February 2, 2016
By Bill Cotterell
Florida's prisons system (click here) is struggling with serious staffing and budget shortfall, according to the head of the Department of Corrections, who told a state legislative committee on Monday she plans to seek an additional $51 million this year to address long-neglected needs.
The agency, which had a budget of some $2.2 billion last year, has been under fire for months because of inmate deaths and “whistleblower” accounts of a violent culture behind the walls.
Former Corrections Department Secretary Michael Crews last week told the Miami Herald he had tried for years to persuade Republican Governor Rick Scott that the prison system was so badly run-down and understaffed that inmates and employees were not safe. Scott forced him out late last year....
June 10, 2016
By Mary Ellen Klas and Julie K. Brown
Tallahassee — Inmates jumped a corrections officer (click here) and took over two dorms for several hours during a late-night riot at Franklin Correctional Institution in North Florida on Thursday, the third disturbance at the prison since January.
About 300 inmates stormed two housing dorms, using makeshift tools to drill through a concrete and brick wall, and smash bathroom fixtures, televisions, ceiling fans, toilets and sprinkler systems, destroying nearly everything in the dorms, officials with the Florida Department of Corrections and sources confirmed.
It's not clear how long the uprising lasted, but an FDC spokesman said the incident was eventually brought under control and there were no serious injuries....
By Bill Cotterell
Florida's prisons system (click here) is struggling with serious staffing and budget shortfall, according to the head of the Department of Corrections, who told a state legislative committee on Monday she plans to seek an additional $51 million this year to address long-neglected needs.
The agency, which had a budget of some $2.2 billion last year, has been under fire for months because of inmate deaths and “whistleblower” accounts of a violent culture behind the walls.
Former Corrections Department Secretary Michael Crews last week told the Miami Herald he had tried for years to persuade Republican Governor Rick Scott that the prison system was so badly run-down and understaffed that inmates and employees were not safe. Scott forced him out late last year....
June 10, 2016
By Mary Ellen Klas and Julie K. Brown
Tallahassee — Inmates jumped a corrections officer (click here) and took over two dorms for several hours during a late-night riot at Franklin Correctional Institution in North Florida on Thursday, the third disturbance at the prison since January.
About 300 inmates stormed two housing dorms, using makeshift tools to drill through a concrete and brick wall, and smash bathroom fixtures, televisions, ceiling fans, toilets and sprinkler systems, destroying nearly everything in the dorms, officials with the Florida Department of Corrections and sources confirmed.
It's not clear how long the uprising lasted, but an FDC spokesman said the incident was eventually brought under control and there were no serious injuries....
