Short fences, poor lighting and multiple hiding spots are among the security flaws spotted at the troubled Osceola County Jail in April, a new state corrections audit shows. Jail officials have already corrected a few of the security risks spotted by the Florida Department of Corrections.

And Osceola County commissioners said they’ve been working with jail Chief Kim Bogart to correct other problems.

“A lot of these issues have already been addressed with Chief Bogart and we’ve started to implement many of them,” Commissioner John Quiñones said Thursday. “I think it’s significant that we address all the security issues in that audit.”

Jail spokeswoman Bethzaida García said Bogart will address the audit’s security observations and recommendations at Monday’s Osceola County Commission meeting.

The Osceola County Commission requested the audit after a series of problems, including two escapes earlier this year. Key problems discovered in April include:

• Wide drain pipes inside the jail are not monitored
• Perimeter lacks an electronic alert system
• Some fences are too low and can allow inmates to climb out
• Lack of fences in other areas allows access to weapons or the rooftop
• Rooftop ladders are unsecured
• Poor lighting creates hiding spots
• Inmate counts are inaccurate
• Corrections officers are not equipped with adequate firepower
• Corrections officers are unsure of what kind of force they can use in the event of an escape

The audit also found that razor wire is not attached to the security fences. But Quiñones said the jail is erecting a new chain-link fence around the perimeter and razor wire is being attached.

He also said they installed metal detectors to check corrections officers and visitors.

The commissioner also said there is a new drug-testing policy for corrections officers, improved head- count procedures and enhanced perimeter lighting.

In a 15-month period, the Osceola County Jail had two escapes, one accidental release, an attempted escape and a hanging.

A guard was jailed for allegedly smuggling a gun to a prisoner she with whom she had a romantic relationship, and another was arrested for possession of marijuana.

Inmate Michael Rigby escaped from a maximum-security area of the Osceola County Jail in February by removing a toilet and sink from his cell wall and burrowing his way to freedom. He was caught in New Jersey in April.

Carlos Alberto Rosa escaped in March by hiding under a portable building before scaling a fence to freedom. Officials caught him about 16 hours later.

Auditors said the primary focus of the probe was to observe “escape prevention issues and possible enhancements intended to reduce the likelihood of future such incidents.”

The reviewers interviewed corrections officers, supervisors and managers. They inspected all the buildings, grounds surrounding the jail, as well as logs that tracked weapons, ammunition, access keys and inmates.

Other issues raised in the audit included corrections officers allowed to have personal sets of keys for the jail in their possession, jail vehicle keys were unsecured and other security keys were not signed out.

jchev Florida, Jail and Prison Conditions, Prison and Jail Security

The head of Florida’s prison system has a new vision for inmates’ re-entry into society: doing far more than just dropping them off at midnight at a bus station.

Department of Corrections Secretary Walter McNeil envisions beginning three years before an inmate’s release by moving him or her to prisons in their home communities, reintroducing them slowly and involving their families.

His goal? Not to “hug thugs,” he said, but to reduce recidivism and buttress public safety. “So they don’t go out and victimize other citizens,” McNeil said.

McNeil is on a tour of Florida, spreading his ideas. On Wednesday, he met with The Palm Beach Post editorial board along with Public Defender Carey Haughwout, whose office represents the county’s burgeoning indigent population charged with crimes.

It’s a fact that about 88 percent of the 102,000 people currently in Florida prisons will be released. Current recidivism rates are at 33 percent, meaning 1 in 3 will return to prison within three years of release.

To reduce that rate, McNeil wants to better prep them. He’s working to create “portal entry” centers where felons can register as they are required to do, but also staffed with people from social service agencies and faith-based programs to help them.

For Palm Beach County, the Department of Corrections envisions a prison for soon-to-be-released inmates established at the site of the former Sago Palm juvenile center in Pahokee. McNeil said Wednesday he hopes it is operational by the fall, and will house all inmates except those in “close” custody – generally those convicted of the most violent crimes.

When inmates are released, the DOC staff will drive them to a portal entry center, potentially located in the Westgate neighborhood in suburban West Palm Beach.

Haughwout praised the vision of McNeil, a former police chief of Tallahassee appointed DOC secretary by Gov. Charlie Crist in 2008. McNeil has prioritized re-entry, creating a designated office for it and partnering with community leaders to plan it.

Haughwout said one her chief frustrations in 27 years of practicing as a criminal defense lawyer is the lack of preparation to return the offender to society.

She told a story of a recently released inmate she saw at the jail, who was trying to register as a felon as he was required to do. The former inmate was told he was in the wrong place and would have to go to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office stockade by the South Florida Fairgounds, but he had spent his last money traveling to the jail.

His temper flared, the staff’s temper flared and he was promptly re-arrested, she said.

“He was such a picture of the people getting out of prison,” Haughwout said.

With the sheriff’s budget tighter than ever – with $25 million in cuts this year and programs for at-risk teens and drug addicts set to be shuttered – McNeil said he plans to cover costs by reallocating what he already has.

