By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
MIAMI, Fla. — On the defensive over allegations of abuse and cover up at the nation’s third largest prison system, the newly-installed secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections is offering a series of reforms aimed at repairing the embattled department.
DOC Secretary Julie Jones will tell the Senate Criminal Justice committee about a host of reforms to the system that has seen a 13 percent increase in inmate deaths in the last year amid accusations of abuse and cover-up within the prison system, a federal investigation and lawsuits from whistleblowers.
Jones, who retired from the Florida Department of Highway Safety last year, was recruited to bring in fresh blood to the department which hosts 101,000 inmates and operates a $2.1 billion budget.
Among the proposals Jones told the Herald/Times:
* $16.5 million to boost salary and hire an additional 160 new staff -- from corrections officers to critical positions in probation, medical and education -- to replace the more than 2,600 positions that were cut during Gov. Rick Scott’s first term;
* make shift changes that force some supervisors and officers to take different hours;
* establish new use of force criteria;
* focus more on mental health training and beds;
* attempt to re-negotiate the medical care contract that attempts to reduce costs by 7 percent, and impose more oversight of medical care;
* seek $15 million this year and $116.5 million over five years to pay for what Jones calls a “crumbling” infrastructure in the state’s prison system.
Jones’ call for new money will follow a request by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement last month, which asked the Legislature for an additional $8.4 million to probe prison deaths and cases involving excessive force by Florida law enforcement officers.
But new FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen told the Herald/Times Tuesday that request may now be “fluid.”
“This is a process that we’ll work our way through,’' he said. “So we’re talking to Secretary Jones at DOC, talking to the legislature, the governor’s office, all the partners and stakeholders in this, and at some point, we’ll come back with a solid number.”
Asked if the governor will support her budget requests, Jones said we will know next week when he release his budget. “The governor tasked me with getting this fixed,’' she said of the state’s troubled prison system. He said he would support her budget requests as long as “it’s reasonable and you can justify it,’' she told the Herald/Times.
Does she have a handle on the allegations fo abuse and cover-up within her agency?
“The answer is, it’s not going to happen overnight,’' she said, adding she wants to focus on systemic changes to middle-management to shift the culture of the system. “The quick fix is to cut the head and tail of the snake off,’' she told the Herald/Times. “That’ leaves the middle.”
Is she confident she is getting accurate reports from the field?
“Oh yes,’' Jones responded, after being on the job for just two weeks. “I a very confident because I had people come to me from the beginning trusted me to tell me the truth. Yes I am.’'
She said that her reforms are required from everyone at every level of the organization.
“This is all hands on deck,’' she said. “I can’t do this from the top.”