Kill Orders ~ A Satire on a $ 50 millon dolar prison folly

“Kill Orders”

A Satire of a $50 million dollar Prison Folly

In the beginning of February, 2009, the Arizona Department of Corrections issued a new decree called the “Kill Decree” which directed that every incarcerated prisoner who had not been put to work should be on a hit list and handed over to selected staff to be treated with negligence, punished and confined with orders to isolate them and keep them at the most restrictive custody level available. 

This order was distributed via the quarterly warden’s meetings and memos originating in their regional offices. These targeted individuals were to be sent to the maximum custody units to isolate and control their behaviors.

In October 2009, detention units statewide were overcrowded with those prisoners targeted for this decree and efforts were made to house them at various special management units as they were being housed triple or four with two in the bunks and two on the floors. Double bunking became a priority and beds were installed inside small concrete boxes to accommodate the additional prisoners.

The main issues at hand were prisoners refusing to house because of political, racial or gang related problems covered under the protective segregation policy but ignored or delayed thus forcing them to house on yards with known enemies.

Their bodies infringed encumbered space provided for those on the bunks and conflicts would often arise regarding the invasion of privacy and disrespect of personal property or space. Violence increased and staff also became targets of this frustrated target group that knew they were headed for the isolation and control units per their destiny under the “Kill Decree”.

Soon the violence was out of control and staffs were ordered not to interfere with these serious and violent assaults. Additionally, administrators were informed that no one [prisoners] should be prosecuted for taking part in these assaults that sometimes resulted in serious injuries or death. The stage was set to create a most violent and predatory gladiator arena that would be uncontrolled yet sanctioned by those in power.

The treatment of prisoners began to be characterized by elements of a particular inhumanity. The death of so many of them was not merely because of the inaction of individual correctional officers but because of the “Kill Decree” and the cultural indifference it created towards the preservation of life and dignity for human beings. The value of a human life had been diminished into a number and not a face or being.

Through the systematic plans to kill, eliminate or reduce legitimate  inmate work programs, the inmate suicide prevention aide program and other incentive / capacity programs, the administration made sure that any reformative programs were killed or stopped so that those idle inmates would be targeted for the purpose designed under the “Kill Decree”.

Although there were organized plans to continue to fill  certain [but reduced] programs to capacity, the decree denied funding, staffing and time for such activities and killed any efforts to revive incentive based programs that would enhance the prisoner’s ability to provide better pay and enhanced privileges established as policy by fore the “Kill Decree”.

Incentive programs were systematically diminished as the criteria for qualifying for certain jobs and programs became more stringent and with less priority. These programs were essentially phased out due to lack of finding prisoners that did not qualify under the new guidelines as inmate employment rules were changed to reduce hours and wages worked for those employed.

In April of 2010, the food regulations changed and meals were altered for weekends and holidays. A brief strike by prisoners resulted in no concessions by the administration but rather more regulations were issued to control behavior and dissent of policies.

The orders consisted of zero tolerance for violence resulted in more prisoners being locked up for detention as resistance was broken as an energetic action plan was devised to increase beds at the maximum custody units for all these ruthless, violent and insubordinate prisoners that were locked down when any of them demonstrated even the slightest indication of resisting or protesting living conditions due to the double bunking and decrease in staffing to provide a safe and secure living or work environment.

Labeled gangsters, extremists, fanatics or problematic in nature, they continued to be transferred to higher custody levels for isolation and control. Employees were encouraged to use every tool on the use of force continuum to control prisoner’s behaviors. In addition, the disciplinary process for prisoners were modified to give the administration more control and more discretion on summaries and findings. The inconsistencies in this order created confusion for anyone carrying out this order not to use their weapons or force with insufficient energy or effort thus making it punishable for anyone to disregard this decree and subject to administrative disciplinary as well as other sanctions.

Finally, as a result of this kill order, prisoners were left without due process for disciplinary or classification processes. Their rights were being rationalized into channels that provided no genuine appeal or re-consideration in those matters at hand. They were also left without suitable medical care, sufficient personal uniform clothing, nutritional supplements and mental health care, and in some cases, left to die.

The mission to entrap and declare these prisoners to be housed at a higher custody level was intensified as efforts through politically motivated investigations at all complexes resulted in the use of persons convicted of crimes to serve as confidential informants on other prisoners and staff. These snitches were common among gang Debriefers and others willing to serve this role.

Further, the wardens were encouraged to seek out among the prisoner elements those who appear reliable and advised to use them for intelligence gathering inside each prison and use them as informers by using all existing possibilities to isolate and control those targeted under the “Kill Decree”.

By the use of these informers more prisoners were targeted and the beds at the maximum custody units began to swell with the need to add more beds in the immediate future. These beds would suffice to house those revolutionaries or leading personalities that have expressed resistance or defiance of the “Kill Decree” and found to be agitators or disruptive groups by the administration.

Ironically, the Arizona Department of Corrections has asked and received $ 50 million dollars for the expansion of maximum custody beds that was created by this parody or sketch outlining what may be actual events along with inferences based on anecdotal results found today inside the Arizona prison system.

This folly was created by a self-fulfilling prophecy that was in reality legitimately designed by the German Army many decades ago in World War II and used on prisoners of war.

The only exception to this parody is the fact there were actual cases where prisoners of war were mistreated as human beings. They were executed for no reasons other than taking up space inside their prison camps and not being able bodied to work or do anything productive for the German regime in power at the time and occupying foreign countries taking millions of people prisoner and incarcerate them under terrible war camp conditions.