Another Excellent Column by Paula Dockery - Come on, Governor, Let’s Get to Work

Come on, Governor, Let’s Get to Work

By PAULA DOCKERY

Paula Dockery is a syndicated columnist who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years as a Republican from Lakeland. She can be reached at PBDockery@gmail.com.

People are dying in state care and all Gov. Rick Scott can muster is a blank stare.

Since 2000, 3,954 inmates have died in our state prison system and last year was our deadliest ever with 346 deaths. Particularly disturbing is that the numbers keep rising with reports that some died by unusual circumstances.

According to the Department of Corrections website, of the 346 deaths of inmates in custody, 140 of them were attributed to HIV, cancer and cardiac or gastro conditions, with another 24 classified as other medical reasons. Three were classified as accidents, three as homicides, seven as suicides, and in 163 cases the cause of death is still pending. Pending?

With an aging prison population and longer sentences, some of these deaths could reasonably be explained. What is more difficult to explain is the blistering reports of prisoner abuse that are coming to light and the disturbing fact that some of them were classified as death by natural causes when that was not the case. How can we continue to trust the numbers?

One death involved a nonviolent offender with a medical condition who begged for medical attention. He not only was denied the care he needed but was gassed to death in a cell in solitary confinement by those entrusted with his care. 

Inmates that told what they saw or heard were threatened or worse. The same was true of prison staff. In another grisly death, a mentally ill inmate was scalded to death as punishment for defecating in his cell. His skin literally melted off his body and his screams for help were ignored. It appears cover-ups were a routine matter.

The DOC website offers this on Inmate mortality: “The Department is dedicated to providing proper care and supervision for all inmates incarcerated with us, and provides inmates with access to appropriate levels of health care to meet their needs.”

Apparently the families of Florida inmates who died while in the care and custody of the DOC don’t agree that their loved one received the appropriate level of care and have filed numerous lawsuits against the state.

A pair of private companies was awarded lucrative contracts, totaling $1.4 billion, to provide health care to our inmates despite the fact that both faced hundreds of lawsuits in other states.

We shouldn't be too surprised to hear that inmates with cancer were given Tylenol. The less care they provide, the more profitable they are. Unfortunately, we the taxpayers are on the hook financially for these disastrous privatized medical contracts.

When details of widespread abuse, shoddy medical care, employee intimidation, contraband and corruption were exposed during Scott’s re-election, we heard nary a peep. His DOC secretary, Mike Crews, his third in as many years, resigned amid the growing prison scandal and admitted his frustration with the chronic underfunding and understaffing of the department. Crews admitted he was told to take a bullet for the governor by Scott’s chief of staff and that they were more concerned with press releases than fixing the prison mess.

Enter DOC secretary number four, Julie Jones, who started out strong but quickly backpedaled on her public comments. Her new company line is -- the DOC has a perception problem and a few disgruntled employees are overblowing the extent of the abuse.

Scott continues to ignore the growing scandal, leaving others to downplay its scope. So ignoring it works? Apparently it works for the governor’s political career but it’s not working well for the 100,000 inmates, their families and the 21,000 DOC employees who are caught up in the corrupt and often violent system.

Scott did not create the problems at DOC. They have been festering for many years. But as governor he is responsible for all the executive agencies under his control, including the DOC. For over four years he has buried his head in the sand. Where is the accountability that his administration is so fond of demanding from others?

In 2011, amid chronic and systemic problems in Georgia’s prison system, the governor of Georgia, along with his attorney general and legislative leaders, decided to truly reform their prison system. With their united commitment and vision they have achieved impressive results -- a significant drop in the inmate population and a corresponding savings of seven percent a year.

In the absence of leadership from Florida’s governor, members of the Florida Senate have filled the void. Its 51-page bill (SB 7020) incorporates some of the reforms that have been successful in other states.

The Senate is showing the way, but the House is dragging its feet, the DOC secretary is quietly fighting the independent oversight commission that is the heart of the reform effort, and the governor is AWOL.

Just as in Georgia, it’s going to take a joint effort of state leaders to effect change.

Inmates in our care are dying, corrections officers and inspectors are being intimidated or punished for reporting abuse and the corrupt few are being rewarded, promoted and protected. It’s time for systemic, top-to-bottom reform with independent oversight.

Come on, Governor, let’s get to work.