A course correction at Corrections
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 13, 2007
If you pay the right lawyer, you can get sent to the prison of your choice and have your fellow gang members join you. That was the scheme broken up by Department of Corrections Secretary James McDonough this week. The crackdown was a welcome sign that the department under McDonough will not sweep internal wrongdoing under the rug, but will aggressively root it out and publicize it.
In all, the department says it confirmed 371 cases of improper inmate transfers made on behalf of those inmates who paid lawyers and agents to get them into the institutions of their choice. The investigation started after one inmate was overheard complaining to his attorney over the phone that his transfer hadn't yet occurred. The attorney was demanding his payment up front.
The department's three-month investigation found that lawyers Bernard Daley Jr. of Tallahassee and Stephen Johnson of Gainesville were paid between $2,000 and $7,000 for each transfer. They then retained retired department officials who would act as the lawyers' agents, using their influence to help make the moves happen.
Although the investigation is continuing into whether any current department employees took money in exchange for putting an inmate at the front of the line - in which case it would go from a personnel matter to a criminal one - it appears that the primary currency used in the transfer scheme was not money but deference. Department insiders granted favors to former corrections administrators out of a sense of camaraderie. People like Louis Wainwright, the former corrections secretary who is widely known and admired, used their reputations and contacts to garner extra consideration for their clients.
While the attorneys and their agents say they did nothing but lobby for their clients' best interests, McDonough was right to shut down their little game and punish those within his department who played along.
Beyond the inherent unfairness of allowing certain inmates with deep pockets to buy favors or disregard the rules - such as one that requires a clean disciplinary record for transfer - there are security reasons for ending this cozy practice. Some inmates were paying lawyers to get them and their fellow gang members transferred to the same institution.
McDonough was appointed in 2006 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to clean up the department after his predecessor, James Crosby, was indicted. Crosby and a top lieutenant were sent to federal prison after being convicted of accepting kickbacks from a prison vendor. Soon after, McDonough started housecleaning, firing a warden and a number of other top officials, to eliminate any residual institutional lawlessness.
In this case, McDonough could have quietly handled the transfer matter and winked at those in his department who helped out some former officials. Instead, he chose to make it public and impose serious discipline on those involved.