MTWT David Tune Quits

(AP) -- A top state prisons official resigned during an investigation of an alleged scheme to help speed up the transfer of some inmates to different prisons in exchange for money.

David Tune quit as the Department of Corrections' administrator of work release programs Friday, a few hours before he was expected to be fired, agency officials said.

Tune had been on leave while investigators checked computer records to see if inmate files had been changed to speed up the transfers.

State corrections spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff [sic] said investigators were looking into the removal without permission of some equipment from Tune's office, and said the probe was continuing.

In a resignation letter, Tune acknowledged that he was a target of the investigation, but said ``these types of transfers have been occurring for at least 25 years and all of the administrations ... have been aware of this practice.''

He said in the letter that he had never received any compensation from anyone outside the agency for helping anyone with an inmate transfer.

Tune, 51, worked for the state for 27 years.

While no illegal activity was found in a 100-day internal investigation, department officials have said the way some inmate transfers have been permitted was unethical, unfair and perhaps dangerous.

Two other state corrections officials have been demoted in connection with the probe. Investigators said lawyers for some inmates had former agency employees call their old co-workers in efforts to influence inmate transfers.

The department moves about 2,000 of its 94,000 inmates each day for everything from medical conditions to disciplinary and security reasons.
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Information from: St. Petersburg Times, http://www.sptimes.com

Prisons official quits amid transfer probe