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Jail agrees to county's plans

The troubled jail's operator will cover the Sheriff's Office's costs of fingerprinting and pay for a county monitor.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published January 27, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - Corrections Corporation of America agreed Thursday to pick up the tab for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office to take over fingerprinting and photographing at the troubled county jail.

In four separate meetings with county commissioners throughout the afternoon, CCA executive vice president Ken Bouldin said he would do whatever Sheriff Richard B. Nugent requested and "work out the economics so it's not a burden on the county."

Bouldin also agreed to pay for a county contract monitor devoted to making sure that the privately run jail is in compliance.

Bouldin and CCA customer relations manager Ray Hodges scheduled the back-to-back meetings after the County Commission on Tuesday expressed concerns over two recent suicides and operational problems at the jail, including a backlog of more than 700 arrests not entered into the statewide fingerprint database. Also attending the meetings were County Attorney Garth Coller and interim County Administrator Larry Jennings.

Even before the first meeting got under way at 3 p.m., the format became an issue.

Commission Chairwoman Diane Rowden explained to Bouldin that she allowed a Times reporter to attend because she was concerned that the separate meetings might seem like an attempt to keep the discussion out of the public eye.

"Even though it's not a violation of the Sunshine Law, it's against the spirit, especially when we spent so much taxpayer money (on the jail contract)," Rowden said.

Florida's Sunshine Law requires that any time two or more commissioners are together, the meeting must be open to the public, but the series of meetings scheduled with individual commissioners circumvented that requirement.

Bouldin said he would have liked to meet with all the commissioners at once and in public, but that the meeting could not have been properly advertised on short notice.

Earlier in the day, CCA corporate spokesman Steven Owen had said that it would not be appropriate for a Times reporter to attend Thursday's meetings.

After listening to Bouldin's assurances during her meeting, Rowden invited CCA officials to make a presentation at the County Commission's Feb. 14 meeting.

"We're not going to kick you around just to kick you around," she said, "but there may be some tough questions."

During her meeting, Commissioner Nancy Robinson told the CCA that it should pay the entire cost to fix the problems at the jail and warned CCA officials that "all options are on the table."

Commissioner Chris Kingsley reminded the CCA officials that "it's not all about the suicides." He said problems at the jail go back as far as the illegal release of two inmates to the U.S. Virgin Islands in May 2005.

"I thought there was supposed to be zero tolerance there, too," he said.

Today, Bouldin and Hodges will meet at 8:30 a.m. with the fifth commissioner, Robert Schenck, and then at 9 a.m. with Nugent.

Bouldin said he would speak to the sheriff about how he wanted to proceed with the fingerprinting and photographing of inmates. He wasn't sure whether the sheriff knew the backlog had been reduced to zero.

"I knew it before they did," Nugent said late Thursday afternoon. Nugent said he is determined to go ahead with the $305,000 proposal, despite CCA's claim to have the situation in hand.

"I don't care what they say. Their assurances are falling on deaf ears," the sheriff said. "There's nothing they can say that can change my mind."

Nugent said that the investigation into the latest suicide prompted him to contact State Attorney Brad King at the beginning of last week about opening an inquiry into operations at the jail.

"The inquiry is one step short of an investigation," explained Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway, who said that a 6- to 8-inch stack of documents about the suicides has been given to Senior Assistant State Attorney Bill Catto, with instructions to put the case on the "front burner."

In about half the cases, these inquiries lead to grand juries, Ridgway said.

The soft-spoken Bouldin offered commissioners a number of other suggestions for improving operations at the jail, including a suicide-prevention pilot program that is slated to begin in mid February.

He also said that Russell Washburn, an additional assistant warden, reported to work at the jail Thursday.

The County Commission has put aside one hour at its Feb. 14 meeting for the CCA to make a presentation and answer questions.

Commissioner Jeff Stabins, who pressed the CCA to come clean with all it knew about the jail's persistent problems, said after the meeting that he was surprised by how much the CCA had offered.

"I was just talking to the (county) budget director, and he was saying, "Where are we going to get $300,000 to pay for the deputies?' and Mr. Bouldin just said that he would pay for it," Stabins said.

But Kingsley was not content.

"I'm not going to be satisfied until all the questions are answered," he said.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified January 27, 2006, 01:21:16]