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By LUCY MORGANThe Corrections Department, stung by bad publicity from off-duty fights, decides to take a tough stance.
TALLAHASSEE - Stung by bad publicity about brawls and the arrests of prison guards for drinking and fighting, state officials said Thursday they will get tough with any employee arrested for "an act of aggression."
Corrections Secretary James Crosby issued the new policy in a memo to wardens and regional directors of the state's prisons. Crosby later told reporters he acted partly because of news coverage.
"The attention is greater now," Crosby said. "It makes one think."
Prison employees have twice been involved in brawls this year that attracted the attention of law enforcement.
In April, several high-ranking officials beat and kicked the husband of a corrections officer after he slipped on beer and vomit at a softball team party. On Saturday, four corrections officers and a former inmate were arrested at a bar near several prisons in Starke.
Allen Clark, a regional director overseeing all prisons in North Florida, and two officers at Apalachee Correctional Institution, Col. Richard Allen Frye and Major James Bowen, were arrested earlier this month on battery charges in connection with the April incident.
Frye and Bowen have been suspended without pay pending outcome of the criminal case, and were given 30 days from Nov. 14 to leave state housing in Sneads, west of Tallahassee, said Mike Hanna, Crosby's chief of staff.
Early last Saturday, four corrections officers were arrested by Bradford County Sheriff's deputies after a brawl broke out at a bar near Florida State Prison in Starke. One of the officers and a former inmate had to be subdued by a Taser before they could be arrested, deputies reported.
Crosby said he decided to take action because news stories about improper conduct among corrections officers caused him to re-evaluate the way the agency has handled such incidents.
Prison authorities have accepted a certain level of violence in the past but now any staff member arrested for an act of aggression on or off duty will automatically be placed on administrative leave while the incident is reviewed, Crosby said.
Officials will determine whether the employee should remain away from the workplace until the criminal charges are resolved and offenders could face reprimands, suspension or dismissal from their jobs.
"This agency will not tolerate conduct unbecoming of a law enforcement officer," Crosby said. "We have a solemn duty as law enforcement officers in the role we play in keeping the public safe and, by and large, I think we perform that job well."
In the past, prison officials have not put officers on leave or routinely punished them when they are charged with misdemeanors.
Crosby also has appointed an incident review team to review the way the agency handles staff misconduct, personnel procedures and drug and alcohol use. The review team is headed by Dr. Laura Bedard, deputy secretary of corrections, and will issue a preliminary report in about two weeks, Crosby said.
The agency also has begun random drug testing of officers in a program that will include tests for traditionally illegal drugs as well as steroid use. Last year several guards were arrested for trafficking in steroids after a former guard took a job in Egypt and began shipping thousands of steroid pills and injections to his former colleagues.
Crosby defended his agency, saying most of the 26,000 employees who work at the state's 59 prisons "are hard working, dedicated public servants" who have been embarrassed by the actions of a few.