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Prisons Chief Says Proposed Changes Already Underway
February 3, 2015
Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones told a Senate panel Monday that her agency is already implementing most of the changes included in a sweeping bill aimed at improving prison safety and ensuring that guards don’t mistreat inmates.
But codifying the department’s policies in law should help restore the public’s confidence in the beleaguered agency in the aftermath of stories about prisoner abuse and corruption, Jones told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
“We have very specific rules and regulations on use of force,” said Jones, a veteran law enforcement officer who came out of retirement at the request of Gov. Rick Scott to take over the corrections agency last month. “How you treat inmates humanely, the care you give that inmate and the care and consideration for training and anything else that inmate is due … but quite frankly … there is a perception that we’re not doing it. I’m fighting this negative perception.”
Committee Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker, filed the bill (SB 7020) last week. The proposal would require periodic inspections and audits to look for safety problems in prisons, require specialized training for dealing with mentally ill inmates and allow staff members to make anonymous and confidential reports to the Department of Corrections’ inspector general if they witness abuse or neglect of inmates but fear retribution.
Jones said she has launched a “habitability” inspection of the state’s prisons, the first in decades. And, she said, corrections officials are working to install more video and audio equipment in the institutions.
“I’m saying it’s optics,” Jones said. The bill includes “much of what we are doing” but “it still helps back up the department to point to, these are the things we are holding our folks accountable to,” she said.
But later, Jones acknowledged that the prison system, rocked by reports of cover-ups of inmate deaths at the hands of guards, was in need of more than an image makeover.
“The perception that we don’t have policies to keep us accountable … by ramping it up in statute helps show that we do have those policies and procedures. It’s up to me that they’re followed. So no, I do not have a perception that we don’t have a problem,” she said.
Jones tried to dispel concerns about an 18 percent increase in “use of force” incidents by guards against inmates over the past year. Although there were 894 more reports of use of force, the number of incidents in which inmates acted inappropriately and force could have been used but wasn’t climbed by more than 2,800, Jones said.
“I think these numbers show that in the majority of … instances there is no use of force,” she said, crediting what she viewed as an improvement to a “zero tolerance” policy for abuse of inmates, additional training and other changes implemented last year by her predecessor Michael Crews.
Instances of improper use of force by guards declined from 40 in 2013 to 27 last year, Jones said.
But Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, was unconvinced.
“I don’t know if I would draw the same conclusions because I don’t know what conclusions to draw based on all I’m hearing,” Bradley, a former prosecutor, said.
As in her first appearance before the committee late last month, Jones insisted that $16.5 million she requested to fill staff vacancies would be instrumental in resolving issues involving inappropriate guard behavior. Scott included the $16.5 million in a budget proposal he released last week. She also stressed the need for additional training for guards to deal with a growing number of mentally ill inmates and $15 million, also included in Scott’s budget proposal, to repair the aging prison infrastructure.
Evers, whose Panhandle district includes Century Correctional Institution, two other prisons and several work camps, was sympathetic to the plight of guards, who, like most other state workers, have gone without a salary hike for at least five years. At a recent visit to a prison in Santa Rosa County, Evers said guards complained about not having batteries for radios used to call for back-up.
“It becomes a safety issue to me when officers get tired and inmates get unruly,” he said. “If there’s an emergency where an inmate is hanging himself, it takes three officers to breach the door. And if we have one, he’s standing there watching. If he gets on the radio and the battery’s dead, the inmate’s dead before we can get to him. I’m just very concerned about the equipment and the supplies.”
He blamed part of the problem on overtired guards who work 12-hour shifts and on staffing shortages in prisons caused by budget cuts during Florida’s economic downturn. The agency has more than 3,300 fewer guards than were working in the state’s prisons five years ago, Evers pointed out.
