Quick fix not likely for woes at prisons
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Gainesville Sun www.gainesville.com
Article published Feb 18, 2006

For months the news coming out of Florida's prison system has been almost all bad: correctional officers convicted of federal drug crimes, off-duty officers in bar brawls, money and state property vanishing, inmates assigned to work on employee property and an officer's suicide amidst a sexual assault investigation.

But experts say problems in Florida's prisons aren't likely to be resolved by the departure of James Crosby, who was forced out of his job as secretary of the Department of Corrections by Gov. Jeb Bush earlier this month. Crosby leaves a department wrought with civil lawsuits, ongoing federal and state investigations involving current and former employees, and legislative criticism about how the Department of Corrections has been operated.

Critics of the system say the only solution would be a fresh start with a hands-on reformer from another state taking over the department.

"(Gov. Jeb Bush) needs to hire a highly regarded and professional corrections administrator who's got experience and who is not part of the good old boys network in Florida, who's willing to do a top to bottom cleaning and put the place in order," said Randall Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, a civil rights law firm that represents inmates and their f! amilies. "Until Florida is willing to do that, we're going to continue to have problems."

Bush tried that once when he appointed Michael Moore his first DOC secretary in 1999. Moore had experience in Texas and South Carolina. But rank-and-file officers rebelled against Moore as an outsider unfamiliar with Florida and he left in 2002.

While Moore's legacy was one of frustration, Crosby's administration will likely be remembered for its myriad problems.

Latest firing
The latest casualty of Florida's prison problems was Laynard Owens, who was fired from his job as warden of Gainesville Correctional Institution effective Monday without public explanation.

Owens, who had an unlisted phone number, could not be reached for comment.

Owens, 47, was hired by the prison system in 1990 and was making $80,473 a year as a warden. He had worked 11 months at the Gainesville prison - a medium, minimum and community custody prison - before being fired and has been replaced by Doug Watson, the former Hardee Correctional Institution warden.

Prison spokesman Robby Cunningham said the agency had no comment on Owens' firing "because this is still under investigation."

Having problems in prisons can be expected, according to a panel that has spent the past year studying the U.S. penal system. How those problems are dealt with is what can make a difference in how well a system operates, the panel has determined.

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's prisons conducted four large public hearings over the past year. Although Crosby did not participate in the hearings - dismissing the commission as "self-appointed" - former Florida prison employees testified about shortcomings in the state's prisons as did others who have studied Florida's prison system and the systems in other states.

Commission co-chairs, former U.S. Attorneys General John J. Gibbons and Nicholas de B. Katzenbach, identified the panel's w! ork as "a national effort to clarify the nature and extent of violence, sexual abuse, degradation and other serious safety failures and abuses in prisons and jails throughout the United States, as well as the consequences for prisoners, corrections officers and the public at large."

The commission's plan is to issue a report in late April or early May on what it found during its hearings into a penal system that employs 750,000 men and women and costs the United States more than $60 billion a year to incarcerate an average of 2.2 million people a day.

Curbing problems
The commission has determined that there is no way to run a prison problem-free, but there are ways to reduce problems, said Alex Busansky, the commission's executive director. Busansky said internal and external oversight and accountability are used by prison systems to minimize repeated missteps.

"There is no one-size-fits-all approach but we do know that oversight - sometimes independent and s! ometimes not - is something that works," Busansky said. "What we heard over and over is this: The quality of leadership sets the tone for prisons, for the inmates and the people who work there and for the community where a prison is located."

That's exactly the contention of Cassandra Capobianco, an attorney for the Gainesville-based Florida Institutional Legal Services.

Earlier this month, the group filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 10 inmates claiming they were severely burned after being sprayed with chemicals at Florida State Prison. In addition to asking for an injunction to prevent correctional officers from using chemical sprays in the future, the inmates are asking for unspecified amounts of money.

Capobianco said national experts view Florida's system as among the worst due to an insular nature that isn't receptive to complaints and suggestions. "A lot of that is because there is such an entrenched system of nepotism and promotions," she said. "They ! are very protective of their policies, even when they see those policies are hurting people. They often stonewall.

"You can't create a system that encourages that," she continued. "If you see that there is a little problem of abuse and mismanagement, you have to open it up."

Berg said the location of Florida's prisons in rural areas exacerbates an isolated view of the world.

"You can't get an experienced and well-trained doctor or psychiatrist to want to go to work in an aptly named town like Starke or Raiford," Berg said.

"There are some people that do like to live in a rural, bucolic setting, but not many," Berg said.

Meanwhile, state prisons have come under fire for myriad problems. Six female correctional employees have filed a suit claiming they were "subjected to an ongoing campaign of sexual harassment by male supervisors and co-workers." Only one of the women still works for the department. The case is scheduled to go to trial on March 6.
The women have asked for unspecified economic and compensatory damages, a finding that the department violated federal law, and a court order that the department be required to implement a zero tolerance policy that "forbids all sexual harassment in the workplace and encourages victims to report sexual harassment."

Contract criticism
On another front, the department is facing intense criticism from the Legislature for its handling of a $72 million pharmaceutical contract.

The department had signed two no-bid contracts to have the Tallahassee-based TYA Pharmaceuticals split high-dosage pills and repackaged bulk drugs to save money. The Florida Auditor General found multiple oversight and paperwork lapses during the contract, which angered lawmakers. The department is now considering whether to take on the work itself rather than contract it out again.

Recreational pharmaceutical use by employees has created another embarrassment for the department over th! e past two years and resulted in former DOC Secretary Crosby asking for legislative help.

Ten current or former correctional officers have been charged with federal drug violations for their involvement in a ring that imported steroids from Egypt to North Florida. The men charged have been entering pleas and so far, none have been sentenced to prison time.

The steroid ring was among the factors leading up to Crosby appointing an incident review team to come up with recommendations to strengthen the department's employment policies and procedures. Among the recommendations was to be able to test employees for steroid use if reasonable suspicion exists.

The national hearings demonstrated that there is not much understanding by the American public over what happens inside prisons, Busansky said.

"We spend a lot of time talking about how people get into prison and what happens when they get back out, but almost no time learning about what goes on when they ! are inside a prison. And, that's unfortunate because what happens inside prisons doesn't stay inside. It has consequences for the men and women being held there and for the men and women who work there."

Karen Voyles can be reached at (352) 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com . Joe Follick writes for The Sun's Tallahassee Bureau and can be contacted at jfollick@earthlink.net .