This newspaper once referred to Gov. Bill Walker as a rogue while endorsing his opponent, Sean Parnell, during the 2014 election. In recent weeks Walker has certainly proved us right.<\/p>\n
Today, we\u2019d like to thank him for that.<\/p>\n
Walker told the Empire in late December 2015 he intended to release videos connected to the deaths of four inmates in custody of the Department of Corrections, one of which died at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. <\/p>\n
The governor since has lived up to his word, releasing three of the videos so far.<\/p>\n
These videos are not easy to watch, but that pales in comparison to when Walker met with the families of the deceased individuals and expressed his desire to make the videos public.<\/p>\n
The tendency in Alaska politics leans toward disclosing as little as possible until a court mandates otherwise. It\u2019s why media outlets typically band together to sue for access to documents (think Troopergate, National Guard scandal and the state\u2019s Medicaid expansion review).<\/p>\n
The deaths of these individuals without doubt tarnishes the image of Alaska\u2019s prison system, but Walker decided not to withhold a recent report highlighting problems within DOC. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard from some folks that are uncomfortable, not families, but people in the system,\u201d he told the Empire, referring to state employees who cautioned against releasing the videos. \u201cBut it made me uncomfortable watching the video, and we\u2019re talking about a death, we\u2019re talking about somebody who lost their life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the abuses of power and negligence covered in the DOC report existed before Walker took office, but he was the first to expose them. And it didn\u2019t take a lawsuit or threat of one. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re making mistakes, if our system is making mistakes \u2014 and it was \u2014 the light of day is the best way,\u201d Walker told us \u201cPeople will think differently when they\u2019re making some decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor is right on both counts. <\/p>\n
Yes, Walker is a rogue, but not the necessarily the type we thought Alaska was getting. While some in government prefer silence and secrecy, Walker is taking a different path <\/p>\n
The truth is sometimes ugly, and sometimes it\u2019s uncomfortable to witness, but in those situations it\u2019s even more important the truth be told. Otherwise, these problems will fester instead of being fixed.<\/p>\n
The governor understands this, and for this newspaper and for all Alaskans it means a change for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This newspaper once referred to Gov. Bill Walker as a rogue while endorsing his opponent, Sean Parnell, during the 2014 election. In recent weeks Walker has certainly proved us right. Today, we\u2019d like to thank him for that. Walker told the Empire in late December 2015 he intended to release videos connected to the deaths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11513"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}