“At all of the institutions I’ve been to that are running 12-hour shifts, when you get there and you watch those guys on the last four hours of those shifts, they’re getting tired. And you can see exhaustion. At those particular times, under the right conditions, they may cross the line,” Evers told reporters after the meeting. “The use of force we’re seeing is because of exhaustion, underpay and stress.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Comments
18 Responses to “Prisons Chief Says Proposed Changes Already Underway”
Chris in Molina, you are just the type that makes a CO’s day hard. You think you know everything but if you do why were you in prison. I am a CO and I work hard, still making the same pay that I stated at 9 years ago. As far as the twelve hour shifts, this is the fairest work schedule there has ever been. Everyone gets weekend time with their families. Yes there are lazy CO’s.. Management should deal with them. Management doesn’t deal with any problem CO’s, so they are a large part of the problem. The talk about 8 hr. rotating shifts is insane. This was tried years ago and it did not work. Why doesn’t anyone talk to the people who work the compound and ask for our imput. After all we are the ones doing the job. You can have surveyors come in all you want but they don’t work the job so what do they know. I am sick to death of hearing what scum we are., and the people judging us could never do the job we do. We are under staffed, under paid, and most definitely not treated well. I get more respect from the inmates then most of the people I work with and for.
You think we don’t do anything. ..try doing our job for a month…YOU COULDN’T HANG!!! 12 hour shifts are not the problem. We are extremely under paid…extremely under staffed…any other law enforcement job has step raises, tenure raises, performance bonuses, physical fitness incentives
To curious you are an idiot and to Chris in molino..like we need your input from behind the bars. The problem is alot of what has already been said…..no decent euipment, low pay, lack of staff and lazy officers that come to work to socialize on the phone for 12 hours. Their is a lack of professionalism by the administration who seem to only care about their image and about who’s on the other side of their text that they are sending. It’s also about babying even the most problem causing inmates who are much more important than us officers. At Century a female officer was attacked and had to have stitches in her head a few weeks ago and the admin. rewards the inmates by letting them go to the canteen the same day but let an inmate get sliced in the face and they order the officers to go in and tear the dorm up. Now where does the real problem lay. It starts from unconcerned majors, colonels and wardens all the way to the govenor. Get rid of you lazy officers but also get rid of your lazy wardens. Stop lining your pockets from kick backs and start dealing with the real problems all officers face each day. We are not watching a bunch of school children. There are 1400 murders, rapists, drug heads etc…with around 35 to 40 staff tring to keep everthing safe and running smoothly. Help us out. Someone should be listening.
@CO2, Convenience store pay, really ? Theres numerous jobs that require more intelligence, physical capabilities, and a four year degree that pay much less than the starting salary of $33k for a CO. And that in a matter of mere months.
@CO Wife & curious, safety of CO’S, come on. Ive been inside. This isn’t the 80’s & early 90’s. There are no more riots, very very rarely an assault on an officer, and rarely a fight amoung inmates. Everything is controlled now. No free movement at all. Dorms stay locked. Heck, you need a pass to go get a pass. So save that bull about safety from someone who knows better. At FSP they gas inmates just for talking. I have witnessed assaults on officers 20-25 years ago (NONE of which were unprovoked or undeserving)
everybody quick to judge prison staff but have probally never worked in a place like this when somebody breaks the law in a bad way every body says lock them up and throw away the key well somebody has to shower and feed these inmates and all the other programs they need iv been employed for 8 years not a long time but not one raise since iv been here take more do more with less staff is how people get hurt 12 hrs shift are great for the days off but thats about it not good for the staff that work in close mangement dorms or mental health settings
My son is a CO – the 12 hour shifts are not the problem – staff shortage is – when they put more and more on the staff because of all the cuts and people leaving for better pay and no replacement personnel.
Pay Raise!!! More Staff!!! Well a raise would definitely keep some of the better staff around no doubt in my mind. I’ve watched alote of good staff leave the prison due to being under payed in the past 10 years. More staff would ensure that ofc. could take a day off if they where overworked. Pay raise!!! More Staff!!
@ c.w. Sometimes, retired professional are the very people to do the job they are called back to do. If she can make things better for CO’s and for the inmates, she can be a triple dipper for all I care.
