Investigate claims of prison abuse
A Times EditorialPublished April 22, 2005
A former warden at three Florida prisons has charged inmates are routinely abused and goon squads of guards use violence to intimidate. Ron McAndrew also alleged during a public hearing this week that the abuse is condoned by prison administrators and top Department of Corrections officials. His description of a prison system out of control deserves a serious examination, yet few in Tallahassee want to listen.
The governor's office isn't interested. The Department of Corrections denies there is any abuse of inmates. Only Attorney General Charlie Crist plans to review the charges.
Prison inmates are among the state's most vulnerable populations, and they often are not sympathetic characters. Only when there is a death or a riot do conditions receive much public attention. Yet the state has a duty to ensure the prison system is run responsibly.
This country now incarcerates more than 2- million inmates - nearly 82,000 in Florida's prisons alone - and the treatment of these individuals reflects our values as a society. Most inmates will be released from prison at some point, and their future behavior will be affected by their experiences behind bars. Responsible state leaders should be paying close attention to the work of the newly established Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. The commission is co-chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and includes the former FBI director William Sessions. In Tampa this week, the commission held its first of four hearings, taking testimony from a series of witnesses who offered personal accounts of serious and systemic abuses occurring in the nation's prisons and jails.
No one from Florida's Department of Corrections attended, so McAndrew's allegations were unchallenged. He spent 23 years working in corrections in Florida and described a system that protected and promoted sadistic guards who used violence to assert authority. He said whistle-blowing guards who came forward to report abuses faced repercussions.
These allegations deserve a serious investigation by the state. If the governor and his Department of Corrections aren't interested, then it will be up to Crist to do it himself.