Comments on: Five Questions For Florida DOC Secretary Julie Jones

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:05:23 +0000

Please explain why prices are so much higher at Madison than at Gulf?

How do you determine the price of items? There are the prices in the grocery store.

2 lotions @ 3.18 =6.36
3 soaps @ .98 =2.94
2 batteries @ 3.25 =6.50
1 dental floss @ 2.47
1 colgate toothpaste @3.45

By: phillip watson

phillip watson — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 02:40:58 +0000

My son in law and many of his co-workers work two or more jobs to make up for low prison worker pay. They will probably be forced to quit the prison system if the shifts
are changed to 8 hour rotating shifts. This will make all the problems worse with
staffing and lead to lower quality workers. If you want to cure some of the problems
raise pay and retain better workers.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 23:23:59 +0000

My husband has been a correctional officer for the last 6years. We do like the 12hour shifts because he has time off to spend with the kids. We can make do with going back to 8 hour shifts as long as they don’t do this ridiculous 8hour rotating shifts that some people are talking about. Working 7 days straight with 2 days off and switching shifts each week would not work at all. If the state did the 8 hour rotating shifts like this my husband would have to find another job because we would have to pay for daycare and can not afford to. They keep saying they want to keep the experienced officers but they are not taking into account that they have families and all the changes they keep making affect them too! Correctional officers are supposed to report to their assigned post 15minutes prior to shift start but time sheets don’t account for that 15minutes each day. What about when they get relieved 10minutes late? Most of the time that doesn’t get counted either! I think correctional officers deserve a pay raise. They are risking their lives everyday without any weapons to keep these criminals behind bars. I think the state should look into trying to keep the officers who have been with the department for more than 5 years. What will make these officers want to stay? Julie Jones is trying to make a difference we can all see that but she has to keep in mind that correctional officers are just as hard working as every other law enforcement agency.

By: Kathy Carlin

Kathy Carlin — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 15:14:25 +0000

I have a daughter incarcerated at Lowell. She is a model inmate who agrees that there needs to be more training of staff esp in regards to treating every human being with respect. Inmates should not be subject to harassment, yelling obscenities at them and intimidation. That is cruel and unusual punishment. The punishment for inmates is that they have lost all their freedoms; the freedom to be with loved ones, the freedom to do everyday ordinary things like go to Starbucks for coffee and so forth. If you treat someone subhuman, they will react negatively.

There is no rehabilitation. Most of the crimes were driven by drug addiction and most of the women were victims of sexual or domestic abuse. They need to learn coping skills, social skills and job skills. If they had more to do like movies, board games, art supplies and so forth they would be more manageable and happier-thus easier for the guards. When my daughter was at PCJ, she was able to have colored pencils and color books and she had the whole pod coloring which created an atmosphere of calm. Creativity is healing. But at Lowell, none of that is available except through donations. Why is that? No matter what, these are the children of the Creator and we have an obligation and a moral duty to nurture that divine spark that is within all of us and miracles can and do happen. And from what I have seen, the justice system is broken, the prison system is broken and most of these women are given long prison sentences that are not justifiable. My daughter’s appeal lawyer said if she had done her crime in another state, she never would have gotten the years she did. My daughter had always been a productive member of society, was going to RN school, worked at a hospital and had gotten addicted to oxys prescribed to her for a back injury. She cold-turkied off the oxys and got introduced to crack to help with the withdrawals and her whole life fell apart in 30 days. Anyway, she takes responsibility for her actions and is doing her best to grow and learn in this situation. But, as mother, it is heartbreaking to see the way she is treated at times, the lack of resources (she is an artist) and the uncaring attitude of the prison system. She was assaulted and her jaw was fractured and it took the prison 26 days to allow her to see a doctor. She still has problems and I complained and the dentist finally did see her but blew her off and did not even check her jaw. It is a very sad situation. I hope Ms. Jones can change the system for the better.

By: J.W.

