National Guard To Be Deployed To State Prisons, Including Santa Rosa But Not Century

September 13, 2022

The Florida National Guard is being deployed to several prisons across the state to provide relief and supplement staff vacancies.

In the local area, the Guard will be deployed to the Santa Rosa Correctional Institute, but not Century Correctional Institute, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Florida National Guard members will supplement security posts at select institutions, under the direction of the warden and facility command staff. Guardsman will undergo training from FDC’s staff development office to equip them with the knowledge necessary to work alongside Florida’s corrections professionals.

“We received historic pay increases for our correctional officers and have hired more correctional officers monthly than we have seen in years,” said Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon. “With the temporary support of the Florida National Guard we will be able to recover and train the next generation of public safety professionals to perform our important mission.”

“I am personally seeing our agency turnaround. For the first time in years our institution is hiring more staff each month than we are losing, and this would not have been possible without the pay raises we received from the Governor and Legislature last session. I appreciate this added step being taken so we can train our new staff and safely operate our facilities,” said Warden Aaron Leavins, Santa Rosa CI.

Comments

10 Responses to “National Guard To Be Deployed To State Prisons, Including Santa Rosa But Not Century”

  1. BRING IT ON on September 16th, 2022 7:31 pm

    If we had real prisons instead of Country clubs criminals would think twice before doing bad. Prison should not be easy like having TV, wifi, cell phones and gyms. We should bring back chain gangs that can keep our right aways clean or work farms where they can grow some of their food and raise cattle. Keep a human being busy and they will become self sufficient and take some pride in themselves. A little work never hurt anyone.

  2. Gayle on September 13th, 2022 9:34 pm

    This is an expensive and terrible failure. The prisons have been sounding the alarm for years and Desantis as ignored the calls for help, he vetoed a bill that would build a larger prison that had better accommodations for the guards. There is no plan for when the National Guards will leave. 300 National Guards for 9 month with a price tag of $31 million and no plan for relief. This is total failure.

  3. Cheryl Fox on September 13th, 2022 6:50 pm

    Are taxpayers paying National Guard for for-profit prisons?

  4. Cindy Lee on September 13th, 2022 2:26 pm

    Praise God, for such a great Governor in Florida

  5. Kane on September 13th, 2022 1:06 pm

    Remember this when election time rolls around, it is a complete failure of our Florida government. Instead of taking the time to insure there were adequate staffing at these facilities (hell I’ll barely mention the lack of medical staff and the obscene amount of money 3rd party companies I’m looking at you jpay are making off our inmates’ families) our governor decided that an election police and a second national guard were more important.

  6. EMD on September 13th, 2022 12:10 pm

    It DOES take TIME to teach new employees. They DO need to learn how to do their jobs well. So far, I really like the job our Governor is doing. He is the best I’ve seen in the 47 years I have lived in Florida. I commend him. Only one man was ever perfect and they we killed Him. The way I see it, the guard is there to help out while civilians are being taught to be professionals. Makes sense to me.

  7. Derek on September 13th, 2022 9:33 am

    It is past time for the State Of Florida and legislature to approve a funded step pay plan for law enforcement and correction officers. These hero’s work day in and day out, nights, weekends and holidays year after year. Many including the State Troopers did not get a pay increase for 7-8 years and a new hire started at their same pay. Even during the times with no pay increases their insurance and retirement benefits were cut. Including family plan insurance $1,700.00 per month! These employees become disgusted and unappreciated so they leave for rewarding employment elsewhere. Legislature should fund a guaranteed step pay plan NOW and reinstate benefits to insure retention of qualified officers.

  8. Lance p on September 13th, 2022 9:02 am

    If they were doing so great, then they would not need the National Guard there in the 1st place

  9. Kate on September 13th, 2022 6:43 am

    See what you get when the State contracts “private companies to command and run your prisons. You get the national guard picking up the trash from the Companies making the big bucks.

  10. Robert Bruner on September 13th, 2022 3:36 am

    If the Governor and Legislature are doing such a great job and they are hiring such a huge amount of people why do they need the National Guard. The DOC tries to spin this like they are doing a great job when they really are doing a crappy job. Aren’t you getting sick of people telling you it’s great when it ain’t?