While Haughwout likes McNeil’s ideas, she emphasized it’s not a trade-off for the sheriff to close one program for kids while a state agency opens one for adults.

jchev FL Palm Beach, Re-Entry

The Florida Senate’s budget chief Wednesday backed off from his proposal to close two state prisons and privatize a third in the face of mounting opposition from colleagues, the union representing prison guards and local officials. News from Business Week.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman JD Alexander agreed to replace those cost-cutting proposals in the Senate’s budget with others designed to keep the prisons open and avoid hundreds of layoffs. The Senate then unanimously passed the spending bill.

Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee, who has several prisons in his Florida Panhandle district, negotiated the deal with Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

Alexander’s committee last week approved a budget provision calling for the closures and privatization with the goal of saving $20 million. Inmates would have been transferred from two unnamed prisons, which would have been closed, to the new $113 million Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Milton, which is to be privately operated by Boca Raton-based Geo Group Inc.

The agreement still allocates $22.6 million in operating funds to open the 2,224-bed Blackwater prison but gives the Department of Corrections the flexibility to determine how to achieve agency-wide spending cuts totaling 5 percent.

“This is a great compromise,” Lawson said. “We really can’t afford to allow the facility to sit without anybody in it.”

One option would be to close dormitories or wings at several prisons. That’s what initially had been proposed by an appropriations committee that oversees prison, criminal justice and other court spending.

Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who chairs that panel, said the agency, which has nearly 30,000 employees and a turnover of about 300 every month, should be able to accomplish most staff cuts through attrition.

“The way that I read this is that there shouldn’t be any mass firings here,” Crist said.

Budget language also specifically allows the department to use privatization as a cost-cutting option although that’s not required.

The agreement also restores about 1,000 positions and shifts $16 million to Corrections from the Department of Juvenile Justice and $1 million from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Another amendment calls for a study comparing public and private prison costs.

Florida AFL-CIO President Mike Williams said he remained uncomfortable with the deal because it appears to be leading to more privatization.

“It’s not the best outcome we would have liked at this time, but we’re moving ahead,” said James Baiardi, president of the State Correctional Officers Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association.

Baiardi joined many of his members as well as local government and corrections officials from several Panhandle prison communities at a protest meeting Tuesday in Sneads about 42 miles west of Tallahassee. Sneeds, a small town of about 2,000, is home to 640-employee Apalachee Correctional Institution, considered the most likely candidate for closure under Alexander’s proposal.

“That’s a nice little town,” Baiardi said. “I’m glad that the town ain’t been shut down.”

jchev Economic Issues, Florida

A bill has been introduced in the Florida Senate that may lead to the closing of three Panhandle prisons, at a possible cost of 600 jobs. Reported by WMBB News.

Section 4 of SB 2700 deals with Criminal Justice and Corrections.  It calls for a transition plan to take place in which three prisons will be closed in order to populate the new Blackwater River Correctional Institution, a privatized institution which is under construction in Milton, Florida.

The Department of Corrections is required by the bill to provide Senators with a list of three institutions to be closed.  The list is due by July 1st.

Several County Commissioners plan to hold a press conference on the potential effects of the bill at 2:30 today in Sneads, Florida.

From the bill:
The Department of Corrections shall provide a transition plan to the chairs of the Full Appropriations Council on General Government & Health Care and the Senate Policy and Steering Committee on Ways and Means no later than July 1, 2010, which includes the list of the institution(s) to be closed to populate Blackwater River Correctional Institution and the institution(s) to be privatized. To expedite the contracting process, all information pertinent to developing contracts shall be provided to the Department of Financial Services no later than July 1, 2010. The department shall submit any amendment necessary to facilitate the transfer of funding from the Adult Male Private Prison Operations category to another private prison operations category if a different type institution is determined.

jchev Florida, Jail and Prison Construction

They may be the busiest medical clinics in Jacksonville, treating tens of thousands of patients with chronic diseases, mental disorders and drug addictions each year. Full report in the Jacksonville News.

They’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But they’re also very closed: hidden behind bars and bolted doors in buildings few people ever willingly visit.

On any given day there are roughly 4,000 people housed at Duval County’s three correctional facilities. And their medical issues – from a risky pregnancy or prostate cancer to AIDS or schizophrenia – must be addressed.

But beyond the legal requirements, law enforcement officials say it’s sound public policy to help inmates get as healthy as possible before they’re released.

Women who weren’t getting prenatal care while on the streets have given birth to healthy babies in jail. People have been successfully weaned from drug and alcohol addictions. Some inmates are receiving consistent treatment for a chronic disease for the first time.

“We try to see incarceration as an opportunity to intervene, because the vast majority of people go back to the community,” said Max Solano, the doctor who oversees the health services division of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Because of that philosophy, Solano and others say, patient care has improved and the number of lawsuits has dropped.

A change implemented last summer is also helping keep costs down. That’s when the Sheriff’s Office ended its partnership with the Duval County Health Department and brought those employees in-house. The change wasn’t because of a disagreement about patient care, but because the state and city couldn’t agree to contract terms when it was time for renewal.

