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Prison overhaul gains traction in Senate

February 17, 2015
/ Dara Kam
/ community-dashboard

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee gave a preliminary nod to a corrections overhaul that 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 proposal (SPB 7020), sponsored by committee Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker, would also allow inmates' families or lawyers to pay for an independent medical evaluation and would expand opportunities for old or sick inmates to get out of prison early. And the measure would require each prison to track use of force incidents and the Department of Corrections to post an annual report documenting those incidents on its website. Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones called the measure, which still has several committee stops before heading to the floor and so far lacks a House companion, a "work in progress" but said she is "cautiously optimistic" so far. "Sen. Evers has taken a bold approach to trying to fix the problems that he sees," Jones said after appearing before the panel on Monday. The embattled corrections agency is grappling with state probes of questionable inmate deaths, lawsuits from investigators who claim they were retaliated against after exposing a cover-up of the death of an inmate who died at a Panhandle prison after being gassed by noxious chemicals, and complaints about dangerously low staffing levels at dozens of state-run facilities. Jones, who took over the agency last month as the fourth secretary in as many years, is also scrutinizing contracts with private vendors who took over health care services for the state's 100,000 inmates last year. "We look forward to reinventing this agency," Jones told the committee before Monday's vote. Evers, whose North Florida district includes three prisons and numerous work camps, has made surprise visits to several institutions and, on Monday, peppered Jones with questions about a 1996 report that found that low pay and understaffing were the top reasons for turnover in the department. Jones identified those issues as among the top concerns of prison staff based on surveys she is now conducting nearly 20 years later. "What was amazing about this is in 1996 in virtue we had the same problems we have today," Evers said. Jones told the committee she is establishing "issues teams" made up of rank-and-file workers who will be tasked with coming up with solutions to the concerns expressed in the surveys. "Things come in waves. You fix a problem and it comes back up again if you don't attend to it over time. I think that's what's happened. The difference between what the chairman talked about in 1996 and what we're doing today are those issue teams," Jones told The News Service of Florida later. "You can survey employees all day long and take the information and when you put it in a report and put on the shelf, you haven't done anything with it. We are going to do good things with everything that our employees are telling us and to the best of our ability implement new ideas and change processes." One of the first items the "issue teams" will address is uniforms, Jones said in the interview. "They hate the uniforms. The quality. How well they wear in the summer. They're not equipped for outside posts in the winter time. The uniform piece is a quality-of-life issue. You will find that all of our teams are going to be related to mission, values and culture," she said. Evers included the oversight commission in his bill at the request of Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican and former prosecutor. The commission --- made up of a sheriff, a state attorney, a public defender, a clergy member, a community leader and a business leader --- would have subpoena powers and be able to open investigations. The commission's primary purpose is "to ensure the safe and effective operation of our prison system," Bradley said. "Real reform in this area will only be achieved if we finally change the accountability system that's in place for corrections," he said. Jones, however, told The News Service she is more interested in a commission that would offer recommendations but not have as much power as what was included in the bill on Monday. "I'm very interested in a commission that's going to look at sentencing reforming and delve into who comes into prison to begin with. That's going to be very valuable to me. I'm hoping that the commission morphs a little bit in its charge" to include prison reforms known as Smart Justice, Jones said.

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Prison overhaul gains traction in Senate

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