The Danish manufacturer of the controversial drug now being used to execute prisoners pleaded with Gov. Rick Scott twice to abandon its use, saying it “contradicts everything we are in business to do.”
Staffan Schüberg, president of Lundbeck Inc., wrote to Scott twice before the first-term governor signed his first death warrant ordering Manuel Valle to be executed on Aug. 2.
“We are adamantly opposed to the use of Nembutal to execute prisoners because it contradicts everything we are in business to do – provide therapies that improve people’s lives,” Schüberg wrote to Scott on May 16.
On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution of Manuel Valle until Sept. 1 and ordered a hearing on the new protocol. Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay.
The evidentiary hearing on the drug is scheduled for tomorrow morning in Miami.
The Florida Supreme Court has stayed the execution of convicted cop killer Manuel Valle for nearly one month and ordered a hearing on a new lethal injection drug before it can be used.
Valle’s was the first death warrant – and only – signed by Gov. Rick Scott since taking office in January. Scott signed the warrant on June 30 and set the execution for Aug. 2. Valle was convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer Luis Pena in 1978.
The Florida Department of Corrections is set to use a new drug “cocktail” for the first time in Valle’s execution. In January, the company that manufactures the sedative sodium thiopental, one of the three drugs used to in lethal injections, stopped making the drug, leaving corrections officials in states like Florida that execute prisoners scrambling for a replacement. DOC will now use pentobarbitol, manufactured by the Danish drug company Lundbeck Inc.
The court also ordered DOC to release any correspondence with Lundbeck regarding the use of its drug for executions. The Danish manufacturer has stopped selling the drug to distributors who intend to sell it for use in executions.
The court ordered a hearing on the drug for Aug. 5 in Miami, set oral arguments if necessary on the drug issue for Aug. 24 and postponed Valle’s execution until Sept. 1.
Today, the Supreme Court ordered a hearing on the new drug by Aug. 5,
Florida’s new corrections department secretary is shutting down three prisons, two boot camps and a road prison.
DOC Secretary Edwin Buss said the closures will save the state $30.8 million this year and $25 million annually in the future.
The Department will close the Brevard Correctional Institution (CI) in Cocoa, Hendry CI in Immokalee, Hillsborough CI in Riverview, Tallahassee Road Prison in Tallahassee, Lowell CI Boot Camp and Sumter Boot Camp. Additionally the Department will move close management inmates out of Charlotte CI in Punta Gorda to three other prisons.
The department has a surplus of beds for the first time in recent history.
The phase out plan will begin immediately with a target completion date of June 30, 2011.
Gov. Rick Scott’s administration is snuffing out smoking in prisons, saying the habit cost taxpayers $9 million in smoking-related prisoner illnesses last year.
Department of Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss said in a press release this morning he’s giving inmates six months to quit before the smoking ban goes into effect. The department will offer smoking cessation programs to inmates asking for help quitting, according to the release.
Prison workers will be allowed to smoke in designated areas outside the prison fences.
Gov.-elect Rick Scott has hired Indiana Corrections Commissioner Edwin G. Buss as Florida’s corrections secretary and Wal-Mart executive Bryan W. Koon to head the state’s emergency management division.
The pair – both former military men – are the first Scott has named to head his executive agencies before taking office on Jan. 4.
Here’s what Scott had to say about Buss in a press release issued late this afternoon: Buss brings to Florida nearly twenty-four years of hands-on experience in corrections, emergency response, public safety, supervision and budgeting. As Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections and a key member of Governor Mitch Daniels’ cabinet, Buss was responsible for over 7,500 employees, 26,000 inmates, 10,000 parolees throughout the state’s corrections facilities. Prior to serving as Commissioner, Buss served as Superintendent of two Indiana prisons where he refined Death Row and execution procedures, implemented accountability metrics and implemented a safe prison initiative. Throughout his career, Buss has been successful in implementing innovative policies that improve operations while reducing wasteful spending.
And here’s Koon’s biography from the press release announcing his appointment: Koon brings to Florida nearly twenty years’ experience managing tactical and strategic emergencies in the military, government and private sector. In his current role as Director of Emergency Management for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Koon is responsible for the emergency management operations of over 8,500 facilities worldwide. He is an acknowledged expert in the fields of emergency preparedness, disaster response, continuity of operations and continuity of government. Koon’s broad and varied experience includes several years in the White House Military Office where he developed, maintained and implemented high level, classified programs to ensure continuity of government and continuity of operations in the wake of a tactical or natural disaster. He also served the nation with distinction as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy, both active duty and in the Navy Reserve.