Sheriff John Rutherford estimates the switch could save taxpayers up to $700,000 this year because the city is no longer on the hook for an administrative overhead fee paid to the state. Overcrowding at the jail caused that fee to rise in recent years.

Most of the jail health employees under the old system remain, including Solano, but now they’re Sheriff’s Office employees instead of state workers.

Though the community health model was embraced during the Health Department partnership, Solano said the transition to an in-house division of health services has provided even greater flexibility to meet his patients’ needs.

Cassandra Bush, founder of THORMINC Ministries, is often a witness to the end result: offenders transitioning back into the community.

“You know the old horror stories you used to hear?” she said of jail medical care. “You don’t hear that anymore.”

Community partnerships

The treatment rooms at Jacksonville’s jail look familiar – adjustable beds topped with sanitary paper linings. There’s a small pharmacy nearby, along with a room with a dentist’s chair where emergency procedures can be performed.

Some are shocked that the medical services at the jail are about the same as any other doctor’s office, only busier. The clinics at the three correctional facilities handle about 150,000 patient visits a year.

The city’s indigent-care contract with Shands Jacksonville allows inmates with injuries or ailments beyond the capabilities of the in-house clinics to be treated at the hospital. There are also partnerships with other service providers, so even services like chemotherapy or dialysis can be provided.

But while the new program has its fans, there are detractors. One recently released inmate told the Times-Union he was forced to wait two weeks to have his injury treated.

Lee Suitter said he spent six months in jail for a domestic dispute. Two months before his release, he was injured in a scuffle in his cell, which he reported the next day.

“I said, ‘Look, my hip’s killing me,’” Suitter, 49, recalled.

He said corrections officers chastised him for not reporting the incident immediately. Two weeks later, he was finally seen by a nurse. After three visits to the jail clinic, he was taken to Shands for an X-ray, he said.

“It took them that long to even think about getting me down there,” Suitter said.

Two days later, he said, he was released without ever receiving any real diagnosis or treatment. But he was still charged $5 for the clinic visits under a policy that allows the Sheriff’s Office to recover some of its medical costs.

Solano said the long delay shouldn’t have happened because the turnaround time is normally 24 to 48 hours, maybe a bit longer on weekends. He said his staff conducts quarterly surveys to ensure the clinic is meeting accreditation standards for response times.

‘Many, many chronic diseases’

There was a time when complaints like Suitter’s were more common.

Solano remembers working at the jail years ago when medical services were managed by a private company. That company began to put the bottom line ahead of patients’ rights, Solano said, and he felt himself losing the ability to make medical decisions.

He walked away from the job.

Duval County Jail Chief Tara Wildes, who has spent most of her 25-year career in corrections, also remembers the battles.

“Care wasn’t their primary concern,” she said. “But also the bigger thing is they didn’t seem to have a connection with the bigger community.”

In 2006, Rutherford ended that relationship and medical services were provided through the Duval County Health Department partnership. Embracing the community health model, Solano was invited back to serve as its head.

The sheriff said the years he served as corrections director opened his eyes to the myriad medical and mental health issues the department addresses.

“I was amazed when I went over there to find out that not only did I run the largest residential mental health facility, but also the medical issues,” he said. “This is a sick population. They have many, many chronic diseases.”

The focus is now on helping patients receive the best care while under lock and key so they won’t overload emergency rooms or endanger the public when they’re released.

“We need to be sending them back better than when they came, or at least identify what their problems are instead of just sending them back out there to, if they’re contagious, infect the community,” he said.

A similar philosophy is employed at the 478-bed Clay County Jail. Major Craig Aldrich, who oversees the facility, said the Sheriff’s Office considered outsourcing medical services to a private company but began to worry about quality of care.

It’s illegal and potentially costly if an inmate can prove his medical problems, no matter how small, were ignored while in lockup.

“I have to be worried about the bottom line, but I also have to worry about taking care of that inmate so I don’t get sued in federal court,” Aldrich said. “We just thought it was in the best interest of the county, so we could have a lot of control of our own medical staff.”

By contrast, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office has embraced the privatization model, contracting medical services out to Armor Correctional Health Services.

jchev Florida, Inmate Health Care

The Charlotte County FL Sheriff’s Office plans to sell advertisements on its new video visitation screens at the county jail in Punta Gorda, according to ABC.

According to Assistant Bureau of Corrections Commander Captain Earl Goodwyne, jail inmates and their visitors will be exposed to the ads, which will air for 2 minute intervals throughout the day. Ad rates will increase during prime visiting hours. Advertisers will pay 60 cents per showing. The sheriff’s office says ad space will be offered to “attorneys and other services of interest for inmates and visitors.”

The sheriff’s office claims that the ads have a potential audience of over 55,000 non-custody viewers annually. They believe the ads are the first of its kind in the nation. Funds collected from this ad program are returned to the Inmate Welfare Fund.

jakking Economic Issues, FL Charlotte County, Visits

The Pinellas County FL Jail will no longer charge an $8 co-payment to inmates seeking medical care, forfeiting an estimated $50,000 in annual revenue from a policy that jail officials said created more problems than profit.  Reported by the St Petersburg Times.

