DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Prisons' deputy assistant is forced to resign
Greg Drake's forced resignation brought to 10 the number of high-level state corrections officers fired by new corrections chief James McDonough.
BY BRENT KALLESTAD
Posted on Fri, Mar. 17, 2006TALLAHASSEE - The personnel purge at the Department of Corrections continued Thursday with the forced resignation of deputy assistant secretary Greg Drake, who was in charge of security operations at DOC's 128 penal facilities across the state.
Drake, 53, was not immediately available to discuss his dismissal. He had been with the department since 1979 and was paid $102,978.72 annually in his job at the agency's headquarters.
''He was asked to resign but left under honorable conditions,'' department spokesman Robby Cunningham said.
Nine other high-level prison officials, including four prison wardens, three assistants and two region directors, were fired Wednesday by new corrections chief James McDonough.
A former career infantry officer in the U.S. Army, McDonough was brought in last month by Gov. Jeb Bush to clean up the state's scandal-ridden prison system.
He replaced James Crosby, who was forced to resign last month by Bush after he became part of a wide-ranging investigation into possible criminal activity among prison system employees. The former secretary has denied any charges of wrongdoing.
McDonough, 59, was awarded three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during a 27-year Army career where he led U.S. forces in Bosnia and Rwanda.
He spent much of his first month on the job assembling a management team that he says will move away from the cronyism that has long plagued the prison system.
''Providing some stability to the department is important, and I think he's doing a great job,'' Bush said Thursday.
Crosby is also alleged to have tried to shut down an investigation into the prison system by threatening one of his employees, whose father, Guy Tunnell, is commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Interim Director James McDonough