Gman has made the best observations: Training, proper staffing levels and good, experiences people. Put those who are overweight on notice. It IS a safety issue to have people who can’t or won’t respond to emergencies and/or equipment that fails at the crucial moment. Don’t agree about the comments from other posters about women, though. Women can observe, report, build rapport with the inmate population as well as men can. Properly trained women with working equipment are equally effective CO’s. Don’t make this a sex issue.
It’s a problem that needs fixing. The above common sense suggestions should be implemented to start – then other things can be tried if those fail to bring a noticeable improvement.
IT’S ALL CRAP. CO’s make plenty now. $33K after a few months of “school”. Besides that, you dont do anything. Not short-staffed. Utilize the staff you have. When inside security comes to help for master count, why should they sit in the dorm with you to shoot the breeze for an hour. Nothing will change for the inmate, if only for the worse. Security will find ways around rules as always. Ie; when video had to be used for use of force, they’d shut off the cameras, beat the hell outta an inmate and say they had to change the battery and the inmate resisted. When they killed Frank Valdez, they were telling him to stop resisting as they were stomping him. I personally witnessed a few murders at FSP and one at Lake Butler. I’ve seen more beatings by gaurds than inmate fights. You can bet DOC will be watching the vote on any bill Because they run politicians in the triangle.
@curious. Your saying don’t hire women or transfer them..
You talk about women but the women actually do more work than the men and better , so before you low grade us one of us may have to save your life from that inmate that’s beating your behind for those racial slurs that’s being frequently used.
12 hour shifts are great, but you have people that will never be satisfied about anything or get mad cause they can’t work were they choose and then they will call in sick making the shift short but 8 hour shifts will not change it because people will call in even more because of there awful days off. At on a 12 hour shift we look forward to having ever other weekend off..
But A PAY INCREASE AND NOT A BONUS will help the moral alot..your making us pay into our retirement and yiu want us to do so much for a convenient store salary..
Yes, there is a shortage. But, Rick Scott came into office and was going to “save” the State of Florida by cutting State employees. His first target was the CO’s. He had an angle to privatize the prisons for his buddies (or his blind trust). Then he targeted the teachers and cut their budget by a billion dollars. There are other services that he could have cut, instead. He hates State employees and views them as “scum”.
It appears that he needs to hire additional CO’s, but he won’t fund it. It will make his previous decision look like what it is; a mistake.
And the people of Florida voted to keep a known criminal in office, a second time!
That is not the problem. It is just to attitude of the guards. I did several years in prison. I was sexual assault by a guard. When I tried to report, they said they would lock me up for a few months “under investigation” and “for my own safety”.
Just turn them all loose. Then after a few months well c what happens. But hey the state will save money right
I agree with the 12 hour shifts. It is dangerous for the officers. I see my husband come home and he is wore out. I think that if something was to happen at the prison that the minds of the officers would not be 100%.
“aftermath of stories about prisoner abuse and corruption” Rather than make laws based on the stories, how about some research and investigation first. I’m not saying it is not going on but don’t put the horse before the cart and get boxed into something you cant get out of down the road. Julie Jones has been in charge for how long? Lets work on the basics like training, staffing, medical and the rest will fall into place.
The 12 hr shift is not doing it, a lot actually like it. Some though choose to party or stay up late or whatever the reason, you still got those who bang in, when that cuts into an already short staff, then you got the ones in training, off on vacation, if some even get that, while you got some that call in just on a whim for a stumped toe or whatever, start firing those, yeah they’ll be even shorter, but pay attention to who they hire in the first place, some are fat, lazy & can’t even uphold to the physical requirements to begin with & then when they get to where they’re going they can’t help cause they got to catch a breather, that’s not safe for the other officers & don’t hire so many women to work @ a male prison, if they get hired, transfer them to one of the women’s prison to work, & they could also stop letting those that have been in one position for 20 years promote just because they don’t want to work for one that has been there for 10. Let their work reflect not their years.
Governor Scott is doing what he said he would not do, allow double dipping. Julie Jones retired, now she is hired to run the corrections dept. by Scott, hence two pay checks or DOUBLE DIPPING.
We’re stressed exhausted and under paid due to staff shortage not 12 hour shifts. Give us the staff and equipment so we can do our jobs. A pay raise would be great too.