The jail used co-pays to help offset millions of dollars in medical bills and discourage requests for unnecessary treatments or bogus ailments. Most medical insurance does the same thing. In 1995, when the co-pays began, jail officials told the Times that the charges had cut demand for care in half, an early sign that they were clearing waiting rooms of all but those with real medical need. But in the years since, said Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, the co-pays have bred hostility among inmates and bogged down staff with paperwork, making the tens of thousands in lost cash “not even worth it.” “The administrative reviewing and tracking of all that cost us more than we make,” said Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Bob Gualtieri. “The bang wasn’t worth the buck.”

Where Pinellas jail officials see a barrier to streamlining, other correctional institutions have found an opportunity for profit. From county jails near Tampa Bay to federal penitentiaries across the country, every facility charges a co-pay, returning tens of thousands of dollars annually to general funds. Jails in Hillsborough, Hernando, Pasco and Polk charge between $5 to $15 for medical visits, higher than the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ rate of $2. In 2005, when the co-pay system was instituted at all federal facilities, the bureau wrote it would encourage inmates “to be more responsible for their own health care.” A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections says the state feels the same way. Florida prisons earned $640,000 last year off a $4 co-pay, and in July state legislators increased the rate by a dollar. “The money obviously is a big part … but the other side of it is there are some inmates who would go to the doctor every day,” said department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. “And if they have a medical need, they need to go, we want them to go. But this minimizes inmates who might be trying to game the system.”

None of the county, jail or federal officials interviewed said they knew of plans to change their co-pay system, adding that the benefits of the charges made the collection process worth the trouble. Not so in Pinellas, Gualtieri said. Jail employees, including more than 100 floor nurses and doctors working in the jail’s $35 million health care building, said they felt weighed down by the often futile search for co-pays. The inmates didn’t like it either, filing more than 1,100 grievances complaining of medical care access, quality and cost last year. Inmate Eugene Betts, convicted of attempted murder, filed three lawsuits against the jail and two employees, claiming they charged him for treatment he didn’t request after he was beaten by other inmates. In each case, he asks for his $8 co-pay, $2 in interest and hundreds of dollars in court fees.

For a jail population that saw more than 350,000 medical visits last year, the invoices and complaints added up. With the co-pay policy gone, officials said, medical staff will be freed to deal with more hands-on care. “The nurses should be seeing inmates and treating them,” said Lt. Sean McGillen, “not filling out paperwork for co-pays.” Still, the decision to abolish the co-pays comes at a tough financial time for the Sheriff’s Office, which runs one of the state’s most populated jails. In the past 18 months, the office’s budget has been reduced by a quarter, meaning a loss of more than $67 million and 363 positions.

Coats said the Pinellas jail will continue to accrue revenue from other sources, like a recently increased $20 booking fee, to help pay for what amounted to $19 million in medical operation costs last year. The money inmates once spent on co-pays, taken out of commissary funds filled by donations from friends and family, will stay in the accounts allowing them to buy items like cookies and deodorant. Inmates at booking will no longer be informed of the co-pay, which was levied on inmates who requested treatment unrelated to mental health, pregnancy, infectious diseases or emergency care. During the co-pay period, inmates without money in their accounts were not denied medical attention, officials said.

Dr. Allen Beck, a Kansas City criminal justice planner who studied the Pinellas jail, said co-pays have grown popular because of the expensive costs of health care. Considering that the ratio of health problems like drug and alcohol abuse is higher among inmates, prison medical costs “chew up a budget in a hurry.” He added that there are valid arguments against collecting co-pays, including the amount of additional effort they demand. “It just doesn’t make good business sense,” Coats said. “You can only squeeze so much juice from an onion. Sometimes it gets to the point where it’s counterproductive.”

jakking Booking Fees, Co-Pay, FL Pinellas County, Inmate Health Care

Pennsylvania DOC has expressed interest in exporting prisoners to Michigan — but they’ll have to stand in line behind California and the federal government, which is thinking about shipping in terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Detroit News.

State Department of Corrections officials confirmed Tuesday that Pennsylvania has approached Michigan about off-loading some of its prison population, which has grown from 48,000 to 51,000 since December.  The Michigan House Judiciary subcommittee on corrections reform will hear testimony today about the impact of shipping in prisoners at a hearing in Lansing.

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton confirmed sending prisoners to Michigan “is something we are considering.” She added that Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections Jeffrey Beard has spoken with Michigan Corrections Director Patricia Caruso on three occasions.

Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said Michigan e-mailed queries to each of the 50 states in March asking if they would be interested in housing prisoners here. Florida and Wisconsin expressed minimal interest, Marlan said. Michigan submitted a request for proposals from Alaska and learned last week Michigan lost the bid, Marlan said.

Vermont offered to send Michigan some prisoners but not enough to significantly increase revenue for Michigan, Marlan said.  “They were looking for 100 beds, so it’s nothing that would benefit us,” Marlan said.

jakking Alaska, California, Economic Issues, Federal Systems, Florida, Fundraising, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin

Records show that Florida has handed out more life sentences to juveniles for non-murder crimes than have all other states combined.  Report from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Florida has sentenced 77 young men to spend their lives in prison, without any chance of release, based on non-homicide crimes they committed when they were 17 years old or younger, according to a preliminary study by Florida State University researchers. Six of those prisoners were 13 or 14 at the time of their crimes.  A Herald-Tribune review of state records shows that some juveniles were given life without parole for as few as one or two convictions of non-homicide crimes.

