Abuse in prisons called 'routine'

A former prison psychologist tells the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that violence and corruption are rampant in state institutions.

By ADAM C. SMITH

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 1999

For three years, prison psychologist Connie Schenk said she repeatedly tried to alert administrators to suspected inmate abuse by corrections officers at two North Florida prisons. And for three years she said prison administrators responded with defensiveness, hostility and retaliation.

A frustrated Schenk quit her job Aug. 31, and now she's hoping state lawmakers will pay attention to what she calls chronic problems in Florida's prison system.

"I can tell you firsthand that corruption is rampant, abuse of inmates and staff is routine, and coverup is an established practice," Schenk wrote Sept. 13 in a letter to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

After the violent death of Florida State Prison inmate Frank Valdes on July 17 prompted state and federal criminal investigations, Schenk said she spent about two hours laying out her allegations of abuse to an FBI agent in Tallahassee. Since Valdes' death, the agency has been flooded with allegations of abuse. Before quitting, Schenk, 53, who has a doctorate in forensic psychology, had worked at Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, at Liberty Correctional Institution in Bristol and, since late July, at the Corrections Mental Health Institution in Chattahoochee.

She said she frequently saw injured inmates at Taylor and at Liberty who said they had been beaten by authorities. She said prison administrators had little interest in providing mental health services to inmates and, in some cases, ordered her not to provide mental health treatments she felt were necessary.

As a new staffer at Taylor in 1996, Schenk said she routinely filed reports on suspected abuse, but her supervisors and other officers either did nothing about them or became hostile toward her for reporting the incidents.

"I went to the warden, Greg Drake, and told him abuse was going on. He just said, "I don't think so, Dr. Schenk,' " she said. "Absolutely nothing would happen. Everybody read (my reports), signed off on them, and then nothing happened." Drake, who now oversees the prisons throughout the Panhandle area, did not return a reporter's phone call Tuesday. Told of Schenk's allegations before noon Tuesday, the department's public information office also did not return phone calls.

At Liberty, Schenk said she tried being more "diplomatic" and brought her concerns to supervisors more informally. But, again, she said she only provoked antagonism. Then last spring, another officer told her he was being threatened by guards whom he had seen beating an inmate.

Not trusting the system's internal investigators, she said she and the other officer went to the state inspector general, who eventually sent Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers to investigate. The case is still open, the state inspector general's office said Tuesday. Schenk said she had been told that FDLE referred the case back to the Department of Corrections.

In July, she said her boss ordered her to immediately clear out her desk because she was being transferred to the mental health prison in Chattahoochee. She viewed it as retaliation for her allegations. Soon after she started at Chattahoochee, the department announced the prison would be converted into a sexual offender facility.

Unemployed since Sept. 2, Schenk said she is somewhat relieved to be out of the stressful and threatening atmosphere.

"No employee should have to work every day wondering if they're going to be set up or if they're going to be hurt," she said in an interview. "I tried so hard to work within the system to make change. I reported to my supervisors, and I went up the ladder. The only reason I'm coming forward now, talking to you, is because that really is the last step."

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