipulate the situation and overcompensate and become a little bit assertive, aggressive, more innovative or creative in their mannerism or approach.

My point is to simply be aware of such conditions as they may play into the part or act being performed to influence a desired outcome. This is most commonly known as a bluff.

When people feel they are being backed against the wall or cornered into a situation to fight or be controlled, it causes them to compensate for the occasion and may actually exceed and successfully deceive their personal capabilities to defend themselves effectively. Hence, when a person is at a disadvantage, this may motivate them to perform better and higher than ever before giving them the energy and drive to make things happen with unexpected results and successful conclusions.

Situational control is a very delicate process. It involved every capable human intelligence resource available to overcome either a physical or mental disadvantage and allows people to be smart enough and brave enough to try what was once impossible for them to think or do.

Thus it is fair to say that confidence and arrogance work hand n hand to accomplish personal feats when challenged and give them the desire to overcome personal barriers and be successful in the end. Another important lesson learned on human behaviors.

 

December 1, 2012