Florida’s stance has generated protests from human rights groups and a lawsuit heading to the U.S. Supreme Court, which contends such sentences violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  But the state shows little sign of stopping judges from imposing life sentences on juveniles or providing a path to freedom for those already in prison. Lawmakers rejected a bill last spring that would have allowed juveniles in some non-homicide cases to eventually become eligible for parole.

The controversy in Florida stands out because it differs so greatly from policies elsewhere. Florida prisoners represent 69 percent of the 111 inmates reported nationally to be serving life without parole for their non-homicide juvenile crimes. Thirty-six states have no non-homicide juvenile lifers. Researchers are still awaiting data from six states, but they do not expect Florida’s standing to change.   Other findings:

• Only Florida has sent juvenile criminals away for life for burglary, battery and carjacking.

• Forty-six juveniles in Florida were given life for armed robbery.

“Florida’s practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole for non-homicide cases is unique among American states,” said the preliminary research report directed by Paolo Annino, an FSU law professor who heads the school’s Public Interest Law Center. “It stands alone in its willingness to condemn young people for non-homicide offenses to life in prison, without a chance of a reassessment of their lives in some future time,” the report said.

The Florida juveniles have been caught in two converging criminal justice trends.   The state has made it easier to try juveniles as adults at the same time it has increased the potential penalties for many crimes. Currently, Florida judges have the power to impose a life sentence without parole for more than 50 crimes.  Many of the changes came in the 1990s, when Florida was hit with a highly publicized crime wave, including the killings of nine tourists in 1992 and 1993. A British tourist was killed by a group of juveniles at an Interstate 10 rest stop in 1993 in a robbery that drew international press attention.   Since that time, Florida has sentenced 65 of the 77 non-homicide juvenile criminals to life without parole, according to the FSU researchers.

Other states are sending more juveniles into the adult prison system, too, although none of them have embraced the use of life without parole for non-homicide juvenile offenses as aggressively as Florida.  “It’s a national problem that has just taken on very dramatic examples in Florida,” said Bryan Stevenson, the director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal aid group based in Montgomery, Ala., and a lawyer for one of the juvenile offenders in the court case.    But Stevenson said the imposition of a sentence that should be reserved for unredeemable criminals is highly inappropriate for many minors given the large body of scientific evidence showing that young people are developmentally different from adults. “Our argument is not that these kids can’t be punished, can’t be sent to prison for a very long time,” Stevenson said. “But to make a judgment that their sentences can never be reviewed for possible release is inconsistent with how we deal with kids in virtually every other context.”

Florida’s stance against young criminals has become the focal point of a potentially landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.  In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for juveniles was unconstitutional and that opinion — which underscored the physical and psychological differences between a juvenile and an adult — has provided much of the legal basis for the challenge of Florida’s life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.  Florida’s harsh sentencing for juvenile crimes has drawn criticism from a wide spectrum of groups, including the American Bar Association, Amnesty International, the NAACP and the American Psychiatric Association, which have all filed briefs in the case.   A group of former juvenile criminals, including an actor, writers, a former federal prosecutor, a business executive and former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., have joined the appeal, pointing out that they were able to rehabilitate their lives despite committing serious crimes as teenagers.

jakking Florida, Juvenile Justice

Sick Alachua County FL jail inmates who need hospitalization or expensive treatment are driving up costs and carving out a bigger chunk of the county’s budget when finances are already tight.  Story from the Gainesville Sun.

Pre-existing conditions such as cancer and heart disease that require expensive treatment are now more common and have prompted the county commission and Sheriff Sadie Darnell to begin reviewing medical care contracts to determine if costs can be lowered.

“In the last couple of years, we’ve had a number of inmates coming in that have highly acute illnesses and in some cases terminal illnesses. You have people coming in with cancer, HIV. You have people needing blood transfusions and dialysis,” said Ron Akins, county administrative support manager. “There are times I will receive a $700,000 or $800,000 bill for a quarter, and 14 or 15 inmates will make up 80 percent of that.”

Under state law, medical expenses for jail inmates first must be paid by insurance, the patient or a settlement.   The county is required to pay if those options are exhausted.  Also party to the agreement for inmates’ medical care is Prison Health Services, which oversees the jail’s acute-care infirmary, outside treatment, billing and other financial aspects, the Shands and University of Florida Health Care Network and North Florida Regional Medical Center. The total cost is about $6.5 million a year, said Philip Hoelscher, president of Alliance Medical Management, a consulting firm working with the county on inmate care …

“In most cases, the profile of folks in the jail is that they are not real healthy people. I can’t quantify this in exact numbers, but we all are noticing … that a large number of people are coming in now who are very conscious to their goal of receiving medical care,” Hoelscher said. “A very small percentage of (sick inmates) have insurance. The insurance companies have all gotten smarter to put that fine print in that if you are incarcerated, the policy no longer applies” …

Akins and Hoelscher said costs for inmates with existing conditions are now more apparent to county officials in part because they were hit with large unpaid bills from hospitals several years ago that the county was legally obligated to pay.   More money now is being budgeted for inmate health care.  And the additional money being set aside for inmates’ medical care is being cited by county budget officials as putting the county in a hole for its upcoming 2009-10 budget.

jakking FL Alachua County, Inmate Health Care, PHS

Hernando County FL commissioners have asked the private company that runs the jail to forego the 4-percent annual adjustment to its contract, according to a report in Hernando Today.

