Imagery connected to gangs, white supremacy used in Arizona DOC training materials
PHOENIX — Documents and training materials from Arizona Department of Corrections’ servers contain images of a skull with a sword through it that experts liken to gang and white supremacist symbols.
Corrections experts say the designs may offer a window into the mindset of the Department’s Special Operations teams, reflecting an us-against-them mentality of units whose members seem to see themselves as acting out militaristic fantasies, rather than rehabilitating prisoners.
The Arizona Republic, a part of the Paste BN Network, obtained a large batch of training materials saved on Arizona Department of Corrections servers and created for special operations units. Metadata on the electronic files indicate they were created over the course of three years, from 2018 to 2020.
Among the files were images of a skull with a sword going through it, accompanied by a lightning bolt, shotguns, and the words “Arizona Department of Corrections Special Operations and Tactics.” The images were saved with filenames that suggest they were the possible designs for a uniform patch and a challenge coin.
Related story: DOJ investigation draws renewed interest in Phoenix police challenge coin controversy
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections website, the Special Operations and Tactics units consist of “Tactical Support Units, Escape Response (chase) Teams and Crisis Negotiations Teams.” Department policies say each prison "shall have teams of volunteer staff members trained" for special operations units.
Corrections employees say the Tactical Support Unit officers are specially trained on equipment and used for support purposes, similar to a SWAT team. The Chase Unit tracks escaped inmates, as when David T. Harmon and John B. Charpiot escaped from the Florence prison in January. The Crisis Negotiation team is called in to help with events like a hostage situation.
Disturbing imagery seen in training materials
The training materials include PowerPoint presentations featuring the skull and sword emblem, as well as definitions of the imagery.
“Skull = Death before dishonor,” a slide says. “Before you do anything to negatively reflect the SO&T team you would rather not be here.” The slide defines the shotguns in the emblem as “tools of the trade” and the eyes of the skull, embellished with gun sights, are said to indicate “We are always watching you.”
Another PowerPoint presentation features a photo of an actual patch created using the skull and sword emblem, which shows detailed stitching.
The training materials also included videos that use the skull emblem as a featured image and as a screen wipe transition.
Set to the soundtrack of Guns N' Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle,” another training video depicts special operations teams responding to riots at the Yuma and Kingman prisons. The video contains graphic images of the aftermath of those riots, including zip-tied prisoners, officers using dogs to intimidate prisoners, pictures of blood-stained walls and floors, and officers using non-lethal weapons on prisoners.
Prisoners alleged special operations officers committed civil rights abuses against them in the aftermath of the deadly riot at the Yuma prison in March of 2018. Thirty-seven people were injured, one prisoner died, and six officers were fired and criminally charged for destroying prisoner property.
More: Hack exposes law enforcement officers who signed up to join anti-government Oath Keepers
Response from DOC, correctional officers union
The Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the materials. The Republic was unable to confirm whether challenge coins were actually produced.
Martin Bihn, an attorney representing the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, a correctional officer union, says the union is unaware of the existence of patches or challenge coins with the skull and sword emblem.
Bihn said he would be surprised if correctional officers were using such an emblem, because “the image is replete with white power symbols that are consistent with racist inmate groups/gangs.”
Units allegedly perpetuated brutal treatment of prisoners
Formerly incarcerated people say officers who work in the Special Operations and Tactics units have a history of using excessive brutality against prisoners.
Anthony Navarro was incarcerated in several different Arizona state prisons over the course of seven years. One evening in January 2016, when Navarro was living in the Cibola unit of the Yuma prison, a fight broke out between two groups of prisoners. He says things quickly escalated, and a riot ensued.
According to Navarro, the riot lasted for about an hour. Eventually, he said a special response team arrived, "spraying rubber bullets everywhere", and forced about 150 prisoners to lay down in a recreation field.
Navarro says instead of de-escalating the situation, the actions of officers only made the situation worse.
“These special operations teams don’t get utilized very often,” Navarro said. “So when they do, they come out blasting.”
Lola N’sangou, executive director of activist group Mass Liberation Arizona, was incarcerated in the Perryville women’s prison for 10 years. She says Tactical Support Units were used frequently at Perryville, often overseeing routine operations like quarterly compliance checks, which are conducted to review prisoners’ personal items and to confiscate contraband.
'Reliving the most painful days': Supreme Court wades into divisive death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber
“They act like a group of people who are living out military fantasies,” she said. “You’ve got these men with dogs screaming at you to get on your knees. I watched numerous times as the TSU officers put their boots on women's backs and pushed them to the ground. This was during a compliance check to make sure we didn’t have extra pairs of underwear.”
N’sangou says the aggressive behavior was unnecessary, "terrifying" and especially traumatizing for the women at Perryville, many of whom are victims of domestic violence.
In addition to the physical abuse, N’sangou says the TSU officers would routinely destroy personal items, causing further mental and emotional trauma.
DOC has a long history of special operations patches, challenge coins
The Arizona Department of Corrections has a history of producing and distributing special unit patches and challenge coins. The Department website has examples of patches, including one for the Tactical Support Unit. Many of the patches contain the Department seal and elements of the state flag.
