Fight Over Kosher Prison Meals Drags On
July 12, 2016
Florida has no plans to stop offering kosher meals to prisoners, but corrections officials don’t want a federal judge telling them they have to keep serving up the special diet, which consists largely of sardines and peanut butter.
A federal appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday in a drawn-out challenge over the kosher meals. The state has spent nearly $500,000 in the lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice nearly four years ago, but legal wrangling over the religious meals has lasted more than a decade.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz last year ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to offer kosher meals and barred the agency from removing inmates from the religious dietary plan if prisoners buy non-kosher food from canteens or don’t pick up the meals more than 10 percent of the time.
While they don’t intend to do away with the kosher diet they’ve been forced to offer, corrections officials contend that a federal law — the “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act” of 2000 — law allows them to stop offering the meal plan if it gets too expensive.
Lawyers for the state also have argued that the cost of the program could pose a security threat and that the agency should be able to drop it if it chooses.
The agency has a large budget deficit, needs to spend money on capital improvements and has growing medical costs, Florida Assistant Attorney General Lisa Kuhlman Tietig wrote in a March court filing.
“Just because the Department (of Corrections) has made a policy decision at this time to provide a kosher diet in the face of these compelling budgetary issues does not mean that the department’s interest in containing costs is not compelling, nor does it mean that RLUIPA (the federal law) mandates the department making such a decision in the face of all of the serious and compelling budgetary issues facing the department,” Tietig wrote.
But Justice Department lawyers argued that the cost of the program doesn’t let the state off the hook.
“In other words, ‘prison officials cannot simply utter the magic words “security and costs” and as a result receive unlimited deference from (courts) charged with resolving these disputes,’ ” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the civil rights division, and other Justice Department lawyers wrote on Feb. 24, quoting a separate case dealing with inmates and religious practices.
In August, Seitz permanently banned the department from using a “zero-tolerance” policy that removed inmates from the kosher-meal plan if they were caught eating regular meals or purchasing non-kosher food from the canteens, something corrections officials have already abandoned. And her order also bars prison officials from kicking inmates off the kosher plan if the prisoners miss 10 percent or more of their meals in a month, another policy the department says it has discontinued.
Keeping Seitz’s permanent injunction in place “will ensure that prisoners with a sincere religious belief in keeping kosher will not, in the future, have to choose between not eating and violating their faith,” the Justice Department’s lawyers wrote.
The fight over kosher meals in Florida prisons, playing out Tuesday in Miami before a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has dragged on for more than a decade.
The department started offering kosher meals in 2004 to Jewish prisoners at 13 facilities and transferred inmates who were eligible for the meals to those institutions. The agency expanded the program to inmates of all faiths in 2006 but halted it the following year before reinstating it as a pilot project at a single prison in 2010, serving fewer than 20 prisoners.
A year after the Justice Department filed the lawsuit in 2012, the state again began serving kosher meals and promised to have the meals available to all inmates by last July.
Two years ago, prison officials switched to all-cold meals, consisting largely of peanut butter and sardines, served twice a day, prompting some inmates to complain that the unappetizing diet was aimed at discouraging prisoners from signing up for the kosher plan.
Corrections officials had argued that the cost of the kosher meals, an option not only for Jewish prisoners but for Muslim and Seventh-Day Adventists whose religions also proscribe dietary restrictions, could cost the state up to $12 million a year because the food cost nearly twice the amount of regular grub.
About 9,000 of the state’s 100,000 prisoners are receiving kosher meals, according to department spokeswoman Michelle Glady. As of Monday, the state was spending $3.32 per inmate per day on kosher meals, compared to about $1.97 for the regular diet.
But Justice Department lawyers argued that the cost of the program is just a fraction of the corrections agency’s nearly $23 million food service budget, and an even smaller slice of its overall $2.3 billion budget.
About 1 percent of prisoners in other states and the federal Bureau of Prisons participate in religious meal programs, while Florida’s participation rate is more than 9 percent, according to court documents.
