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Florida Senate Passes Prison Overhaul
April 2, 2015
The Florida Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly supported a prison-reform package that includes a commission to oversee the state’s embattled corrections agency, but the House is poised to consider a competing plan that lacks the oversight panel.
Senate Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers pushed forward the changes in the aftermath of stories about inmate abuse at the hands of prison guards, rampant corruption inside prisons and allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers.
Evers’ bill (SB 7020) would make it easier for inmates to file complaints, create new penalties for rogue guards who abuse prisoners and establish a governor-appointed commission to oversee prisons and investigate wrongdoing. The measure, approved by a 36-1 vote, would also allow inmates’ families or lawyers to pay for independent medical evaluations and expand opportunities for old or sick inmates to get out of prison early.
The proposal would also require corrections workers to videotape all “non-reactionary” use-of-force incidents — non-emergency situations in which inmates are gassed with noxious chemicals. Each prison would have to track use-of-force incidents and the Department of Corrections would have to post an annual report documenting those incidents on its website.
“They don’t go to prison to be sentenced to death unless they are put on Death Row, and we’ve had too many questionable deaths in our prisons. I just really hope this is the beginning of the end of the crisis and the unfortunate circumstances that we’ve seen in our penal institutions,” Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said.
Evers, whose Panhandle district includes three prisons and numerous work camps, made several surprise visits to institutions over the past several months. The visits revealed inadequate inmate health care, overworked and understaffed prison guards and shoddy equipment, the Baker Republican previously said.
“We will go to the point that when you go to prison that you will be given the opportunity to enter the Department of Corrections. You will be allowed to rehabilitate yourself … and you will come out alive on the other side and not leave the prison in a body bag,” Evers said earlier this year.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and other GOP House leaders have repeatedly rejected the oversight commission, objecting that the effort would create another “layer of bureaucracy.” Critics of the commission also say that a previous iteration of the oversight panel did not work.
On Wednesday, Crisafulli told reporters his chamber is prepared to release an alternative plan that could further decentralize the corrections agency, now divided into three regions. The department oversees more than 100,000 prisoners, nearly as many probationers and employs more than 20,000 workers.
“One thing we’ve talked about is more of a regional approach. They’re obviously looking at an overall board, so to speak, to go back to,” Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said. “And for us, for me, I would think each region has a little bit of different challenges, so having that opportunity to maybe handle that at a regional approach versus one location in Tallahassee might be a better way to go. …We’re going to work out those differences.”
Evers said he had initially rejected the oversight panel but, at the suggestion of Sen. Rob Bradley, included it in his package after making the prison visits and hearing repeated stories from inmates and workers about wrongdoing, abuse and staffing issues.
The new commission would have investigatory powers and be in charge of policing prisons, now handled by the Office of the Inspector General, which answers to Gov. Rick Scott’s chief inspector general.
Bradley, a former prosecutor who for two years chaired the Senate’s criminal-justice budget committee, insists that an independent panel is necessary to restore trust because the agency’s inspector general “has not done a good job of rooting out bad actors.”
Corrections Secretary Julie Jones, brought out of retirement by Scott earlier this year to take over the troubled agency as the governor’s fourth corrections chief in as many years, has committed to expanding internal reforms launched last year by her predecessor, former Secretary Mike Crews, and is especially interested in changing how mentally ill inmates are treated.
“I do appreciate her words. I believe her when she says she’s dedicated to reform. But we’ve heard it before by some of her predecessors. And there’s been seven or eight secretaries in 10 years. So we need more than words. We need to have verification that reforms are actually occurring. That’s why that oversight is so important to us,” Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Comments
15 Responses to “Florida Senate Passes Prison Overhaul”
Better than dogs? If someone ran a dog pound like FDOC is ran, it would be shut down.
The general public have no inkling of the goings on inside a prison. To run a prison you must have enough man power to do so, but you must have the money to do so. You can’t expect someone to risk their life every day for the money FDOC wants to pay AND get the ones that can handle that job.
It’s like being a good sheriff, they must have the head for most tasks and still, as a last resort, be able to back up their word, WITHOUT JUDGEMENT.
Get a grip folks, everyone that goes to prison is not guilty of their charges. Some can’t get back to court on a technicality or money issues.
Florida done away with parole in the early 80s. Did you know you can get life in Florida and never killed or even caused injury to another?