A 2010 photo obtained by The Republic shows members of an Arizona Department of Corrections Tactical Support Unit wearing shoulder patches on their uniforms and hats with the number one and an asterisk.
Is there a change?: Biden wants more transparency for police disciplinary records. Experts say it’s harder than it sounds.
Department sources who worked on the unit say this was coded language for “One ass to risk,” which is a reference to the perceived dangerous nature of working in special operations. Bartos’ collection also includes a patch with the “One Asterisk” imagery.
When properly designed and approved by Department leadership, Corrections experts say uniform patches can be good for morale. They also serve to help identify the chain of command.
Carl ToersBijns worked in New Mexico and Arizona prisons for more than 25 years. He served at all levels of the corrections hierarchy, including as a deputy warden in the Arizona prison system. He was a member of a Tactical Support Unit in Arizona prisons for 12 years, and then oversaw a TSU for five years as an administrator.
During his time in New Mexico, ToersBijns helped design the patches for the critical response teams there. Like the Arizona DOC emblem, the New Mexico patches included lightning bolts, which ToersBijns says denote the speed and quickness of special response teams.
This is similar to the description of the Arizona emblem given in a PowerPoint presentation supplied to The Republic. “You want a patch to be clear and concise as to the mission statement,” he said.
He says the imagery on officers’ uniforms and patches is important because it can impact the manner of the people they interact with and the way officers carry themselves. “It does impact the mentality of the person wearing it,” he said.
After viewing the skull and sword imagery from Arizona Department of Corrections servers, ToersBijns said it sends the wrong message.
“The patch is ambiguous and seems to run contrary to the mission of the ADCRR,” he said. “And the wording of the mission is counterproductive. Are they recruiting a special type of individual? A new breed of officers that follow this creed? It is directly opposite of reentry and rehabilitation.”
In his 2020 State of the State address, Gov. Doug Ducey announced the Department of Corrections would be rebranded as “The Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry.” Ducey said the new name “more clearly reflects the agency’s mission.”
ToersBijns noted the similarity in the skull and sword imagery to that of prison gangs.
“The patch and the definition has elements of gang-related issues: loyalty, death,” he said. “The knife is the favorite weapon of the prison gangs, so the images certainly overlap. The skull is a symbol of death. They are trying to evoke fear, or perhaps a mentality of no fear.”
ToersBijns also took issue with the definitions of the emblem imagery. “‘Death before honor?’ That’s like ‘Blood in, blood out,’” he said. “Again, it seems gang related."
'No different than a prison gang'
Mike Brady served in a number of leadership roles in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, including Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner. He also managed class-action litigation as the Chief of Court Compliance, and now works as a jail and prison consultant. He says the actions of specialized prison units often result in significant and expensive litigation.
“You get those rogue groups of officers that become self-appointed enforcers,” he said. “They have their own rules. They are often involved in use-of-force instances. They don’t feel like they need to follow the law.”
He says special unit patches worn on the uniforms of these officers can foster an “us versus them” mentality, which can be harmful to rehabilitation efforts.
Brady says in addition to running contrary to the mission of a correctional institution, the unchecked actions of special operations units can lead to individual lawsuits, class action lawsuits, and Department of Justice investigations, which can be very costly.
Addressing the Arizona Special Operations emblem, Brady says it has elements often found in prison gang imagery.
“Lightning bolts are connected with the Aryan Brotherhood. You’ve got a skull and shotguns — frankly, it’s disturbing and offensive,” he said. “It looks like an ‘SS’ patch. This is not an image that Corrections should embrace.”
“What it tells me is that these officers are out of control,” Brady said. “If this was sanctioned by the Department — it shouldn’t have been. And if it’s an unsanctioned patch, whoever is involved should be disciplined.”
Brady said Special Operations Units that would wear such a patch are “no different than a prison gang. It’s exactly the same.”
He said the name “Special Operations” itself should be changed because it has connotations of a military unit, not a rehabilitative entity.
“The weapon of choice should be de-escalation,” he said. “But groups like this don’t think that way. They work to foster an attitude of fear and intimidation. And that extends within their own ranks. They want there to be a code of silence where officers will be afraid to report misconduct. It’s a way to intimidate inmates and other correctional staff.”
A culture of policing
N’sangou says the DOC emblems are a part of the same culture of policing that was demonstrated when the Phoenix Police Department distributed a challenge coin that mocked the injury of a protestor.
“There is no difference in the way they are celebrating violence,” she said. “Policing was originally designed to treat human beings as property and to return enslaved people to their abusive captors by any means necessary. This is the same system at play.”
N’sangou says, in both instances, the imagery in question is tied to hate groups.
“The Phoenix Police challenge coin had a slogan on it that was linked to Neo-Nazism,” she said. “And here in the prisons, we potentially have a unit that is using imagery linked to white supremacist groups. The fact that those things are so closely related is not a coincidence. They are the same people. They are of the same mindset. And they are all carrying out this same wicked fantasy of causing harm and oppression with impunity.”
Follow Jimmy Jenkins on Twitter: @JimmyJenkins.