Officials rethink death row visitation

Corrections officials have postponed a hearing on the proposed change to study it more.

By ADAM C. SMITH

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 3, 2000

State prison officials are backpedaling on a controversial plan to stop physical contact between death row inmates and their visitors.

"We need to study it some more," said Department of Corrections spokesman C.J. Drake, explaining why the department indefinitely postponed a public hearing on the proposed policy change.

The department proposed the new visitation policy last fall, immediately prompting a torrent of criticism.

Corrections officials said they were looking only at security considerations, but relatives of death row inmates mobilized against the move, saying it served no purpose except to remove one of the few things condemned inmates look forward to.

Under current visitation policies, friends and family members on approved lists can visit with the 370 men and women on death row at small, round tables located in an open room. Hugs are allowed at the beginning and end of the so-called "contact visit."

Prison administrators had said the no-contact rule would eliminate an opportunity for inmates to receive contraband or perhaps take a hostage or attempt an escape. But some prison officials had raised doubts about the proposal, fretting that it might unnecessarily raise tensions.

In April, dozens of death row inmates launched a short-lived hunger strike to protest the plan, and state Rep. Allen Trovillion, R-Winter Park, who heads the House Corrections Committee, had suggested Corrections Secretary Michael Moore drop the proposal.

Carol DiNatale, a Dunedin woman with a fiance on death row, said she doubted another public hearing on the matter would be rescheduled for at least a year, if ever.

With growing national attention on capital punishment and the record of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, DiNatale speculated that the Jeb Bush administration was unenthusiastic about creating another death row controversy.

Department spokesman Drake, however, said Moore wanted to postpone the matter so the department can further review policies in other states and analyze comments and letters the department received on the proposal.

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