Lawyers who represented a Jewish prisoner who was denied a kosher diet questioned Florida’s numbers.
“The issue here is that Florida is really the lone holdout among the major prison systems around the country that’s really trying to say that they should be able to, at any time, stop taking care of the religious needs of its prisoners. And that’s very dangerous,” Becket Fund for Religious Liberty lawyer Daniel Blomberg said in a telephone interview Monday.
The Becket Fund represented inmate Bruce Rich, who dropped his case after Seitz gave corrections officials until mid-2015 to offer kosher meals to “all prisoners with a sincere religious basis for keeping kosher.”
The Justice Department derided the state’s $12 million estimated cost of the program as based on “a set of dubious assumptions regarding participation and pickup rates and questionable allocation of costs to the RDP (Religious Dietary Program) and savings to the mainline meal.”
Florida’s “worst-case scenario” estimate is 10 times more than what other states actually pay for kosher meals, according to court filings.
“At the same time they’re providing (kosher meals) in a very unattractive, unappetizing way, but also claiming just massive participation rates, extraordinarily high participation rates compared to anywhere else in the country,” Blomberg said. “And they’re claiming extremely high levels of expense, again compared to anywhere else in the country. So it seems very suspect.”
Providing the religious meals could reduce Florida’s overall prison costs, Blomberg said, citing research showing that allowing inmates to practice their religion can help reduce recidivism.
“Prisoners aren’t popular, and making provisions for prisoners can be unpopular. But the reality is that prisoners are human, and that denying their right to seek God strips away their human dignity,” Blomberg said. “It goes to the issue of human dignity. It goes to the issue of every individual to be able to seek God as their faith requires. And then it goes to the significant benefits to society that are provided when you provide access to faith in prison.”
by Dara Kam The News Service of Florida
Pictured: The cafeteria inside the Century Correctional Institution. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Biloxi Snaps Pensacola’s Winning Streak
July 12, 2016
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos had runners on second and third with two outs and already has a franchise record eight walk-offs this season.
“You almost expect it,” Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said. “Now we’re going to get a hit here and at least tie it up.”
But the Biloxi Shuckers hung on for a 3-1 victory Monday over Pensacola in front of 3,848 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Shortstop Zach Vincej started the bottom of the ninth inning with a single on a ground ball to left field. Joe Hudson hit a ball back up the middle that the shortstop dove and knocked down and Pensacola had runners on first and second with one out. But center fielder Jeff Gelalich hit a dribbler to first base forcing out Hudson at second.
Biloxi turned to newly acquired relief pitcher Tayler Scott who came in and went 3-2 count on Alex Blandino and struck him out to end the game.
Biloxi scored two runs in the seventh inning when second baseman Javier Betancourt doubled off of Pensacola reliever Barrett Astin on a grounder down the third base line into the left field corner that scored both catcher Jacob Nottingham and third baseman Gabriel Noriega to put the Shuckers ahead, 3-1.
Biloxi scored first when shortstop Angel Ortega smacked his first Double-A home run and second of the season in the fourth inning to put the Shuckers up, 1-0.
Pensacola tied the score, 1-1, in the fifth inning when left fielder Phillip Ervin drew a bases loaded walk that forced in Joe Hudson, who had doubled.
Blue Wahoos Jackson Stephens became the third starter in a row to last into the seventh inning, retiring eight in a row twice.
Stephens gave way to Astin after working 6.2 innings. Stephens struck out two and left runners on first and second base that Betancourt drove in. It was a hard luck loss for Stephens, who gave up five hits, no walks, three earned runs and struck out five in his outing. He fell to 6-7 on the season with a 3.44 ERA.
“Stephens has a nice four-pitch mix,” Kelly said. “He’s got a good feeling for pitching.”
Meanwhile, Biloxi pitcher Wei-Chung Wang threw six innings, allowing four hits, walking three, walking in one run and striking out four. In his last six starts, Wang is 2-1 with a 1.71 ERA. On the season he is 3-4 with a 3.54 ERA.
The Blue Wahoos had chances to score more runs but were 0-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners on base.
