Is the solution to
inmate aggression
REALLY
MORE GUARDS???
If I seem to be oblivious to the nervousness of Florida 'correctional' officers or insensitive to the loss of Darla Lathrem, an officer who was killed during an 'Escape Attempt" by Charlotte inmates a few days ago, I am not.
If I appear to minimize the involvement and responsibility of the inmates, living or dead, I assure you, I definately do not.
I also refuse to absolve the Florida Department of "Corrections" of responsibility for their part in the crimes.
Instead of adopting the self-righteous and destructive rage that is sweeping through the DOC, I have chosen to examine the root causes, long term effects and alternative solutions to be found in Darla Lathrem and inmate Charles Fuston's deaths so that theirs will not be as meaningless as so many others before them.In my heart I believe that the powers that be in Florida, as represented by Secretary of "Corrections" Director James Crosby, are the root cause in both deaths, the inmate's and the guard's.I charge Tallahassee, as represented by the Dept. of "Corrections" to be, either maliciously or unintentionally, promoting policies and practices that put officers' and inmates' lives in excessive danger.I make my sincere demand that the Florida Department of 'Corrections' (you don't know how bad I wanted to type 'Corruptions') make serious changes in hiring, in training, in methods, and in procedures.For real and lasting safety and security for those in the department's employment, the Senate and the DOC, both of whom claim to be concerned for the people they represent, must rethink their 'bigger hammer" philosophy. You can't expect to protect your keepers if you don't protect their prisoners.I also hope any investigation of the Charlotte Escape Attempt includes documentation on where all the other officers were. Hopefully none were sitting with their feet on the desk or off tormenting a prisoner needlessly.4900 Olson Drive
Eau Claire, WI 54703
715-831-0076NBC2 News Online - New details scarce in CCI investigation
http://www.nbc-2.com/newsvideoplayer.asp?videonum=4564183&dw=http://www.nbc-2.com/news/yahoosum.shtml
By Amy OshierCHARLOTTE COUNTY, June 13, 2003 - "Almost two days after Darla Lathrem was killed while supervising five inmates, a number of corrections officers are too stressed to go to work. Corrections officers from around the state are filling in. Although few new details have come out about the crime, there are many questions about the Department of Corrections policies. <snip>
Corrections' officers from around the state have REASON to be too stressed to go to work! DOC policies and practices have put them in dire straits. Their rage will only make it worse. You simply cannot control human beings with nothing but fear, because once that fear becomes pure hatred, you are in grave danger!!!!
SFRC Officer James Baiardi calls for more guards as a solution to the DOC's aggressive inmate problem, which has manifested recently with the Charlotte Escape Attempt and the Washington CI Ball Bat Attack. It is my contention that better guards might help, but MORE GUARDS is NOT the answer to Inmate Aggression.
I'd like you to think outside the DOC box for a moment: The box where all inmates are liars, all guards are doing a professional job, and inmates are being returned to us un-rehabilitated only because they don't want to be.
Outside the official box, there is so much wrong that we who are aware of the big picture would be shocked if there were no inmates going over the line. The DOC has made huge mistakes that, by their very nature, HAVE to result in Inmate Aggression - because inmates are, at the core, nothing more nor less than human beings with human limits and human survival instincts.
AL SHOPP of the PBA is dead wrong! The inmates involved in the Charlotte and Washington CI incidents, if the stories are exactly as related by DOC officials and guards, had to have realized they had no chance of winning, no chance of escape. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that these are the kinds of actions that will make life even more miserable for them for the rest of their lives. So what? Did the heat just get to them? Were they on a suicide mission? Were they goaded? Did they go insane? Had they had so much they couldn't take anymore? Did human nature take over?
DOC HAS NO REWARD/INCENTIVE IN PLACE FOR INMATES:
As long as there is no reward system in place, inmates have nothing to stretch for, nothing to look forward to, little to lose and therefore less worried about misbehavior. Guards work in more danger with every cut and misjudgment Tallahassee makes.
