BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE—The Florida Department of Corrections deputy secretary told Bradford and Union County’s state senator that additional inmate work crews are still months away.
During a senate criminal justice committee Jan. 17 meeting, Richard Comerford said that a shortage of certified correctional officers is restraining the agency’s ability to increase the number of work crews that typically provide services to local governments.
Senator Jennifer Bradley represents Bradford, Union, Baker, Columbia, Gilchrist, Clay and northern Alachua counties. Many of those jurisdictions host correctional facilities and have relied on inmate work crews to supplement public utilities, landscaping and other tasks.
During a Dec. 5 legislative delegation meeting in Lake Butler, Union County Coordinator Jimmy Williams told Bradley that correctional facilities have partially restored inmate crews after suspending them during the pandemic and correctional officer shortages but that the teams have not yet been restored to pre-pandemic levels.
He asked the senator for help in restoring additional crews.
Bradley told Comerford inmate work crews are important to governments within her district.
“I have a lot of prisons in my district,” she said. “They tend to be in a lot of the rural counties. Work crews are very, very important to the rural counties.”
Bradley noted that last time this year, 431 work crews were suspended. This year, 424 remain out of action.
Comerford told Bradley his agency is constantly assessing and monitoring the capability for additional work crews.
“We feel we’re a few months away from being able to successfully do that at some locations around the state,” he said. “For those locations that are not recovering as quickly, it’s still going to be a challenge to get those squads back out, but we definitely agree they are a benefit to our local community partners, and it provides meaningful work for the population, again, reducing inmate idleness.”
In other news from the Jan. 17 meeting of the senate criminal justice committee:
Legislative priorities
Comerford said his agency’s priorities for the 2022 session were increasing officer pay, boosting officer retention pay and transitioning to an 8.5-hour shift.
The deputy secretary added that this year, the department hopes to continue to address staffing shortfalls, increase programming to inmates to reduce idleness and recidivism rates, and increase funding for the department’s infrastructure and equipment to improve living and working conditions for inmates and staff.
He said that while last year’s session increased pay for certified correctional officers, this year, the department is looking to boost salaries for other categories, including support personnel.
Comerford said the department will seek approval to use the inmate welfare trust fund to increase programming for inmates.
He said programming, like G.E.D. and college courses, vocational training and voluntary programming like Bible, parenting and literacy courses, reduce violence, gang activity and contraband within institutions. He said the programming also reduces recidivism by providing inmates with basic education, job training, substance abuse prevention classes and anger management courses.
“Most individuals sentenced to prison will be released back into our communities,” he said, “approximately 83% based on current estimates. We want to help these inmates released be better than they came to us so that we can reduce victimization in our communities and prevent further incarceration.”
Inmates can earn G.E.D. diplomas, an associate of arts and bachelor’s degrees while serving time.
The deputy secretary said that because of a lack of resources limiting course seats, only 17% of inmates are enrolled in programming.
Comerford said the department’s funding request for infrastructure improvements includes upgrading the agencies aging fleet of cars, trucks and vans.
He said that of the department’s 2,891 vehicles, 66% have mileage over the Department of Management Services’ lifecycle replacement standard.
We’ve had some with 300,000 to 400,000 (miles),” he told senators. “We’ve actually in the past had some of our transport vans with well over a million miles.”
He added that the agency also wants to upgrade fixed camera systems, body-worn cameras, keys, locks, databases and computers.
National Guard impact
Comerford told the committee that Gov. DeSantis activated 300 Florida National Guard members to work in the state’s correctional facilities last fall.
“These institutions were experiencing some of the most serious vacancy rates in our agency,” Comerford said. “We conducted training and a transition process at each facility to bring the National Guardsmen who volunteered for the mission into the positions they’re currently filling.”
The guardsmen were deployed to Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Mayo, Santa Rosa, and Union Correctional Institutions, in addition to the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler and the Northwest Florida Reception Center in Chipley.
The guardsman filled non-contact roles at the institutions, including control room officer, perimeter officer and other support roles.
Comerford proclaimed the initiative successful. He said the project reduced staff vacancy rates, increased staff morale and created interest from guardsmen to apply with the Department of Corrections upon completion of the mission.
The initiative reduced the staff vacancy rate at Union CI from 18.17% to 13.67% and at RMC from 16.41% to 9.91%. At Mayo CI, the guardsmen reduced the staff vacancy rate from 17.22% to zero.
“The service members have seamlessly integrated into our staff in the non-contact roles they hold,” he said. “The guardsmen are helping fill critical roles on a short-term basis while we work to train the hundreds of new correctional officers who have joined our agency in the past month.”
Major initiatives
Comerford said the department’s current initiatives include a prison modernization study, a new mental health hospital and health services procurement.
He said the $5 million study will identify the future of Florida’s correctional system.
“The study will assess the current system and make recommendations on the path to get from where we are today to where we need to be in the future,” he said.
The deputy added that the construction of a new mental health hospital will be a multi-year project and will meet the growing needs of the system’s mental health patients.
Comerford also said the agency’s contract for statewide comprehensive healthcare services expires on June 30, and the department is currently engaged in the procurement process for that contract.