Blandino doubled to start the game but then got caught trying to steal third. In the fifth inning, first baseman Ray Chang got thrown out at home. Again in the seventh, Pensacola had runners on second and third with two outs but Phillip Ervin was robbed of a hit by a Biloxi’s leaping catch by its shortstop Ortega.
Pensacola and Biloxi, who battled it out for the first half title before the Blue Wahoos won it, are evenly matched. In three series, Pensacola has a 7-6 edge and is up 2-1 this series.
The Blue Wahoos dropped to 8-10 in the second half and 49-39 on the season in the Southern League South Division. Meanwhile, the Shuckers improved to 6-12 and 45-42.
State Line Mobile Home Fire Likely Work Of An Arsonist
July 11, 2016
A late Sunday night mobile home fire just north of the Alabama/Florida state line is being investigated as arson.
Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton said a larger model truck, possible a Ford F250 or F350 was seen driving away from the unoccupied mobile home on Old Fannie Road near Welka Road as flames erupted just after 10 p.m. The mobile home, Stanton said, had been empty since it was damaged in a tornado on February 15.
Stanton said the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s Office will investigate the exact origin of the fire.
There were no injuries reported.
The Flomaton, Friendship and Lambeth volunteer fire departments from Alabama and the Century Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the blaze, along with Escambia County (FL) EMS.
Photos by Courtney Rabon for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Coming Down Piece By Piece: Tornado Damaged Historic Century Methodist Church
July 11, 2016
The tornado damaged 114-year old Century United Methodist Church is coming down, board by board, piece by piece. — a process that has been going for weeks.
“It’s being dismantled, not demolished,” Rev. Janet Lee told NorthEscambia.com last month. “The hope is that there is enough wood there that is good enough to use in some way when we rebuild.”
The church will be rebuilt on the same spot, right next door to the town’s Baptist church on Church Street. Church members are currently meeting in a house across the street that is owned by the church.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
PBA Calls For New Union Election For Corrections Officers
July 11, 2016
A battle over which union should represent the state’s corrections officers moved to a new phase Friday, with the Florida Police Benevolent Association requesting an election against the Teamsters. The PBA, which was ousted by the Teamsters as the officers’ representative in 2011, filed an election petition containing more than 6,000 signatures with the Florida Public Employees Relations Committee.
“In a matter of just six weeks, we collected more than enough petitions from officers in every corner of the state,” said Matt Puckett, executive director of the PBA, in a statement announcing the move. “They expressed frustration with the Teamsters’ lack of leadership and poor organization.”
The battle comes as the Department of Corrections has struggled to cope with reports of inmate deaths and brutality by prison guards, allegations of cover-ups and corruption, and low morale and high turnover among workers.
Since her appointment more than a year ago, Corrections Secretary Julie Jones — the fifth agency chief in six years — has continued the housecleaning crusade launched by her predecessor, Michael Crews.
Corrections officers have also done without pay raises over the last several years, something that helped lead to the PBA’s defeat in 2011 after 30 years of the group representing the state’s prison and probation officers.
by The News Service of Florida
Housing Rehabilitation Program Assistance In Century On Friday
July 11, 2016
Staff from the town of Century and the Escambia County Neighborhood Enterprise Division will be at the Century Town Hall, located at 7995 N. Century Blvd., on Friday, July 15 from 1-3 pm. to take or complete applications for housing rehabilitation programs for citizens in the town of Century and unincorporated areas affected by the Century tornado on Feb. 15. Applicants must make an appointment by calling (850) 994-0081 for town of Century residents or (850) 595-3011 for unincorporated Escambia County residents. Walk-ins may not be able to be accommodated. Additional hours may be made available depending on demand.
