Delaware Watch is scandalized by the kind words that Stan Taylor is getting due to his retirement. I think Dana needs to see things from a different perspective.
The man’s retiring. Doesn’t that warrant a normally up-front and respectable guy like Wayne Smith to look the other way about some rather small incidents and statistics?
18 deaths a year, highest rate of AIDS deaths in the country, the Man With Two Heads; none of this seems to be a reason to make a guy feel bad when he’s retiring. So, he didn’t know that more than one inmate died every month since 2005 or that prisoners were regularly not tested for diseases such as AIDS when they are admitted. Is it his job to know every tiny detail of what goes on in the prisons he runs? Be reasonable!
Imagine the fortitude it takes to see news about your prison’s alleged “negligence” while trying to shrug off overworked guards, the rape of a counselor, and concerned family members, then dealing with a federal investigation while trying to high-tail it out of there. I mean, retire. The guy is a rock!
I mean, most people when faced with a situation like this would would go out of their minds trying to find ways to fix the situation before it got so bad that the press gets involved. Not Stan, no. Stan stuck to his guns. Stayed the course, if you will, and had the integrity to allow the press to have their day. No one in the DE government has avoided work harder in their strenuous effort to bring the ineptitude of the prison system into the public eye.
Because of Stan’s steady leadership, the federal government has been invited with open arms to take a look at our prisons and offer their advice for improvement. They don’t accept that kind of invitation from just anyone. I think it’s Stan’s record of keeping 18 prisoners per year, far more than any other state, from hitting the streets again that has won the federal government’s attention. Now Stan, his work done, will hand the reigns of leadership to another, passing also the opportunity to implement the improvements that Stan’s hard work highlighted. Stan is not only retiring, but humbly handing over glory rightfully his to another.
Now, that’s a public servant!
Tags: Prison System, Stan Taylor
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December 6th, 2006 at 8:30 am
I love your sarcasm. Now all I need is a towel to clean off my monitor.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:33 am
“The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.”
-Edith Sitwell
December 6th, 2006 at 8:45 am
You’re correct, of course. I was too cynical.
I should have followed the sage advice offered in a Monty Python flick: “Always look on the bright side of death.”
December 6th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Ed T.: Coffee and sarcasm: the best way to start any morning!
Dana: That’s the spirit!
December 6th, 2006 at 9:39 am
I’m with you, Joe.
Look out, Jack and John …… STAN FOR GOVERNOR!! (Another Great Delaware Democrat.)
December 6th, 2006 at 10:54 am
ouch Tyler, you bad!!
December 6th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Joe M., This is my first resonse here to you so please be gentle with me, by the way, over on Dana’s blog, I have been repeatedly brutalized, but, frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way! Beat me, whip me, make me feel wanted! Anyway, I was wondering if you and other fighters for the greater good would consider begining a rally or a crusade, if you will, to get better medical treatment for the prisoners in Gander Hill, such as contacting WHO or other organizations to get some attention to this problem. maybe a march or a rally or something that gets attentionlike that. I am in for this and would sacrifice time or money for it.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Awww, come on Nancy….I have listened to you and many others just beat the living hell out of nearly anything and everything that simply has the word Republican attached to it in any manner. The balance has to come back now, the election is over. Bush lost this round and bad.
I will not call attention to the Democrats in Delaware being shite, if you do the same for my side of the aisle (generally speaking). Both of us can go after a-holes from both of sides of the aisle, especially our own — as we should, without ever bringing party into the equation for a moment.
Right now the Dems own Delaware, so you should be careful about getting way too partisan lest you get your “tail caught in the crack” as the old saying goes….
Cheerio.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
That being said, I do like what the Progressive Democrats have to say on a lot of big policy questions. I wish they could take over the Del Dems and clean up all this fatcat insider nonsense in state, county, and city government (for those of us Wilmington) that comes courtesy of the Old Democrats of Delaware.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
wish they could take over the Del Dems and clean up all this fatcat insider nonsense in state, county
***
unfortunately, the candidates they endorse come up short about half of the time.