View - Florida prisons require comprehensive reforms - Julie Jones will become the departments seventh secretary in the last eight years. That is indicative of the deep-set problems in the DOC that go beyond whoever is next to pass through the turnstile in the secretarys office. Florida currently incarcerates more than 100,000 prisoners at a cost of more than $2.3 billion a year. Both numbers are projected to increase over the next five years. That will create additional pressures on a system that already is struggling to maintain safety and order. Inmate deaths this year have hit a 10-year high, with several occurring under suspicious conditions. There also are widespread reports of guards physically abusing prisoners. In fact, the instability at the top may be a contributing factor to the continuing erosion in the foundation. No one in the corrections bureaucracy will take the latest secretarys reform proposals seriously if they can expect a new person to be appointed a few months down the line. Instead of jumping from scandal to scandal by scapegoating another DOC head, the state must make wholesale changes to the system.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 11:52:02 +0000
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