The Florida Police Benevolent Society released a 30-second TV ad today bashing GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott’s plan to cut $1 billion from spending on prisons to trim the budget.
A corrections department spokeswoman said Scott’s proposal would wind up shuttering prisons. Shutting down prisons would, of course, result in pink slips for union workers.
The ad says that, under Scott’s plan, “tens of thousands of prisoners could be released early, including murderers, rapists, sex offenders, armed robbers and drug dealers.” It ends with a group of tough-looking men in stripes reciting Scott’s campaign slogan, “Let’s get to work!”
The PBA and the state’s other law enforcement union, the Fraternal Order of Police, are both backing Scott’s Democrat opponent, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.
Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil suspended two prison guards involved in the collapse of 20-year-old inmate Samuel Dread who remains in critical condition after exercising on Monday.
McNeil placed correctional officers Sgt. Michael Devanie and James Barry on administrative leave with pay after learning of “conflicting witness statements,” according to a press release issued by McNeil’s office this morning.
Dread collapsed after exercising for several hours in the 86 degree heat as part of an extended day program at Lancaster Correctional Institution near Gainesville on Monday, his first day at the boot-camp style program for youthful offenders. Dread remains in critical condition after being placed into a medically-induced coma.
“Out of an abundance of caution, I have placed these officers on administrative leave until this issue is resolved. The mission of this department is public safety, and that includes the safety of our 102,000 inmates, a responsibility I take very seriously,” said McNeil. “If any wrongdoing has occurred, appropriate, swift action will be taken. In the meantime, these officers will have no further contact with inmates.”
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the incident, saying there are questions about whether prescription medications Dread was taking required him to avoid extreme heat.
“I have every assurance that the investigation will be thorough and complete and at the conclusion we’ll know all the facts in this case,” McNeil said in a statement.
UPDATE: Gov. Charlie Crist’s office asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the collapse of the inmate, identified as 20-year-old Samuel Dread.
An inmate is in critical condition after collapsing on Monday during exercises at Lancaster Correctional Institution near Gainesville, Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil told reporters at a hastily-scheduled press conference early this morning.
The unidentified inmate, a male between the ages of 18 and 24, collapsed on his first day at the youthful offender facility which uses a boot-camp style program in which inmates exercise outdoors from early in the morning until nightfall, DOC officials said.
McNeil said he asked the agency’s inspector general to investigate the incident and that the inmate is now in a private hospital in critical condition. He also said he is considering changing the department’s policy requiring strenuous exercise in extreme heat.
The department’s response to the incident is a departure from the 2006 death of Martin Lee Anderson, a 14-year-old who collapsed and died after being beaten by guards after collapsing during exercises on his first day at the now-defunct Bay County Boot Camp in the Panhandle.
After intense opposition to a prison privatization plan linked to disgraced former House Speaker Ray Sansom and slipped into the budget late last week, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander has apparently backed off his proposal to shut down up to three prisons and outsource another.
Alexander’s plan drew allegations of foul play from the Police Benevolent Association, the powerful union that represents prison guards and frequently backs GOP candidates, and Gov. Charlie Crist’s Secretary of Corrections Walt McNeil.
The privatization plan would have shut down enough prisons to fill the Blackwater facility in the Panhandle that the state hired Boca Raton-based Geo Group Inc. to build and operate. But the prison population hasn’t grown as anticipated and there aren’t enough inmates to fill the 2,224-bed Blackwater without shutting down other state-run prisons and putting guards out of work.
Under the new plan, expected to be introduced as a budget amendment today by Democratic Leader Al Lawson, the department would gradually fill Blackwater by closing 17 dorms in other prisons, something McNeil favors.
Critics of the proposal also filed complaints with State Attorney Willie Meggs and U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirwin, both in Leon County, alleging that the Blackwater deal was done in secrecy and questioning Sansom’s association with it. Sansom put the original $110 million to the build the prison into the 2008 budget in a floor amendment and tried to guarantee that it would be built as an annex to the Graceville prison that Geo operates.
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander just got a reluctant Senate Ways and Means Committee to sign off on his prison privatization plan that would shut down three prisons and put more than 600 prison guards out of work.
