Weekend Expression of Outrage!

 

No, no--it wasn't about the embarrassing spectacle of a smackdown, B!&$h slap Will Smith delivered to Chris Rock in the middle of a live, worldwide broadcast to tens of millions of people.  It wasn't about this.

No, no it wasn't about the disgustingly tragic story (you don't know about it because the national media won't report it) of a grandmother targeted by four "youth" in New Orleans with a violent beating that led to her death by murder during a carjacking.  (She was pulled from her parked car, punched, kicked and beaten unconscious before these youth drove off with her dragging beside her own car until all her clothes were ripped off and her ARM was ripped out of the socket and she died of blood loss in the arms of two passers by that tried desperately to first stop the carjacking and second save this victim.)  Nope--it wasn't about that either.

And No--it wasn't about the ongoing violence against women and children in Ukraine by the Russian Military.

Nope.  Wasn't about that, either.

It was about the spectacle scene that is our old jail and our new jail.  

This citizen is outraged.  He's right to be.  But, put in context, there are lots of things to be outraged about, a lot of issues far more urgent, pressing, and sad.  

So here's the back and forth from the weekend about our jail, below.

On AM 1370 WCOA's Real News with Rick Outzen Show Later this Morning

I'll be a guest later this morning, at 7:10, on WCOA's hit morning radio show "Real News with Rick Outzen"

I'll be Rick Outzen's guest later this morning on the area's #1 rated morning drive news radio show, "Real News with Rick Outzen."

Outzen attended last Thursday's committee of the whole, the singular topic of which was the county's jail and the deplorable condition this facility is in currently.  The focus of that meeting was the vetting of Administrator Wes Moreno's plan to correct deficiencies and chart a course forward to remove the current inmates housed in that jail out of that facility and into better facilities.

I'll discuss this topic and more with him on his show at 7:10 this morning on WCOA-and once the podcast is published , I'll post it here

Escambia County and PBA Reach Agreement on Record Setting Starting Pay and Salary Increases for Corrections Officers!

The Board of County Commissioners and the PBA have agreed to a pay increase package that provides current officers a 16% pay increase--- and makes our starting certified officers the highest paid officers in our region.

We have issues in our jail.  Everyone knows it.

Staffing, morale, and facility issues.

So we are working as hard as we possibly can to correct all three of these issues.

And a HUGE part of the equation, we are told, has been the pay.

So our administrator, Wes Moreno, at the direction of the board, recently completed a review and a revision of the staffing grid and allocations for the corrections division, which resulted in the ability to take back thirty positions, or FTE's, (of the nearly 100 vacant positions) in order to utilize these unspent funds for the express purpose of raising  starting pay and providing record-setting salary increases for existing corrections employees to address some of our staffing issues (and hopefully morale issues) as well.

We are working the facility issues simultaneously, on a separate track.

So the increases the removal of the 30 positions yields is as follows:

Starting pay for certified corrections officers increases to $45,000.00 yearly

For existing corrections officers, raises equalling about 16% were offered as well.

Late Friday evening, the PBA membership voted, nearly unanimously, to accept the BCC's offer.

This is great news, and hopefully now that our starting pay is higher than any entity in the area--including the state---hopefully we will be able to fill the vacancies we have in this division in short order.

Thanks to Administrator Moreno and the PBA for getting this part done very quickly.

Prisoner Moves from Old Jail have Commenced--239 Moved out Friday Afternoon

According to administrator Wes Moreno who emailed the following to all commissioners late yesterday afternoon.

"Good Afternoon Commissioners,

We have moved 239 inmates out of the old jail as of the writing of this email.

Please do not respond all.

Wes  

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
Get Outlook for Android"

County Responds to Congressional Inquiry about The Escambia County Jail

 About a week ago or so, Congressman Matt Gaetz sent a letter to Interim Administrator Wes Moreno regarding some significant concerns he was hearing about the conditions within our jail.

This comes on the heels of several media outlets picking up the stories coming out of the jail.

This morning, Interim Administrator Moreno sent the below response to the Congressman.

On WCOA's Real News with Rick Outzen

 

I was a guest on the area's #1 morning drive radio program, "Real News with Rick Outzen" yesterday morning.  

We talked about last week's meeting and the important takeaways from the Thursday meeting.

In particular, we discussed the jail and the surprise turn of events surrounding Doug Underhill's complete reversal on the county's newly passed resign to run ordinance (Underhill went from staunch disapproval and vocal opposition to such an ordinance to actually voting to approve and making the motion to approve this ordinance.

This flip flop by Underhill has led to some significant consternation and infighting on at least one Facebook chat site.

Meanwhile, many of us simply believe he lost his place on the agenda and made the motion and voted for the ordinance because he was confused or didn't know at the time what it was he was moving and voting for.

Regardless, it happend.  And, if it was by accident due to confusion, such an admission would never come from Underhill, so far as I can tell.

