The deplorable conditions in which some prisoners live in Florida prisons

The precarious conditions that Florida prisoners face recently came to light. They face it as a clear violation of prison policy for, for example, having to eat and go to the bathroom in narrow and unsanitary cubicles.

The report, an article published jointly by Insider and the Tampa Bay Times, was based on various interviews and letters from 14 prisoners current and former, who denounced that, for at least two decades, officers have locked them up. Bad practices were documented in prisons from across the state, that is, more than 30 facilities, including a youth center.

Florida violates prisoners’ rights, according to a report

A common practice, according to the complaints of the prisonersis that they were locked up for hours in the showers, small spaces that should only be used as check-in cubicles or for brief stays before being taken to their cells.

As an example, Kobi Anderson said that on his 17th birthday he was locked in the showers for 8 hours at the currently closed Indian River Correctional Institution. Although in others correctional centers He has also been a victim of the same treatment, he said.

Milton Thompson, for his part, testified that he had been confined in a shower for 23 hours at the Blackwater River Correctional Center. He commented that he was not given the opportunity to go to the bathroom, only a plastic bag. He further added that nine months earlier he had been locked in a shower overnight, but that time at the Okaloosa Correctional Institution where the place was dirty and the smell of waste was unbearable.

According to prisoner, These types of practices are carried out when the officers want to punish the inmates, because “they know that they will drive you crazy.” But it is not the only reason why they lock up the inmates. Officers also use the cubicles as temporary holding facilities while they are transferred to solitary confinement or the prison’s disciplinary court, other witnesses said. Also as a way to deter prisoners to talk to their lawyers about the conditions in the jail.

Humiliation and health risks

Beyond the inhuman treatment that such a practice would entail, the greatest risk is that many prisoners They claim that they were locked up with recent injuries or in states of acute mental anguish. As an example, Frank Vinci said in a lawsuit that he was locked up at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in 2008, and that officers threw him against the wall and hit his face, then left him locked up for six hours without medical treatment and prevented him from going to the prison. bathroom.

Another complaint corresponds to Isnel Rigaud, who through a federal lawsuit claimed that while he was at the Dade Correctional Institution in 2014 he was locked in a bathroom after being sexually assaulted by an officer.

The article details more cases of prisoners who filed civil complaints stating that they were locked in the showers after expressing suicidal thoughts. In that place they were left only wearing underwear and with their hands tied. Some claim they were even sprayed with chemical agents.

While the prisoners They are locked up, they are denied all kinds of rights, from going to the bathroom to accessing their medications and they are even offered food to which they are allergic. And not only that, they usually leave them tied at the wrists and feet, hurting them.

The issue of prisons in Flrodia is not something new

The situation is not new, controversial cases have been coming to light for some time. In 2012 Miami Herald announced the case of a prisoner that he was forced to take a shower with boiling water for almost two hours as punishment for defecating in his cell, which led to his death.

And in 2018 the case of a prisoner with diabetes named Lynn Hamlet who almost died after being locked in a dirty shower for almost an hour because the place began to fill with water that soon reached her ankles where she had open wounds from her diabetes. The problem was that there was a bag full of feces and urine at the site, possibly left by the previous prisoner, which infected her skin.

One complainant noted that in some cases the prisoners They resort to self-harm as a desperate measure to get the attention of officers. Others had to receive their mental health consultations on site, standing still and with the discomfort that what they share with their counselors is not private.

Although the article is focused on cases of Florida, The media discovered that this is a practice in other states such as Virginia, Alabama and Illinois. In the latter, according to the complainant, in 2009 they locked him in a shower full of mold, infected with insects, where he had to remain standing for six hours.

What do Florida prison authorities say about the complaints?

In the article of Insider Kayla McLaughli, director of communications for the Florida Department of Corrections, is quoted as saying that they are against the department’s policy of using showers as holding cells since this is only allowed as a secure temporary placement for specific purposes and not as a punishment, so they cannot immobilize the prisonersnor serve them food.

He added that if any member of the department is found to have violated that procedure they will be held accountable for their actions.