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Prison Overhaul Headed Back To Senate
April 26, 2015
After months of reports about inmate abuse and alleged cover-ups in the state prison system, the House on Friday unanimously approved a plan to fix problems in the Florida Department of Corrections. The House vote will send the bill back to the Senate, which approved the measure April 1. The House made changes to the bill, making it necessary for the Senate to take up the issue again.
The bill deals with numerous subjects, ranging from creating a new regional administrative structure for the department to requiring that inspectors receive specialized training if they conduct sexual-abuse investigations.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
One Response to “Prison Overhaul Headed Back To Senate”
The house version of the bill adds two additional regions, no oversight committee, and only funds 175 out of 600 vacant correctional officer positions.
1. The two new regional offices will be staffed with managers and assistants making between paying $40,000 and $110,000 per year. Estimated salaries for the two new offices $1,500,000. Enough money to fil 45 correctional offices positions. Since when has adding management made an organization more efficient??
2. Rigid hierarchical organizations (think the US Military, Sheriff’s Department, Prisons) can not be relied upon to regulate themselves. That is why we have civilian control over the military and an elected Sheriff. Who checks on the Department of Corrections? We need an outside commission to oversee this state department and this bill does not provide for that.
3. The Department of Corrections is currently staffed at crisis level security staffing rates(staffing rates that are the minimum needs in an emergency, such as during a natural disaster). The 600 new correctional officers would only get the department minimum staffing requirements (the least amount of staffing necessary to run the facilities in normal operations). This bill only provides 175 new correctional officer positions.
With the current funding levels and number of inmates in the system, two things are true. For our loved ones who are working in our prisons, they are not safe. For our loved ones who are incarcerated, they are not safe either.