TALLAHASSEE — The Florida prison system is making “impressive” improvements but still needs more corrections officers, staff training and video cameras, according to a use-of-force audit of the Department of Corrections released Thursday.
The audit of the department, which saw a near doubling of use-of-force incidents over a recent five-year span, was conducted by the Association of State Corrections Officers at the request of the agency.
The report was commissioned in response to a series of news stories about questionable inmate deaths in the state prison system, as well as the documented spike in the use of force by prison guards, sometimes with deadly consequences. Last year, a record number of inmates died in state custody.
Legislators this year raised questions about how well the agency was implementing its use-of-force policies and questioned whether the agency was capable of “policing itself” in the wake of reports about coverups of inmate abuse and the silencing of whistle-blowers within the agency’s Office of Inspector General.
The audit found that DOC policies were not necessarily problematic — they generally conform to accepted practices.
It also didn’t take issue with the culture of the prison system. It stated that the current leadership of the Department of Corrections, the third-largest system in the nation, has communicated a policy of “zero tolerance” toward abuse of prisoners, as evidenced by a recent series of arrests and dismissals of DOC staffers.