J.W. — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:58:28 +0000

I retired from D/C as an administrator. I can tell you that the biggest problem is still the unashamed cronyism. Things are no different today than they were when Secretary Crosby was sent to Federal prison for corruption. Governor Scott needs to get a clue! He has appointed more secretary’s than any other governor in history. You cannot leave the fox in the hen house and expect a new rooster to to take care of the problem. The same bunch has been running the show during the Governors entire tenure. the Secretary is nothing more than a figurehead. In order to fix this mess a shakeup from the secretary to the wardens needs to take place. The same deputy secretary and regional directors have remained. Until they are replaced, do not expect anything different. I would think Governor Scott would have picked up on this since he’s on his 4th secretary.

By: DavidHuieGreen

DavidHuieGreen — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 00:55:17 +0000

CONTEMPLATING:
“Are you drawing two (2) checks from the tax payers called double dipping and Scott said would not happen any more?”

Paid retirement you earned and paid for work you are doing isn’t wrong even if it is worded to sound bad.

If Governor Scott said he wouldn’t do it, he shouldn’t — because people should do what they say and be careful of what they DO say, but not using useful humans or stiffing them for what they are owed is also wrong.

David for just compensation and honest people

By: A Spouse

A Spouse — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 21:10:21 +0000

Region 2 CO, you may not get paid overtime, but, you are getting more money, as for the ones that have to travel to work, they actually save money on gas, because they’re not driving 5 days a week plus you can schedule appts., w/out taking off work & burning time accumulated unless your one of the ones that bang in, & don’t care an iota what you leave your crew in, plus you are right on the weekend part, some people do go to church & if you have Mondays & Tuesdays off, you miss church. If the state would start punishing those that have a history of banging in & rewarding the ones that don’t, then they’d also find out who wants to work & who don’t & maybe help them decide on another career. Most of what I hear actually like the 12 hr, if you don’t like it, then maybe it’s time for you to change your career, you sound like you’d rather sit on the couch. Not judging or assuming, just going by your comment.

By: Region 2 CO

Region 2 CO — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 03:20:19 +0000

I am CO that has been with the state prisons for almost 14 years. 8 hour shifts will be a good step for us to go. Many staff are liking the 12 hours because we get every other weekend off. But with the 12 hour shifts, We are working 84 hours every two weeks and we are NOT getting paid extra (only straight time) because the governor has mandates policy through the courts that it’s okay because we are civil public safety workers. Working 8 hours shifts again would have us at 80 hours every two weeks again. With the 12 hours, we are tired, stressed out and unhealthy. We are totally sleeping in or running errands on our days off and for those staff with kids or live far from the prisons it’s even worse. We have to get ready before our arrival time and have errands and chores to do after we get home from a shift so it’s really more like 18 hours a day from when we get up to when we go to bed and that’s assuming we can get to sleep once we lay down.

By: chris in Molino

chris in Molino — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 00:20:49 +0000

@Ponch
Everything Mrs. Jones says the department is doing is a facade. Since you portray a seasoned officer, you know FAC is interpretive. Rules are designed in favor of security. If they are in favor of inmates, theres ways around that. Example; Never seen a recorded use of force and the inmate is fine. Conveniently, there are technical difficulties with the camera or the battery has to be changed, and when the video comes back on the inmate is beat. Oh amazingly the inmate started resisting during the battery change right ? Never seen an inmate gassed for no reason ? It’s all about the dollar. When package permits stopped it was because thats how drugs were coming in (officially) Really it was because central office realized inmates families were spending millions of dollars on items like super 2 radios, pro 25 headphones, silk pajamas, leather bedroom shoes and they weren’t getting a piece. So, cut out packages, offer canteen items like cheap bobo shoes, inflate the price 500% because their forced to buy it. Remember the clear craze. Wasn’t the department’s idea. Corporations marketed cheap clear plastic radios amoung other items. (BTW- you can get one of those radios for $3 at flea market) FY1999, MCI gave FDOC 55% of total cost of the phone call, totaling $28m for the department. I can go on and on.
Bottom line 90% deserve to never get out. They’re animals. But call it what it is. You cant feed me oatmeal but tell me it’s grits.

By: Just me

Just me — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:06:15 +0000

All I can say is good luck to the officers. I’m so glad I left the co life. Thank god