It was a good conversation--Listen to the Podcast here

Jail Issues Front and Center this Week

With the ongoing media spotlight on the jail, and in the wake of a congressional letter of inquiry on the matter---issues at Escambia County's Correctional facilities will take front and center stage this week.

The letter, addressed to the administrator and the sheriff, will be answered by administrator Wes Moreno this week.  The sheriff has already submitted and made public his response.

Yes, as illustrated in the pictures I have previously submitted in earlier blogs and am attaching to this post---the conditions within the old jail are unacceptable.  Yes, these are human beings and must be controlled in custody and care of our staff within safe and sanitary conditions.  Sleeping on the ground next to a stinking, leaking overfolwing toilet is something I never thought I'd see in Escambia County--I doubt you'd even find this in most third world countries  (see below)

Sadly, this condition is a reality.  Here.  Not in Guatemala, Honduras, Chad, or Eritrea--here, in Escambia.

And mold and filthy, non-serviced and maintained ductwork--to boot.  (see below).

So no,  I'm not interested in spending another nickel, not one red cent, on the old jail.  As I was directly quoted saying in Sunday's paper--I want to demo that facility and forget it ever existed.    Because it is past the point of salvage--and to attempt a temporary fix would be akin to using a band aid on a sucking chest wound.  Too many decades with feckless maintenance and care, and too many liabilities if we keep it open.  Mold.  Need I say more?

So we MUST move forward with that jail in the rear view.  ASAP.

To that end, our administrator will be bringing a plan for the board's consideration this week at our Thursday committee of the whole  (COW) meeting to do the following:

1. An action plan to, as quickly as practicable,  to move personnel and inmates from the areas where facility conditions are borderline unacceptable within our corrections department.
2. a plan to enact a near-term strategy to harden other existing county owned corrections facilities to safely allow the movement and relocation of all prisoners out of our old jail and into acceptable new buildings/spaces.
3. Utilize the $9 Million we (BOCC) have allocated toward old-jail repairs to quickly implement #1 and #2 above.

 

Additional guidance and information, as well as the way forward, will be discussed between staff, the board, and the administrator at the board’s committee of the whole meeting this Thursday, March 10^th at 0900.

The Old Jail Must Come Down.....It's Time

It's time to demolish the old jail.

The cat is out of the bag now.  The old jail must come down.

I made quite a lot of noise about the unacceptable conditions in the jail two weeks back.  And the local media picked up the story from my blog and ran with it.

Now everybody is talking about it.  

But where are the members of the BCC on this subject?  

In listening to my counterparts on the board yesterday at the meetings on this topic--it is apparent that the sentiment of the majority is that we demolish the old jail and move forward with Administrator Wes Moreno's evolving plan to house inmates temporarily in other facilities which we are in the process of upgrading to accomodate this move.

Our new jail can hold 850 inmates. (Probably a hundred more than that with some minor adjustments)  The Road Prison can hold 200.  The county's work release facility on Fairfield Drive can hold another 400, and a facility we own and are in the process of taking back, a state work release facility on L street, can hold another 150.

That adds up to 1600-1700 capacity--and our average daily "census" of prisoners in Escambia County is 1500 or so.

With this as the scenario--we can move the existing inmates out of the unacceptable, third-world conditions of the old jail--and I'm not going to vote to spend another dime on anything at the old jail.  We have $9 Million earmarked for repairs to the old jail--but in the condition that facility is in at the moment-$9 Million won't add up to a drop in the bucket of what is needed to bring that facility back to useability.

It has simply been allowed to deteriorate due to poor maintenance for decades.

So now it's time to move forward with the new plan, empty the old jail, and demo it.

Then we can determine the long-term fix which will more than likely include bonding the cost(s) of constructing a planned "expansion" wing on our new jail.

Escambia County Jail Stats for December and January

 Board members were sent the below information from Chief of Escambia County Corrections William "Rich" Powell yesterday afternoon.  Good information on a host of important metrics.

When 28 - 6 = 28???......(and costs Escambia Taxpayers $37,179.00*)

Basic arithmetic should not be this difficult for the state's department of corrections.....

There was a costly, frustrating, and exasperating event that was brought to my attention the other evening:  It had my blood boiling.

The caller was angry, and frustrated.  "Jeff, this is going to piss you off, I know it is, but you need to find out if this is true.  It is absolutely killing morale among some of the corrections officers"

The caller went on to describe the horrible outcome of our jail attempting to transfer 28 prisoners, already convicted and sentenced to state prison,  to the state's custody the day before.  Apparently, according this individual's account (and since confirmed by multiple sources), our jail had COVID tested all 28 of these convicts, got their paperwork in order, staffed three transport vans (with officers on OT to drive) along with a chase car with a supervisor on OT---and sent these prisoners 4 hours away at "zero dark thirty."  This was the plan, to transfer them to the state.  But like the best laid plans, sometimes they fall apart.  Upon arrival at the state facility---all of the convicts were tested again for COVID.  And what do you know, six of them tested positive.....

