By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
MIAMI — The chairman of a key legislative committee and an entourage of Senate staff dropped in for an evening of surprise inspections at two of North Florida’s troubled prisons late Thursday.
The initial findings after touring Suwannee Correctional and Jefferson Correctional: dormitories that had been abandoned because of leaking roofs, facilities dependent on community donations for supplies, and dangerously low staffing levels at two prisons with a history of inmate abuse.
“I’m sorry to be the only fool who has taken it on himself to check it out but I don’t like dog and pony shows,’’ said Sen. Greg Evers, R-Crestview, in an interview with the Herald/Times.
He said he decided he needed to conduct the surprise inspections to “get to the bottom of what needs to be done at the Department of Corrections” after a series of reports in the Miami Herald have called attention to a record number of inmate deaths and allegations of cover-up by officials involved.
He said he relied on a state statute that allows authorized visits by legislators, governors, judges, Cabinet officials and states attorneys and brought along his staff to chronicle the experience.
The reaction from the close-knit prison establishment: complete surprise.
“A Senator or Representative, touring a State Correctional facility, afterhours, is unheard of,’’ wrote Samuel Culpepper, director of prisons for Region 1 in North Florida, in an email message to wardens on Friday morning. “We’re in a new day and a new time.”
He noted that Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, chairman of the House budget subcommittee that will oversee prison appropriations, also visited Wakulla Correctional Institution in a pre-scheduled visit on Thursday during the day.
“The message here is very simple,’’ Culpepper warned his wardens. “Every moment of every day is inspection day. We should always be prepared.”
Evers arrived at Suwannee Correctional Facility located in Live Oak, just west of Lake City, at 5:15 p.m. accompanied by his legislative aide, Senate General Counsel George Levesque and three staff members from the criminal justice and appropriations committees.
Suwannee Correctional is the site of an October 2013 prison riot by inmates who attacked five prison guards. In April 2014, Shawn Gooden, 33, died under mysterious circumstances at the prison, and his death is also under investigation by the FDLE. Inmates there have long complained of violence, abuse and corruption at the prison, and in July, the Miami Herald confirmed that an FBI investigation is ongoing at the prison.
After the Senate’s unannounced tour of Suwannee, they traveled west an hour to Jefferson Correctional Institution for a surprise visit there that began at 10:07 p.m.
“When the wardens finally showed up because they were instructed that we were there, they allowed us to talk to officers, get their input and I thought it was a real worthwhile opportunity to actually see what goes on at a prison at night,’’ Evers said.
He said he saw prisons that were clean, and calm, but the conditions frightened him.
He saw “staffing levels that were stretched very, very thin in critical areas.” One officer in a control room and two guards roaming a pod were not enough to contain trouble if they had a problem with an inmate, he said. “You don’t have the appropriate amount of staff to handle it.”
The facilities were using television donated to them by the community “and if a TV goes down, you have a lot of folks that are very upset and that makes it harder to control and becomes a safety issue.”
And he saw inmate dormintories “that had to be abandoned because of roofs with water coming in.”
Evers said he concluded that the conditions clearly contribute to the prison culture that has increasingly relied on use of force and inmate abuse as a disciplinary tactic “and inmates are aware of that.”
“I haven’t gotten to the heart of what I wanted to find but it gave me an opportunity to talk one-on-one with corrections officers about their jobs,’’ he said.
In his memo to wardens, Culpepper said that he expects more surprise inspections and the department’s “Office of Legislative Affairs is working on talking points so we can have a consistent voice regarding our needs.”
Among them, Culpepper said is the need for more staffing, pay raises, physical plant repairs, upgrading their vehicles. “Whatever they say needs to be factual,’’ he advised. “Quoting erroneous information will hurt any good information we provide.”
Evers scoffed at the call for talking points and attempts at corrections officials trying to control the message.
I’ve heard the talking points,’’ he said. “It’s when you get a corrections officer somewhere where he can speak very freely, you get the whole story. You don’t get talking points. You get honesty and I believe honesty will make the difference in our corrections system.”
Here’s the Florida Statute:
944.23 Persons authorized to visit state prisons.—The following persons shall be authorized to visit at their pleasure all state correctional institutions: The Governor, all Cabinet members, members of the Legislature, judges of state courts, state attorneys, public defenders, and authorized representatives of the commission. No other person not otherwise authorized by law shall be permitted to enter a state correctional institution except under such regulations as the department may prescribe. Permission shall not be unreasonably withheld from those who give sufficient evidence to the department that they are bona fide reporters or writers.