In the past few years, the DOC has carefully removed all positive incentives with little to no provocation; Contact visits and arts and crafts for Death Row, tobacco, packages from home, transfers to prisons closer to family, parole, among other positive reinforcements.
Florida inmates have, in many cases, been deprived of the necessities, like access to typewriters to file legal papers, privacy in legal affairs, decent law libraries; decent medical care and enough digestible food to maintain health; cool air in summer and warm air in winter is nearly non-existent, and toilet paper has been scarce! The DOC has even tried to rid themselves of pesky inmate 'penpals'.
The DOC operates on the "Punishment Mode" - They have the 'Management Loaf', Solitary Confinement, PepperSpray, the Five Years for Expectorating on Guards rule; Kangaroo Hearings on Bogus DRs; Unofficial Retaliation on WhistleBlowers; a flawed grievance process and an investigative process that leaves much to be desired - such as full disclosure of the truth.
The punishment mode tends to coddle, comfort, and excuse ERRANT GUARDS. My definition of an 'Errant Guard' is one who uses their public trust and professional authority for personal gain/revenge/fetish, whatever, raising the danger level for everyone. And the DOC is full of them.
Guards have unlimited authority to write bogus DRs which unfairly deprive prisoners of years of their life in lost gaintime.
They supercede DOC rules by conspiring to keep prisoners in confinement too long and too often, depriving them of medical care in an environment conductive to medical problems and tearing up medical passes.
Errant Guards have the power to deprive inmates of even the most basic of needs, timely showers, water in their cell, clothing, food, visits and phone calls from anxious families and safety.
Their methods of punishment and control are far outside the written rules of procedures: Bogus DRs, 'throwdowns', 'rollbacks', 'coverups' are common: All sorts of crimes under the color of law have sent many an inmate over the edge in desperation.
Bad policies and decisions, lack of willingness to do proper investigations, and poor training all endanger good C/Os as well as bad guards. Errant guards lose respect of prisoners and faith the pubic might have once had in any employee of the DOC. As long as the DOC shelters unprofessional guards, there will be inmates reaching their limits and striking out.
As long as punishment is Florida guards' only tool for maintaining control, the keepers remain in grave danger, no matter how many of them there are.
Kay Lee
kaylee1@charter.net
4900 Olson Drive
Eau Claire, WI 54703
715083109976
Below is a report that substantiates some of our suspicions...the murder of CO Latherm WAS about MONEY !!!!!! DOC wants MORE MONEY!!!!!! Please email this reporter - Don Ruane druane@news-press.com
Betty
Inmate dies from injuries in jailbreak
Union leader says more officers needed
http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/030614inmate.html
By DON RUANE, druane@news-press.com
An inmate critically injured during an escape attempt at the Charlotte Correctional Institution that resulted in the death of a female correctional officer died Friday after he was removed from life support, authorities said.
Charles Fuston, 36, was serving a 30-year sentence for a 1993 burglary and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in Hardee County, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the doomed Wednesday night prison break attempt, reported late Friday that Fuston died about 9:50 p.m. at Lee Memorial Hospital.
His body will be taken to the Charlotte County Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, a union leader said Friday the slain correctional officer, Darla K. Lathrem, 38, might have had a better chance in a fight for her life if only the Legislature had listened.
The problem is the state has not provided enough correctional officers to make it safer to supervise prisoners, said President James Baiardi of the State Correctional Officers Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association. He also is an officer at the South Florida Reception Center, where new inmates are introduced to prison life.
“We’ll be going back to the Legislature again, saying we’ve been warning you against this,” he said.
“Everybody wants to be tough on crime. They put money into the law enforcement part. They don’t put it into corrections,” said Baiardi. Investigators continued to investigate the incident Friday, releasing few details of their progress. No arrests have been made. All inmates are accounted for by the prison.
