Florida House of Representatives has gutted Florida Senate Prison Reform Bill 7020 - A Call to Action - Please Help!!!

On March 18th, historic Senate Bill CS/SB 7020: Corrections, made it through appropriations only to be weakened by House version HB 7131. Below is a Side-by-Side Comparison of Senate and House Corrections Reform Bills. I need your help to encourage House members to re-provision HB 1731 to full strength. After my analysis, email addresses and contact info for House members will be provided. Please send them an email or call - we need an immediate response to show legislators that the public at large is informed and expects the strongest possible legislation to keep inmates from being tormented, beaten, tortured, and in some cases, killed by correctional officers.

For those interested in the actual wording of the Senate and House bills, click on the links above. You will be redirected to legislative websites. Read my initial assessment of 7020 as well. Click here for a terrific Senate analysis of 7020.

Side-by-Side Comparison of Senate and House Corrections Reform Bills

	Issue	CS/SB 7020	HB 7131
1.	Requires CJEC to project elderly inmate population	Yes	Yes
2.	Removes exemption for victim injury points for officers who commit sexual misconduct	Yes	Yes
3.	Expands security review committee to include safety issues	Yes	Yes
4.	Allows inmates to receive education gain-time	Yes	Yes
5.	Requires Memorandum of Understanding between FDLE and DOC to be in writing and for legislative notification	Yes	Yes
6.	Requires inspector generals who conduct sexual abuse investigations to receive specialized training	Yes	Yes
7.	Revises method of appointment for DOC Secretary	Yes	No
8.	Creates the Florida Corrections Commission	Yes	No
9.	Requires multiple ways for inmates to file grievances and requires overview of health-related grievances by CMA	Yes	No
10.	Requires use-of-force reports to be under oath, allows nurses to use identification numbers when completing incident reports, limits officers with use-of-force notations from working with mentally ill, requires tracking of use-of-force reports	Yes	No
11.	Creates a new felony for employees who withhold water, food and other essential services and authorizes employees to anonymously report abuse to the inspector general	Yes	No
12.	Requires DOC to establish policy to protect employees who report wrongdoing from retaliation	Yes	No
13.	Requires DOC to track health care costs for elderly inmates	Yes	No
14.	Provides legislative intent to expand veterans dorms and requires DOC to track recidivism for veterans who participate in programs	Yes	No
15.	Recreates the inmate welfare trust fund, caps the fund at $5 million and specifies purposes (CS/SB 540 is linked)	Yes	No
16.	Requires CJSTC to expand the annual training for correctional officers to include more information on techniques to avoid the use-of-force	Yes	No
17.	Increases the frequency of medical surveys conducted at the prisons from every 3 years to every 18 months	Yes	No
18.	Requires inmate health care contracts to contain damages provision	Yes	No
19.	Requires DOC to establish minimum health care standards for inmates over 50 years of age	Yes	No
20.	Allows for inmates to have outside medical evaluations performed under certain circumstances	Yes	No
21.	Creates a geriatric release program	Yes	No
22.	Requires DOC to establish a policy to track the use of chemical agents and requires video recording all nonreactionary uses of chemical agent	Yes	No
23.	Provides funding	Yes	No

My Analysis:

All senate provisions left out by HB 7131 are important. However, I will focus on what I believe are the absolutely essential "Issues" to reverse the culture of abuse, brutality, and cover-up that plagues the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

7.

Revises method of appointment for DOC Secretary

Yes

No

This provision gives legislators more power in the appointment process that now rests solely with the governor. Floridians have seen a revolving door policy that ends with the retirement or resignation of DOC Secretaries who will not submit to Gov. Scotts' agenda of continued secrecy and prison privatization. 

8.

Creates the Florida Corrections Commission

Yes

No

Creating the FCC is the most important issue and the heart of Senate Bill 7020. An oversight commission is essential in investigating the corruption, cover-ups, quashing of investigations, and retaliation against DOC and OIG personnel who have the courage to come forward with evidence implicating "upper level management." The DOC and OIG cannot be trusted to police themselves - history provides ample evidence of their ineptitude. Nor can they be trusted to engage in first rate investigations of suspicious inmate deaths or brutality at the hands of correctional officers.

10.