With the county scrambling to build a balanced budget, it’s just not in the cards right now, said an adamant Commissioner Jim Adkins.   Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) charges $57.18 per day for each inmate. If the 4 percent adjustment is passed, that goes up to $59.46 per day.   According to the purchasing department, it takes about 30 days to move an inmate through the jail system. So the 4 percent hike would rise from $1,715 a month to $1,783.  The county negotiated a five-year contract with CCA in October 2005 and it calls for a 4 percent compensation per diem rate adjustment each year.

Adkins said it might be time to consider dropping CCA when its contract expires Oct. 1, 2010, and bid it out. Or, another option, turn operations over to the county … “Could we run it cheaper? I want to say yes,” Adkins said.  That would increase budget accountability, something Adkins said has been lacking from CCA.

Commissioner Dave Russell had kinder words for CCA, saying the company has “worked with us” in the past.  But he too said any kind of increase is not feasible right now and the county has sent a letter to CCA to that effect.  The county administrator’s office is already looking into the option of having the government take over jail operations, Commissioner Rose Rocco said.  But, she said, there are numerous regulations and laws that come with running a jail and the county must determine whether such a move would make sense.  As for CCA’s request for more money: “I would like to see them hold off on the 4 percent increase and work with the county,” Rocco said …

The 2009 budget for jail operations is $13.3 million. Of that, the county pays CCA $12.8 million. The rest is money set aside for inmate medical expenses and other costs.   By comparison, the county budgeted slightly more than $4.4 million in 2003.   CCA calculates its costs based on the number of inmates housed at the jail per day and the more Hernando residents, the higher CCA charges the county.  That’s why commissioners are looking to free up beds for federal or state prisoners. The county actually gains revenue from non-county inmates. Deputy County Administrator Larry Jennings said the county would have received about $400,000 this year from prisoners housed from outside Hernando.

County commissioners are also considering exploring alternative sentencing.   One option is the release of more low-risk prisoners into society with electronic ankle monitoring devices. Those could be convicted drunk drivers or those charged with misdemeanors.   The county has prepared a request for proposals and is working with the judges to determine who would administer the program, which would save the county an estimated $200,000 to $300,000. The goal is to have that program in place by Oct. 1, the beginning of the 2010 fiscal year.

jakking CCA, Economic Issues, Electronic Monitoring, FL Hernando County, Private Prisons

A group including the former secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections and three former Florida attorneys general has written Gov. Charlie Crist to urge criminal justice reform.  Report from the Miami Herald.

The group, which calls itself the Coalition for Smart Justice, wants Florida to invest in education and substance abuse programs for prisoners. Their letter to the governor says too many ex-offenders go back to prison because they receive little or no job training, mental health and substance abuse treatment while in prison.   A letter from the group is dated Monday. Among others it is signed by James McDonough, the retired Department of Corrections secretary, and Jim Smith, Bob Butterworth and Richard Doran, the former Florida attorneys general.

jakking Drug Treatment & Diversion, Florida, Inmate Programs, Mental Health Issues, Recidivism

Broward County FL commissioners will vote on whether to hire a consultant to study taking over the jail, a move that is a jab at Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti.  Report from the Miami Herald.

Commissioners want Lamberti to slash more than $50 million from his budget. Since BSO represents about half the general fund, county officials say Lamberti should share in about half the cuts.   Lamberti disagrees with that proportional approach.    ”Not every priority of government is the same,” Lamberti said in an interview at a National Sheriff’s Association conference in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday. “I think public safety is the No. 1 priority of government. And it should be ranked No. 1. And I think that’s where we’re having the philosophical difference, on what are the priorities.”  Lamberti proposed a $722 million budget that is slightly bigger than next year, although it slows growth in spending by laying off 177 workers, closing a jail and axing drug treatment for inmates …

Republican Lamberti and the nine Democratic commissioners are at war — Lamberti has fired off more than a dozen public records requests seeking documents from the county while both sides trade jabs at each other and plead their case in the media.

jakking Economic Issues, FL Broward County, Florida

With the inmate population hovering around 100,000 and the state lacking money to build more prisons, the Florida Legislature has given the Corrections Department the authority to ship inmates to other states for the first time.  Report from the St Petersburg Times.

“It’s a safety valve,” says the plan’s sponsor, Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who oversees prison spending. “This is not a mandate. It’s a passive safety net.” Crist said shipping prisoners would be considered only as a last resort to avoid the early release of inmates because of overpopulation. The cost would be agreed upon in talks with the receiving states.