Applicants must bring a social security card for all household members and a picture ID for all household members over 18. Additionally, applicants should bring the following current information with them as applicable:
• Three most recent pay stubs
• Social security award letter
• Retirement/pension statement
• Unemployment statement
• Child support/alimony verification
• Current bank statements
• Current mortgage statement
• Current insurance statement
• Utility bill
• Any other documentation related to income being received by any member of a household
Programs available include the county’s SHIP rehabilitation programs. Income limits apply and the property must be owner occupied and current on property taxes to receive assistance. For more information, call the Neighborhood Enterprise Division at (850) 595-0022.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
FDOT: Rights Of Way Wrong For Political Signs
July 11, 2016
As election season gears up across Northwest Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is reminding all citizens that state law prohibits political signs on state right of way.
In Section 479.11(8), Florida Statutes provide that no signs shall be erected, used, operated, or maintained on the right of way of any highway on the State Highway System.
Political signs placed on state right of way will be removed by FDOT staff and placed at one of the department’s operations centers. FDOT personnel will make reasonable attempts to preserve campaign signs that are taken down and to provide campaign offices an opportunity to claim the signs.
The roadway right of way includes the roadway surface, concrete or grassy median, intersections, entrance and exit ramps, and a strip of land, usually bordering either side of the road, which is reserved for shoulders, drainage ditches, sidewalks, traffic signs/signals, fencing, electrical traffic signal control boxes, utility lines and future road expansion.
Improperly located signs on state right of way poses a traffic safety hazard that can distract motorists or block their view, endanger the safety of individuals who are erecting signs along busy highways and present obstacles to crews who maintain roadways.
Wahoos Win Over The Shuckers
July 11, 2016
Pensacola Blue Wahoos first baseman Eric Jagielo has struggled at the plate all year but he never stopped working on his swing.
It paid off Sunday when Jagielo hit a rocket over the head of Biloxi center fielder Brett Phillips for a walk-off single that scored Blue Wahoos shortstop Zach Vincej for a 4-3 Pensacola victory over the Shuckers in front of 3,451 at Pensacola Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Jagielo said he has worked with hitting coach Alex Pelaez and has made his swing more compact. His average has steadily risen from .146 on May 9 to .208 Sunday, which is his highest average this year for the former first round pick in 2013.
The hot-hitting Jagielo, who has played 13 games at first base after playing the position just three times before coming to the Cincinnati Reds organization, also hit his second homer in three games on Saturday. Jagielo has six homers and 21 RBIs this season.
“I’m getting back to where I was last year,” said Jagielo, who was an All-Star in his last three minor league seasons in the New York Yankees organization. “I’m hitting pitches I was missing before.”
It was Pensacola’s third straight victory and the Blue Wahoos’ eighth walk-off hit this season — a franchise record. Jagielo also had Pensacola’s last walk-off, or “Wahoo Way” as the team has dubbed it, came on Father’s Day June 19 when he singled down the line to drive in Pensacola utility player Brandon Dixon for a 2-1 victory over the Mobile BayBears.
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly likes that his hitters made the most of their opportunities Sunday. The Blue Wahoos are now 8-9 in the second half and 49-38 on the season in the Southern League South Division.
“It’s not the way we planned it, but it’s nice getting a victory in the end,” Kelly said. “The only shame is that Rookie Davis doesn’t get a W out of it.”
The Blue Wahoos also tied another less desirable franchise record Sunday by striking out 18 times in a game. The last time Pensacola had that many was June 9 in a 14-inning game against the Jackson Generals.
Davis admitted he was looking to redeem himself. Davis lasted two innings, giving up seven runs, four earned on nine hits, walked one and had no strike outs in his last start against Mobile.
Sunday, he became the third Blue Wahoos starter to pitch into the seventh inning in the last 35 games. in June and July. The last two came back-to-back after righty Tyler Mahle went seven Saturday.
Davis pitched seven strong innings. He shutout Biloxi on six hits and struck out five, lowering his ERA to 2.84.
“It was a big difference from the last game,” Davis said. “I tried to come out and pitch aggressively.”
You can’t blame Biloxi right hander Taylor Jungmann, the 12th pick overall in the 2011 draft, if he didn’t want to face Pensacola on Sunday. He had faced Pensacola three times in his career and was 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA, giving up 12 earned runs in 14 innings.
