Controlling Trolling inside prisons

                                                         Controlling Trolling

I have been wondering how long it will take for those state leaders who are trolling the state looking or wandering around searching for the right person to lead Arizona’s prison system. It has struck me lately that the frequency of prison happenings since 2009 has resulted in more prison deaths, more staff injuries and certainly more uncontrolled melees that are strong indicators of weak leadership and lack of guidance from above.

Reading a lot about these “incidents” throughout the state and listening to the concerns of correctional officers that work these tough beats inside our penitentiaries, I can picture a bunch of “retired while on active duty” (R.O.A.D.) men and women sitting around the large conference table on the fourth floor surrounded with trophies of personal accomplishments over the last decade or so but none relevant to the issues on the table today.

 

None of them are engaged in business-like conversations or discussions. The laughter is loud as they sip on their custom bought bottled water and exaggerating their self importance to the group. It’s fair to say that when you develop a picture of someone in charge you may find an image of someone intelligent, sober, considered, polite and yes empathetic to the agency’s needs and troubles.

I am certain you will not find anyone fitting that description on the fourth floor down on Jefferson Avenue near the Arizona state capitol. Instead you may find cold hearted, calloused, drunk or under the influence of a liquor type of attitude running this state agency that only thinks of themselves rather than those that carry the burdens of this agency on their backs, the correctional employee and correctional officers.

What they should be talking about are issues pressing within the agency that start with rule of law and compliance with their own policies and procedures. Releasing politically correct statements every time there is an incident, they attempt to do damage control by doing nothing. In the meantime, employees suffer at the most “difficult juncture” of state leadership and prison chaos as we find that nobody on the fourth floor gives a damn about them or anything else since they are all secured with their double dipping paychecks safely deposited in their checking accounts for an unlimited amount of time.

Rather than acting responsible, they act foolish and make demands that are unrealistic. They constantly change internal policies and procedures without a legitimate basis for doing so. They ignore basic and sanctioned American Corrections Association (ACA) accreditation standard and fail to act accordingly to avoid lawsuits and other litigation events.

Acting in an adolescent manner while screaming at their subordinates, they ignore the rape of the system and widespread anger about their lack of ownership / leadership of their own priorities and public safety. Showing no willingness to develop positivity within the agency and implement a bold strategy to get back on track with sound correctional practices and following the rule of law, this scandalous behavior will continue until someone in the Capitol wakes up and realizes this abuse impacts their reputations as well as endangering the communities and public safety.

To date, hundreds of citizens have been marching in the streets carrying signs asking for help and attention to those issues brought forth. Every day, the news prints another failure in ink to remind our communities that they are not safe with prisons inside their communities. However, it is clear nobody in the legislature or the governor’s office is listening.

Bland press release statements try to convince the public and the media everything is all right but in reality these prisons are coming to a boiling point and nobody is watching and preparing for such a calamity.

I don’t think this is a case of lack of resources or ability to prepare or to respond to prison problems. I think it is more a policy of apathy and trolling techniques to allow the inevitable to occur and then take an “I told you so” approach asking the legislature and the governor for more money to run the system that has failed because of deliberate indifference to its needs internally and operationally neglected.

There are no growing pains as the system’s population is actually shrinking. It is shrinking in prison population and it is shrinking in retaining experienced and qualified personnel. With empty beds available, they continue to insist to double bunk maximum custody prisoners in a newly proposed prison bed bid without first controlling and managing existing maximum custody beds that contribute to a high rate of homicides, suicides, staff assaults and delays in medical care as well as mental health treatment for those locked away in solitary confinement without a due process review making their stay their indefinitely and finally when their time is done, released back to our streets.

There is only pettiness and bad faith dealings with our elected officials, our citizens and the communities put in harm’s way because of poor administrative guidance, communication and closed channels of transparency that creates tension and anger throughout the state’s prison population as well as their own 10,000 employees who depend on this administration to protect them and not throw them to the wolves as are doing today.

The bottom line is we rely on state leadership to keep channels open particularly at times of turmoil or disruption. When channels are closed its inflames emotions and anger and it would be more realistic if they would spend their time working on these problems rather than spending most of their time engaging in irrelevant dialogue while engaging in tasks that actually makes their jobs more difficult than easier because of their own device.