Alexander’s late-filed budget amendment, offered during the committee meeting this afternoon, drew protests from the PBA and some committee members, including Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee Chairman Victor Crist.
Alexander’s plan is to open the new Blackwater prison in the Panhandle, a 1,350-bed facility the state paid more than $160 million to build but is not yet operating. Boca Raton-based private corrections company Geo Group would run the prison, Alexander said, saving the state about $20 million a year and doing away with 639 prison guard jobs. The state corrections department would be ordered to shut down two prisons to fill the 2,200-bed facility, saving the state about $24 million a year, according to Alexander’s amendment.
Food loaf. It’s what inmates hope isn’t for dinner.
As if prison food isn’t bad enough already, naughty inmates are fed a mystery “meat” called “food loaf.”
What exactly the loaf is made up of and what prisoners do to warrant the punishing meal isn’t clear either.
“Food loaf” is also known as called “meal management loaf,” “nutri-loaf” or “behavioral loaf in prison circles. In some prisons the concoction is made up of all of the day’s food put into a blender with some oats thrown in and baked into a loaf.
It is given in some prisons to unruly inmates who throw their food trays at correctional officers and was served in the past to Florida inmates with no utensils.
Currently, inmates in Vermont are suing prison officials over the use of the food loaf and which some states have banned.
Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, asked Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudhom at this morning’s Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations meeting morning to give her, in writing, the caloric value of the mystery package and the department policy on offenses that result in the loaf.
Prudhom said he will report back.
The state spends $2.33 a day for three meals and a snack on the 100,000 prisoners behind bars.
The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that are a staple of state prisoners’ diet aren’t just nutritionally filling.
They’re also saving money and jobs, according to the Department of Corrections.
DOC officials came to the rescue of Tampa peanut butter manufacturer Ernest Turbeville, whose business was flailing when he sent an e-mail to Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year.
Turbeville was unsuccessful in getting DOC’s food vendor to contract with his Sunshine Peanut Company.
By the time he wrote to Crist in March, DOC had already fired its vendors and taken food service back in-house.
Turbeville said he could keep the 14 workers at the Jackonsville-based company on the job for about three weeks.
The agency signed on with Turbeville, according to a press release issued by DOC this morning, and saved the state $200,000 by buying the peanut butter from him.
The Florida Department of Corrections is worried about the aging population of its inmates.
The department has more than 14,000 geriatric inmates, nearly 15 percent of the 100,000-plus prisoners behind bars, DOC officials reported to a Senate committee this morning.
That might seem a bit high, but a sheepish DOC official gave this explanation: the department considers inmates over the age of 50 to be “geriatric.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” DOC governmental affairs director Katie Cunningham told the panel – only two of whom are younger than 50. Committee Chairwoman Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, is 48 and Sen. Ted Deutch, a Democrat from Boca Raton, is 43.
DOC has special geriatric dorms but wants to add more “old age” beds because the prison population is growing older as more baby boomers enter the system.
Lawmakers are likely to reconsider an idea that went nowhere last year to pare down the number of elderly prisoners: let them go home.
One option would be to make it easier for feeble or terminally ill prisoners to be released so their relatives or someone other than state taxpayers could pick up the tab for their care. That option would only be available to prisoners who aren’t dangerous.
State prison officials fired four nurses and put seven guards on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into a brutal attack over the weekend of a Union Correctional Institution inmate.
The nurses were fired for failing to report the beatings that took place over two days, which another employee reported. One of the nurses was a state corrections employee and three others were contract workers.
The 47-year old unidentified inmate “has multiple injuries and is being treated at an outside hospital,” a press release issued late last night by Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil said.
McNeil is holding a press conference at 11:15 to discuss the beatings.
“I intend to bring the full resources of this agency to bear on the individuals responsible for this violent assault, including prosecution, termination and decertification, so they can never work in a correctional environment again. There is no place in our profession for this depraved mindset,” McNeil said in the statement.
The weekend attack is the latest in a string of attacks by guards on inmates at the prison in Raiford or nearby Florida State Prison in Starke.
In June a DOC FSP guard was arrested after being captured on videotape beating an inmate during a power outage. Eleven other employees were involved in that attack.
Four UCI prison officers were fired after an April 9 beating of an inmate. That incident remains under investigation.
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