Lathrem, who lived in Fort Myers Shores, apparently was attacked by an undisclosed number of the five inmates she was supervising by herself. She was armed with pepper spray and had a radio.
The odds of winning a fight against five inmates were stacked against her, but it’s common for guards to be outnumbered, Baiardi said. “On an average day, one officer with pepper spray and a radio sometimes is watching hundreds of inmates,” Baiardi said.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections agreed. “One-to-five is a relatively low number,” DOC spokesman Sterling Ivey said.
There are times when one officer is supervising 25 inmates in a classroom or 15 to 20 inmates on a work detail outside a prison, Ivey said. There may be three or five officers watching 600 prisoners in a recreation yard, he said.
Some officers questioned whether a woman should be supervising male inmates, but, in a case such as Lathrem’s, a male guard would have been killed, too, Baiardi said.
The union leader also had some harsh words for State Attorney Steve Russell. Russell doesn’t want to prosecute lewd crimes inmates commit in front of female officers, he said. That sends the message inmates can get away with anything, Baiardi said.
Such complaints are investigated on a case-by-case basis, said Russell’s spokeswoman, Chere Avery. It’s very dangerous to take an inmate with a long sentence out of the prison for trial on a minor crime, she said.
“It would tack on 30 to 60 days to their 40- or 50-year sentences,” Avery said. “Maybe it sends a message to the (prison’s) administration to take action. Sometimes the administration has to step in. That can be just as effective.”
The number of more serious assaults against correctional officers has remained stable during the past few years, even though officers are not armed, Ivey said. Guards are not armed for a reason, he said.
“These officers are in contact with inmates on a daily basis. Anything these officers carry could be used against them,” Ivey said.
The policy is good for officers because it takes away the incentive to attack in order to acquire a weapon, he said.
Baiardi doubted a weapon would have helped Lathrem. “These guys were intent on killing someone. They could’ve easily tied her up and put her in a closet and made a run for it,” Baiardi said.
Lathrem’s detail was using a variety of tools to put the finishing touches on a new dormitory before a final inspection was made, Ivey said.
Three inmates, including convicted murderer Dwight Eaglin, 27, were shipped to another state prison after the breakout attempt and Lathrem’s body were discovered around 10 p.m. Wednesday. Fuston and another inmate were injured during the incident. The other inmate, whose name has not been released, was in fair condition Friday at Lee Memorial.
No charges have been filed in connection with the incident, FDLE spokesman Larry Long said.
Investigators, who’ve interviewed 75 people so far, are sorting through what they’ve learned and the evidence they’ve collected, Long said.
Neither Long nor Ivey would identify the two inmates who were shipped out with Eaglin because the investigation is still open. They’ll be identified when charges are filed, Long said.
“We’ve got so many differing, varying interviews. We’re shifting through them,” Long said. “We’re in the process of trying to figure out the timeline.”
An autopsy was done on Lathrem on Thursday, but the test results are not complete and FDLE has not received the report, Long said. He also would not discuss details of how Lathrem died, although Gov. Jeb Bush has said she was killed with a sledgehammer.
The DOC also has decided not to press its own investigation of its policies and procedures related to the case, Ivey said. The department’s inspector general will review the FDLE’s finding and look into whatever requires attention, he said.
Lathrem’s family also will wait to comment until the FDLE’s investigation is complete, said Harvey Rollings, Lathrem’s brother-in-law.
“The family, basically, has chosen not to make any public comments until they get more information,” Rollings said. “All they’ve got now is hearsay and pieces.”
The Department of Corrections lost a member of its family when Lathrem was slain, according to an internal memo from Corrections Secretary James Crosby.
Crosby reminded employees that being a correctional officer is a hard job, Ivey said.
— The News-Press staff writers Tanya Somaroo and Adam Kovac contributed to this report.
=============================================================RETHINKING THE ISSUES https://www.angelfire.com/fl4/fci/rethinking.html
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSES https://www.angelfire.com/fl4/fci/professionals.html