The nation’s largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, houses prisoners from eight states, including California, and has long promoted the transfer idea in Florida without success. Sen. Crist insists he came to this idea himself and not at the behest of the prison industry. Corrections Corporation of America calls itself “the leader in out-of-state housing” on its Web site. It operates 62 prisons and has thousands of surplus beds in other states that it is eager to fill with convicted felons, and Florida has the nation’s third-largest prison system. A year ago, CCA urged the Legislature to follow 15 other states that export inmates, calling it cost-effective. The idea went nowhere, but that was before the bottom fell out of the economy and the state budget collapsed with a $6 billion shortfall …

Exporting inmates may never come to pass because Florida’s inmate population has stabilized in recent months and has fallen below earlier projections. In fact, a 3,300-bed prison in rural Suwannee County is built but not yet fully open. The prison population was at about 101,000 this week and the bed capacity is about 106,000. The population fluctuates daily and is constantly affected by the need to move prisoners who have special needs or for disciplinary reasons.

Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil is not enthusiastic about exporting prisoners. He said it undermines the goal of reducing recidivism by encouraging inmates to build ties to the communities they will return to upon their release. “It would not be something that we would be embracing or moving forward with,” McNeil said …

The Florida Police Benevolent Association, a large and vocal union representing corrections officers, also opposes exporting inmates, partly because it would help the private prison industry that the union has long opposed. “Our preference would be to build public prisons and keep prisoners here in Florida,” the union’s David Murrell said. “When you start sending prisoners to other states, you’re asking for trouble.”

jakking CCA, California, Florida, Overcrowding, Private Prisons

Florida’s prison system is embroiled in a lawsuit filed by an ousted vendor on a major contract that accuses the state of illegally favoring a competitor.  Reported by the Miami Herald.

The lawsuit was filed by MHM Correctional Services, which wants to extend its 2 ½-year contract to provide mental healthcare to more than 15,000 inmates in a dozen South Florida prisons … The Department of Corrections wants to fire MHM and replace it with a rival, Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, even though CMS would charge the state $5.5 million more for the same service over a five-year period.

MHM says the prison system began ‘’secret” and ”closed-door” talks with CMS more than two weeks before MHM and another vendor learned that their proposals were rejected. The lawsuit says the state has agreed to pay CMS $74.49 per inmate per month, more than the $70 stipulated in the state’s request for proposals, and that CMS would have a 30-day grace period to fix contract violations before the state could impose fines, which MHM called highly irregular. MHM is paid $77.62 per inmate per month under its current contract, which will expire July 1 …

Corrections officials have declined to discuss the lawsuit, citing pending litigation and a disputed contract award. Prison chief Walt McNeil said he was confident his agency would prevail.

jakking Florida, Inmate Health Care, Mental Health Issues

Under pressure to do his part in a severe budget crunch, Pasco County FL Sheriff Bob White on Monday announced the centerpiece of his cost-savings plan: Closing the New Port Richey jail and transferring the roughly 200 inmates to the Land O’Lakes jail.  Reported by the St Petersburg Times.

The jail consolidation is part of a nearly $85 million sheriff’s budget request that cuts overall spending by nearly $820,000, avoids layoffs, freezes salaries and includes 18 new positions, including eight patrol deputies. “We’re going to have to make sacrifices,” said White.

But the sheriff’s proposed 2009-10 budget represents less than a 1 percent decrease from the current year — well below the 15 percent reduction that Commission Chairman Jack Mariano had requested in letters to White and the other constitutional officers. A 15 percent reduction would mean nearly $13 million in cuts. Commissioner Ted Schrader said Monday that White’s proposed reductions were a start. “At least it’s a reduction as opposed to an increase,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re still faced with a huge deficit.”

White touted the jail consolidation as a $3.5 million savings because he had previously anticipated needing to hire 34 personnel to operate the new wing at the Land O’Lakes facility. That wing’s first two floors, which can hold more than 500 inmates, are scheduled to open later this year. By moving staff from the New Port Richey jail, the new annex will need to hire only 10 people: eight detention officers and two nurses …

In recent months, Sheriff White has been chipping away at his costs through reorganization, the elimination of certain programs and some contractual changes. For instance, he got rid of the air and the community policing units. He also eliminated a program that assigned deputies to supervise defendants released on recognizance. He included in his letter to Pasco commissioners Monday some of the smaller cost savings from his office, including:

• $60,000 by getting a new cell phone contract
• $15,000 by eliminating three accreditation processes
• $10,000 by suspending out-of-county training for certain staff

jakking Economic Issues, FL Pasco County

Lee County FL is facing hard budget choice, as reported by Naples Daily News.

Budgeting for law enforcement is tricky enough in difficult economic times. As property crime increases, the money to battle it decreases. Rank-and-file absorb much of the impact, as pay raises evaporate and overtime becomes a luxury. But the blow that Lee County agencies are taking for the upcoming year — the county lost 25 percent of its tax base in the past year, the property appraiser announced Friday — is staggering. Now, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office must decide where to cut, how deep to cut and how to avoid hitting bone.