Requires use-of-force reports to be under oath, allows nurses to use identification numbers when completing incident reports, limits officers with use-of-force notations from working with mentally ill, requires tracking of use-of-force reports

Yes

No

  

As a psychotherapist, what most concerns me is the elimination of: "limits officers with use-of-force notations from working with mentally ill." In the psychiatric unit I worked in at the Dade Correctional Institution, guards with multiple use-of-force notations continued to abuse inmates with impunity. Inmates were beaten, tortured, and slammed to the floor requiring medical treatment to stitch up gashes to their heads.

11.

Creates a new felony for employees who withhold water, food and other essential services and authorizes employees to anonymously report abuse to the inspector general

Yes

No

There are no consequences now for officers who withhold food by giving inmates "air trays" or "skip trays." Likewise, the widespread practice of denying medical services by doctors and nurses had resulted in numerous needlessly painful deaths that rise to the level of torture. 

12.

Requires DOC to establish policy to protect employees who report wrongdoing from retaliation

Yes

No

Without whistle-blowers, Floridians would not have found out about the rampant abuse, corruption, and cover-up that is at the core of the DOC. They need to be protected. For details how the DOC treats whistle-blowers, please click on this link, Miami Herald story: After Florida inmate’s lethal gassing, claims of cover-up.

16.

Requires CJSTC to expand the annual training for correctional officers to include more information on techniques to avoid the use-of-force

Yes

No

  

All officers should receive Crisis Intervention Training and yearly training updates from the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. Many episodes in my unit found guards using excessive force on the mentally ill when it was not called for. The progress I had made with my patients was routinely sabotaged by this practice.

18.

Requires inmate health care contracts to contain damages provision

Yes

No

  

Corizon Health and Wexford have between them nearly 1700 malpractice lawsuits. The Palm Beach Post and a host of others have published stories of medical negligence that details longstanding practices of withholding or providing inadequate medical treatment to inmates who died agonizing deaths. Corizon and Wexford must, at the very least, be held accountable financially.

22.

Requires DOC to establish a policy to track the use of chemical agents and requires video recording all nonreactionary uses of chemical agent

Yes

No

The punitive use of chemical agents (gassing) is a widespread practice confirmed by many relatives I speak to with loved ones on the inside. On March 24, 2015, the Miami Herald published a story detailing this practice and its alleged endorsement by highly placed administrators: Culture of brutality reigned at state prison in Florida Panhandle. 

23.

Provides funding

Yes

No

7020 asks for $7 million out of a state budget of $77 billion. If my math is correct, that is 1/1000th of the total. Need more be said?

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Call to Action!

Please email or phone members of specific House committees to encourage them to pass the full Senate version. I've only provided contact info for Committee Chairmen. Clicking on the links to the committees will take you to House of Representative pages featuring members of those respective committees (Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, Judiciary Committee, Criminal Justice Subcommittee). All House members may be emailed in this format:

FirstName.LastName@myfloridahouse.gov

Contact information for Committee Chairmen:

  Larry Metz 

Larry.Metz@myfloridahouse.gov

Justice Appropriations Subcommittee  Chairman

Capitol Office
222 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone: (850) 717-5032

District Office
193 Cherry Valley Trail
Groveland, FL 34736-3645
Phone: (352) 989-9134

Legislative Assistant:
Sara Pennington

District Secretary:
Jennifer Wylie

   Charles McBurney

Charles.McBurney@myfloridahouse.gov

Judiciary Committee  Chairman

Capitol Office
412 House Office Building
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone: (850) 717-5016

District Office
Suite 200
76 South Laura Street
Jacksonville, FL 32202-3411
Phone: (904) 359-6090

Legislative Assistant:
Richard Pra

District Secretary:
Adam Miller

   Carlos Trujillo

Carlos.Trujillo@myfloridahouse.gov

Criminal Justice Subcommittee  Chairman

Capitol Office
417 House Office Building
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone: (850) 717-5105

District Office
Suite 204
2500 Northwest 107th Avenue
Doral, FL 33172-5923
Phone: (305) 470-5070

OR

Collier County Administration Building
Suite 305, 3299 East Tamiami Trail
Naples, FL 34112-5746
Phone: (239) 434-5094

Legislative Assistant:
Mauricio Montiel

District Secretary:
Carmen Perez
Kenneth Price