Although, Biloxi’s Jungmann gave up three runs on six hits in 4.2 innings Sunday before being pulled with men on first and third, he did strike out a career-high 12 Blue Wahoos, including eight of the first nine outs.
Pensacola tagged Jungmann — who got blistered by Major League and Triple-A hitters for more than nine runs per game — for two runs in the third inning. Blue Wahoos center fielder Brandon Dixon doubled in the left center gap to score Davis and second baseman Alex Blandino for a 2-0 Pensacola lead.
Blue Wahoos Vincej hit a long fly ball off the wall for a triple to start the fourth inning. Pensacola left fielder Juan Duran then drove Vincej in to put the Blue Wahoos up, 3-0, with a deep sacrifice fly to right field that didn’t even draw a throw from the Biloxi outfielder.
Vincej went 3-4 with a triple and double, scored twice and stole his fifth base of the year. He is now 16-42 or .381 in his last 11 games and is hitting .276 on the season.
In the ninth inning, though, Biloxi pinch hitter Johnny Davis tied the game, 3-3, with a leadoff home run to right field. It was his first career home run in fourth professional season.
Biloxi had pulled within one run, 3-2, when third baseman Gabriel Noriega smacked a single up the middle that scored Phillips. Biloxi second baseman Chris McFarland then hit a chopper in front of the plate that Blue Wahoos catcher Joe Hudson decided to throw to first base and let Shuckers left fielder Garrett Cooper score.
That’s when Jagielo delivered his second Wahoo Way this season, driving in Vincej who had doubled in the ninth.
“He’s a big time player,” Davis said of his teammate. “Some guys want to step away in that situation but he’s not one of them. He’s been working hard since the first day of the first half.”
Florida Lawmakers Seek Expanded Hate Crime Coverage For Police, Fire
July 11, 2016
Two Republican lawmakers called Friday for expanding Florida’s hate-crimes law to include attacks on police officers and firefighters.
The proposal by state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, and state Rep. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, came the day after five law-enforcement officers in Dallas were fatally shot and seven others were wounded. The Texas attack occurred during a demonstration protesting shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Florida’s hate-crimes law increases penalties if offenses are based on factors such as race, religion, sexual orientation or mental or physical disability.
Baxley, who is running this year for a Central Florida Senate seat, announced in a news release that he and Combee would seek in 2017 to expand the hate-crimes law to address offenses against police officers and firefighters. Similar proposals were filed during the 2016 legislative session but did not reach the House or Senate floors.
“Law enforcement officers hold the fabric of our society together,” Baxley said in the news release. “An attack on them is an attack on our tradition of ordered liberty, and we must do everything possible to hold individuals who do them harm accountable.”
by The News Service of Florida
Pictured: Flowers outside Dallas Police Headquarters. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Woman Charged With Child Neglect After Pot, Cocaine Found Near Child
July 10, 2016
A Cantonment woman is facing felony child neglect and drug charges after authorities say she was smoking marijuana and had cocaine and additional marijuana in the car with her child.
Escambia County deputies reported finding driver Timothy McKinley Sinkfield, 24, and passenger Mercedes Chanté Lowman, 24, in vehicle with the lights off sitting in the middle of Tiki Lane. The responding deputy said he smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and found a half burned marijuana cigarette in plain view in the front center console tray. A license check revealed Sinkfield’s license was canceled indefinitely in 2014.
Sinkfield was charged with misdemeanor driving with a suspended license and marijuana possession, plus he was arrested on failure to appear in a previous drug case. He remained in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $13,000.
Lowman’s child was in a child safety seat in the back of the vehicle, according to an arrest report. In a small bag sitting on a diaper, deputies reported finding three smaller bags of marijuana and a crack cocaine rock. She was “Not upset at all and acted as if she could care less about the safety of (the child),” the deputy wrote in his report.
Lowman was charged with felony child neglect, felony cocaine possession and possession of marijuana. She was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $11,500 bond. The Department of Children and Family Services is also investigating..