One trend in the agency’s favor is a smaller jail population. Since December 2008, the average inmate population of the Lee County jail has hovered around 1,900 people. A year earlier, it was closer to 2,300. The difference translates to money saved. Fewer inmates means fewer people to guard, feed and generally care for. Crucially, it means the 30 vacant jailer positions that Lee Sheriff Mike Scott cut last year can remain cut. It means $3 million for inmate mental health services — originally slated for the new jail wing when it opened last year — can be used elsewhere. And it means plans for a new county jail can be placed on hold …

Lee County deputies are handing out more notices-to-appear, citations that keep the recipient out of jail while requiring they go before a judge. The difference, 462 handed out in 2008 vs. an average 272 in the prior three years, while considerable, doesn’t appear to explain the drop. Another possibility is a new case conference system in Lee Circuit Court. Established last year, the system, which requires that prosecutors and defenders track cases more regularly, has resulted in quicker outcomes and lower caseloads, court officials say …

Lower daily inmate numbers means less crowding within cell blocks, said Sgt. David Velez, assistant commander of the Ortiz Road jail site. It means inmates get actual bunks instead of the plastic portable bunks that come with overcrowding. In October 2008, there was an average 28 percent more inmates than beds for the year. After the jail expansion opened in November, overcrowding fell but still existed. Now, beds remain open, Velez said …

The current Sheriff’s Office budget is roughly $161 million. Several weeks ago, Bergquist, the budget director, said the coming budget would be lower.

jakking Court Delays, Economic Issues, FL Lee County, Florida, Pre-Trial

Florida drug courts will likely expand in the next year after lawmakers decided to put more than $21 million into the programs.  Report from the Miami Herald.

Politicians believe the money will be enough to keep some 3,000 people out of prison, saving the state more than $4 million. The hope is that graduates will also be less likely to re-offend. Right now, programs like the one in Panama City for offenders headed to prison are rare. Fewer than half of Florida’s counties have drug courts targeted at offenders who would otherwise go to prison. That’s even though Florida started the nation’s first drug court in Miami in 1989 and was marking its 20th anniversary Friday with graduations and speeches. “When it does work it really does work,” said judge Sirmons, who has been running the drug court in Panama City for 12 years.

Lawmakers didn’t work out all the details of the drug court expansion plan during the legislative session that ended a week ago. They agreed, however, to pay for treatment for more offenders as well as more prosecutors and defense attorneys. An office within the Florida Supreme Court will decide which counties actually get the money. Gov. Charlie Crist still needs to sign the provisions into law, but people like Department of Corrections Secretary Walter McNeil already support the legislation.

Florida has more than 100,000 inmates in its prisons, and two-thirds or more enter prison with drug problems, the Department of Corrections said. Most don’t get treatment before they leave, and this year lawmakers cut both prison and probation drug treatment programs. “We think that the drug courts are a front-end intervention,” McNeil said near the end of the legislative session.

Two-thirds of all counties have some type of drug court program. But many are like the one in Miami, which takes people who may be first time offenders and would likely be sentenced to parole. Less common are programs for people with prior convictions, many of them parole violators who would otherwise be headed to prison. Participation in both types of programs is voluntary, but offenders can’t be drug dealers or have prior convictions for violent felonies like murder or rape. Once in the program, participants attend therapy classes, have frequent drug tests and meet regularly with a judge. Unlike offenders on parole, there’s an understanding that participants may mess up.

There is a lot more detail and background in the full article at the Miami Herald.

jakking Community Corrections, Drug Treatment & Diversion, Florida

Advocates for the separation of church and state say they’re closely watching Florida’s expansion of non-denominational faith-based prisons. While 21 other states have faith-based dormitories, Florida is the only one with entire prisons focused on faith and character, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday.

Glade Correctional in Palm Beach County this week becomes the fifth faith-based prison in Florida under a program begun in 2003, said Kathy Connor, a state corrections spokeswoman.

Constitutional issues arise, however, when prisons start linking where inmates live to religious programs, said Alex Luchenitser, a lawyer with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “The question is, ‘Are inmates being given incentives to enroll in a prison with a religious environment,’” Luchenitser asked.

Nearly 10,000 Florida inmates are on a waiting list for the prisons. Those accepted must have a record of good behavior and commit to programs run by volunteers at no cost to the state. State workers are not allowed to teach the faith classes, the Sun-Sentinel said.

jakking Faith-based Programs, Florida, Inmate Programs

Price increases at prison snack shops have angered inmates and caused at least one reported case of violence at a Florida prison.  From the Miami Herald.

The state raised prices about three weeks ago under a new contract with an outside company. Since then, the department has gotten at least 60 phone calls and letters from inmates and their families complaining about the hikes.   The Department of Corrections says it’s working to see if some prices can be lowered, but costs are going up everywhere. Some of the price changes: Peanut M&Ms and Snickers (66 cents to 89 cents), a can of Coke (57 cents to 89 cents) and a Honey Bun pastry (66 cents to 99 cents).

jakking Florida, Food Services