BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith has created an inspector’s post for the office’s jail division and filled the slot with a new lieutenant with 13 years of experience in the Department of Corrections and service in three local sheriff’s offices.
The new jail inspector, Lt. Andy Johnson, was born in Miami and moved to Clay County after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992. He graduated from Clay County public schools.
Undersheriff Col. Brad Smith said Sheriff Gordon Smith had been thinking about creating the new position for a while. The inspector’s primary role would be to investigate crimes occurring at the jail.
“Like the escape we recently had,” Smith said. “They would lead on that investigation.”
added that the inspector will investigate contraband infractions at the lockup, as well as investigating inmate deaths.
The sheriff’s colonel said that following two recent jail incidents, the discovery of drugs inside the facility and the escape, Johnson was the lead investigator and that the head of the office’s corrections bureau was impressed with this work.
“Major (Dawn) McKinley commented during those investigations that Andy was a terrific investigator, but at the same time, he had a professional background in the Department of Corrections. He was a captain and worked with a drug detection dog inside for many years. He has insights into corrections that most law enforcement investigators don’t.”
Smith said Johnson will report to McKinley. The colonel added that he anticipates Johnson will be assigned to inspect other county jails in the state for compliance with the Florida Model Jail Standards, which will give the inspector more exposure to corrections’ best practices and how things could go wrong.
“It’s an in-house State accreditation, basically,” Smith said. “So, our plan is already in place. Training is offered periodically throughout the year. I think we’ve got him in a class coming up in September to start the training to become a state-certified jail inspector for accreditation-type inspections of other jails.”