Most of the officers working in a prison don’t have a clue how messed up the criminal justice system is or they may understand just a little better the personalities of these criminals. FDOC as it stands does nothing for any human that’s positive, including the ones living in Florida that they so proudly say FDOC protects.
FDOC teaches you to survive with animal instinct and that over rules pretty much anything else.
With that kind of atmosphere, you couldn’t pay me to work there.
Poor child molestor
Chris in Molino,
there are lots of stabbing in the FDOC, you must not work I’m the FFOC or its been a while since you have!
Seriously? What a load of dog doddles! Why dont we spoon feed these poor, misunderstood angels. Perhaps we can get the guards to wipe thier backsides with feathers for them too?
These men and women are incarcerated because they did somethjng BAD! Quit coddling and start punishing!
My son was an SO for 5 years. What those honest, hardworking, ever patient guards put up with would have most people running away, screaming. Urine ad feces thrown on them. Spit at, hit and bitten at the first chance. Even had infected blood thrown at them. Why punish everyone for the crimes of a very few idiots on a power trip.
Lets get everyone who voted for this Reform to spend one day working in close quarters with these criminals.
My thoughts:
Never treat a human worse than a dog.
If you must confine him, do so.
Don’t torture the beast.
Those complaining about lack of rehabilitation programs should look at their historical successes — or lack thereof.
Those wanting to use inmates for slave labor should consider the damage done to slavemasters. ‘Tain’t wuth it.
The fact that most inmates will be released onto the general population unrehabilitated does not change with or without programs aimed at trying nor does it comfort us or fill us with hope.
David for better results
……….to make you safer. Cause you need govt. for food, protection, etc.
@Just me
Wow, all the stabbings ? What prison did you work at ? Holman i guess, cause stabbings are rare in FDOC. Besides, with all my experiences with FDOC, NOTHING EVER gets better for the inmate. EVER ! All the drugs ? Your right about that. So why not give package permits back ? That was the reason they were taken. Oh wait, that’s right, do what they do best, guise everything in the form of “security threat”. No taking packages was about forcing families to spend some of those millions on cheap crap marked up 400% instead of items of their own choosing. But back to the phrase “security threat”. I heard that routinely 20 years ago. Now i hear it out here. All about control. Prison is just an experiment for what’s going to happen out here. Take your rights away a little at a time, till you look around and have none. All in the name of a perceived or created “security threat”.
Increase the staff and their rights. Add cameras everywhere, Put the prisoners on chain gangs, hard productive labor, earn their keep, vent their frustrations. And remember Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolph Hitler had a Momma..so do the honest prison workers. Walk a mile in their shoes. Put in express lane on death row.
95% of inmates will be released to Florida communities at some point, some this week. Who do you want DOC turning out? Reasonably well-treated and well-prepared felons, or bitter, angry, resentful ones?
Remember this is someones son or daughter. Some body loves them. So, say a prayer for them.
It’s not right to beat inmates, they are human. It is necessary to use force on some of them due to them acting aggressively and sometimes attacking officers and other inmates. It is very dangerous inside a prison, people have the wrong idea that all these inmates are trying to do better. There are some that do want to do better and there are programs for that. We have lots of programs that will help them, but there are some that will not help themselves. The officers are under paid for the risk we take everyday, even though people think we are. Under staffed is the worst thing about it and the inmates know it.
I am so glad I left the prison system. I chose to leave when the nicer DOC started
Inmates have more rights in a prison than the officers. When your “loved one” is attacked by one of the other inmates What if the officer hesitates Bc he’s job scared …well you know the end of the story. Every one on the out side only gets the side of the story from a phone call from your loved one. What really happens with all the drugs assaults stabbing and that only brushes the top. Bless the officers They gonna need it. or just turn everyone out Thatll work
Not directed at Don but if anyone has a loved one in the prison system in Florida , the attitude would be different. Most institutions have no rehabilitation services for these inmates but some do try to rehabilitate themselves. They don’t need to be singled out and gassed or beat because they are trying to do better. If the public wants them in prison then the public needs to understand that we are locking up human beings, not dogs and they needed to be treated as humans. Someone, somewhere loves them.
Everyone needs a second chance. I still say job training and counseling. They are humans. If it was your son or daughter how would you want them treated. Help them to feel self worth. We need to put an end to the swinging door.
Now just add some smores,campfire sing-a-longs and soft kittens for the inmates to call their very own….