*Ricky Dixon spoke to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 25. *Dixon said the three things that will immediately repair and restore the corrections system is having sufficient staff, eliminating inmate idleness and incentivizing cooperative behavior. *He said part of incentivizing cooperative behavior is separating short-term inmates from career criminals.
Monitor Editor
TALLAHASSEE— Florida’s Secretary of Corrections said the state’s struggling prison system could be revitalized if he can successfully implement his top three priorities.
“The solution to our corrections problem is not nearly as complicated as we often make it,” Ricky Dixon told the Senate’s Criminal justice Committee on Jan. 25. “There are three things we can do that will immediately repair and restore our corrections system.”
Dixon said that restoring staff to adequate levels, eliminating inmate idleness and incentivizing cooperative behavior are the three keys to restoring Florida prisons.
Dixon said that now, staffing levels remain dangerously low with a single officer often supervising an entire dorm, when three officers should be doing the work.
He added that the department’s new bonuses and compensation plans are improving FDC’s staffing shortage.
Dixon said inmate idleness is another danger that can lead to unrest in lockups.
“You can’t compress a group of men or women in a tight space like a prison and give them absolutely nothing to do,” he said. “You have to have 80%, 90%, 100% preferably of that population actively engaged in either education or religious programs. They’ve got to be engaged.”
The secretary said that a big part of incentivizing cooperative behavior is housing inmates that are less prone to violence with other such inmates.
At a previous hearing, he told the Senate panel that housing the state’s most violent inmates in one facility in the panhandle has reduced violence at other institutions, as well as the location where the most violent inmates are kept.
