This week, two major South Florida newspapers are reporting on rampant abuse in Florida Prisons.
A headline in yesterday’s Miami Herald was, “Inmate reports threats by guard, turns up dead“, which reported on the death of a Female inmate who was beaten to death by a guard. On September 21st she sent her Aunt a letter letting her know that she was being threatened by the guard. After the Aunt reported it to the prison administration she was placed in “protective custody” but still turned up dead, beaten to death, days later.
Last week, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel’s headline read, “Scott, lawmakers must end abuse in state prisons“. Here are some excerpts of the report:
- “Sadistic guards are a staple of Hollywood fiction, but in Florida prisons, the abuse of inmates is only too real.”
- “physical and psychological torment of prisoners by renegade guards that went on for years while prison administrators looked the other way or intimidated those seeking the truth.”
- “The list of abuses is sickening.”
- “[The Guard] was protected by an obviously corrupt system.”
- “Such morally reprehensible behavior is troubling enough. More disturbing is how the Florida Department of Corrections allowed this abuse to infect the prison system.”
Anyone who has been incarcerated in this state probably can relate to these stories.
If this were going on in other countries, human rights organizations would be lined up to demand reform. Politicians, in self-righteous fashion, would be rebuking the foreign prisons and demanding executive action. But when it happens in our own State it’s so easily swept under the rug. Amazing!
FAC has chosen to post about this off-topic issue for two reasons. First; for many of our members who have been incarcerated in this state or who are currently incarcerated, this is finally making news! Share these stories with family and friends and start demanding change.
Second; because of this sentence in the Sun Sentinel article, “Most inmates will be released, and there’s a better chance they will follow a lawful path if they haven’t been brutalized in prison.” That point is applicable to what we are advocating for. If former “sex offenders” are not treated like animals, if they are given the opportunity to have a roof over their heads, secure employment, connect with their families and not be banished, shamed, ostracized or forced to live under restrictions that are impossible to adhere to, there’s a better chance they will follow a lawful path.
Family Asks DOJ to Probe Florida Prison Death
KAREEM COPELAND On Oct 8, 2014
Source: Associated Press
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The attorneys who represented Trayvon Martin’s family have called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the death of a Florida inmate who had told relatives she feared for her life in prison.
Thirty-six-year-old Latandra Ellington, a mother of four, was found dead on Oct. 1 at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala. Attorneys Daryl Parks and Benjamin Crump say an official at the prison told Ellington’s aunt on the phone that the woman would be looked after shortly before her death.
Ellington was serving one year and 10 months for fraud charges after she filed fake tax returns.
Parks and Crump say the family has not been provided with any information about Ellington’s death. The attorneys say an independent autopsy showed hemorrhaging was found that was caused by blunt force trauma from punches or kicks to the lower abdomen.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman says the agency is investigating. The Department of Corrections in a statement said “this was an unattended death” and did not provide many details, citing the ongoing investigation. It stated Ellington was in “administrative confinement” because the department took seriously the concerns about “alleged threats to her safety.”
Parks and Crump sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday stating their belief that prison officers caused Ellington’s death and asking the Department of Justice to investigate “to prevent spoliation of evidence and ensure a fair and impartial investigation.”
The request for an investigation comes as a scandal widens over the treatment of Florida prison inmates. Scott’s top watchdog has been accused of doing nothing after being warned about a possible cover-up of two suspicious prison deaths.
Randall Jordan-Aparo died at the Franklin Correctional Institution in 2010. He was reportedly gassed while in a confinement cell. Darren Rainey, a mentally ill prisoner, died at Dade Correctional in 2012 after being punished with a shower so hot that his skin separated from his body.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and other human rights groups have called for a federal investigation into Rainey’s death.
Crump said they have not been given information any preliminary information from the state’s autopsy on Ellington. Park said Ellington gave the names of the guards who she said threatened her.
The attorneys represented the family of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old teenager shot to death in 2012 by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the death. The case stirred a national debate on race, as Martin was black and Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic. It also stirred debate on self-defense laws.
Representative Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, called on Gov. Rick Scott to get involved in the prison death issue.
“We know that the Governor’s incredibly busy trying to win an election, but we should be trying to save a generation of people,” Williams said. “Here we have a number of Floridians who have died in our prisons and nothing has happened. It’s a travesty of justice.”
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This is not so off topic as one may think. Most sex offenders go to great lengths to hide the fact they are in prison for a sex crime. But due to the corrupt prison system we have, other inmates simply ask people through letters to check someone out. Once the sex offender has been outed, they are subject to harassment, extortion, robbery, assault, and even death. This happened to a person I called friend : http://on-murders.blogspot.com/2010/02/fl-franklin-inmate-stabbed-to-death.html