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Cleaning up the Corrections Department

Corrections chief James McDonough is trying to root out corruption, but he should be careful to not impede federal and state investigations.

Florida's Department of Corrections has been rotting from the inside. Federal and state criminal investigations of prison employees are well under way, and interim Secretary James McDonough has blown in like a hurricane. In the six weeks since replacing the ousted James Crosby, McDonough has fired at least 10 high-ranking prison officials. He has frozen slush funds controlled by prison officials, ridiculed a culture where softball is a blood sport and questioned no-bid contracts. The housecleaning is overdue, but McDonough needs to sweep carefully as he rushes to clean up one of the biggest messes in Gov. Jeb Bush's tenure.

Shine a light in any corner at Corrections, and the rats come running out. A former corrections officer pleaded guilty last month to embezzling from a center that recycles prison trash. At least 10 former Corrections officials have been charged in connection with a group selling illegal steroids to North Florida prison guards. At least one Corrections employee was alleged to have been hired just to play softball, and tournaments have ended in beer-fueled brawls. An investigation continues into the improper use of inmates to do work for DOC officials, and investigators have searched Crosby's home and office.

The news is likely to get worse as federal and state grand juries continue to scrutinize the department. Crosby already has been accused of pressuring the son of the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get his father to drop the FDLE investigation. Corrections consultant Brad Tunnell, son of FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell, then found himself under investigation by the department. Crosby says he was just counseling the younger Tunnell, but it doesn't look good.

The Department of Corrections often has been run like an independent fiefdom with its own rules and ruling families. The work is hard, the pay is modest and the prisons are often in isolated areas. There is little public scrutiny as long as inmates serve most of their sentences and executions aren't botched. Corrections secretaries who have come from the outside have found an entrenched culture resistant to reform, and rooting out corruption while pushing for institutional change can be a challenge even for hard-chargers like McDonough.

That's why there is something a bit curious about how the crisis at Corrections has unfolded. Bush publicly defended Crosby, who rose through the ranks and has been a highly visible North Florida political supporter of both the governor and the president, until the day he asked him to resign. Now McDonough can't clean up the department fast enough even as the criminal investigations quietly proceed. Either the governor moved too slowly, or his interim prison secretary is moving too quickly to get in front of a scandal.

McDonough appears headed in the right direction, but he should not do anything that could impede the federal and state criminal investigations. The Department of Corrections cannot be rebuilt until the extent of the rot is exposed.

[Last modified March 23, 2006, 02:15:42]