Okay--but now what?  I mean, it's not like we, at the county jail can turn away a prisoner that has COVID--we have to take them in and quarantine them.  Surely the state corrections department has to do this as well, right?

Wrong.

So here's where the story becomes incredibly infuriating.  Because, as we know, we are already housing MANY state prisoners at our county jail for zero compensation (although the costs to us for this service adds up to $90.00 per day per prisoner)----so the thought of handing off a group of 28 state prisoners to the state department of corrections was one that many in the jail were very relieved to be doing.  Not to mention that these convicted prisoners are among the most difficult for officers to deal with day in and day out....

But the state blew up the plan.  Apparently they have a policy against accepting any prisoner who has COVID or has been exposed to anyone who has COVID.  So they rejected NOT just the 6 positives---they sent ALL 28 State Prisoners back to Escambia County to be quarantined for a two week period before we can "attempt" to send them back again.  Can you believe that??

"The rub is, they would have quarantined them there anyway had they not tested positive--for 14 days!" said one exasperated, knowledgable source within the jail with whom I spoke.

"How much did this evolution cost the taxpayers of Escambia County!"  was my question to this individual.

"A lot---and after this COVID pandemic is over there will be dissertations written on just how costly

We're Getting Worked....Literally....to the Tune of $12,240.00 Daily

The State's prison transport buses leaving our jail and heading to the State's prisons have apparently been running empty as we currently supervise, some for long periods of time, 136 convicts that the State has not yet allowed us to transfer.......for $0 compensation......

$12,240.00 per day.  That's how much taxpayers of Escambia County are paying (based upon an estimated total cost of incarceration, daily, for a prisoner in our jail) to house prisoners who have already been adjudicated, convicted, and sentenced to serve at least one year + in state prison.

We are paying this cost because currently we have 136 inmates in our jail that are awaiting transport to state prison.  So we keep footing the bill until they are transported.

And oh, by the way, the state of Florida does not give us one thin dime in compensation/restitution for these extended stays in our jail.  Not for housing, supervision, consumables, or medical costs associated with the supervision of such individuals. Nada, zilch, zero.  Not a penny.

By contrast--Federal inmates housed in local facilities generate as much as $100 daily for the institution PLUS complete reimbursement for medical costs incurred by such facilities by the holding of said Federal Prisoners.

So why does the state not compensate local counties for these costs like the Federal Government does?  Why does the state foist their responsibilities on counties?

THE CATALYST

Recently, a local Circuit Judge looked into the carrying-out of the sentence of an individual which this Judge had imposed-- to ascertain whether or not it was being carried out as ordered.

Come to find out--this particular inmate has been in our jail since the sentencing in October--even though this individual had been sentenced to 4 years in State Prison.

Why?  was the question asked.  It's a question that I'd like to know the answer to as well. 

Because Judges are quite deliberate in their sentences.  

Sometimes, it is a sentence of one year and one day specifically so such an individual will go to state prison.  Sometimes it is because such an individual has committed so many infractions, over and over, repetetively, that a bus ride to a state facility for the minimal period allowed is precisely what a Judge has in mind.  

But most times, it is because such an offender has committed and been convicted of  a serious crime.

"If it is a minor drug offense, even crack cocaine in small amounts under the weight which would indicate trafficing--those inmates will never see state prison for that offense.  Heck, they probably won't even be sentenced to county jail for that infraction--they'll get probation." said one individual with whom I spoke who is intimately familiar with the criminal justice system locally.  

"The state has closed a couple of facilities down south and they have major issues with staffing, just like we do locally, so they are moving very slowly on the transfers of inmates out of local jails." said an individual with whom I spoke who is intimately familiar with the operations of our jail locally.  "We are starting to see some better movement by the state, and we are getting these transfers accomplished but it is not as quickly as we would like.  We typically transfer out the most aggressive, violent, and longest-sentenced prisoners first--because those are the prisoners who are the most difficult to deal with."  This individual stated.

The Board of County Commissioners have collectively already made getting jail medical costs under control by asking the legislature to work toward a more equitable, legilsative solution for us to be able to recoup high-dollar medical costs from Medicare and Medicade where this would be applicable.  But now that I see the amount of local tax dollars we are expending to help alleviate the state's prion staffing and occupancy challenges--I believe we need to add some sort of reimbursement issue to this ask as well.  There is no free lunch, and the State should pay us for these costs if they can't take their prisoners in a timely fashion.  We all know there is no free lunch----but right now we are getting our lunches handed to us by the state.  We're getting worked---and we need to get this righted.

I'll be looking to discuss this at an upcoming meeting.  I'll also be discussing it with our delegation members. 

Monthly Jail Stats Report(s) Begin......

 Escambia County will begin putting out a monthly report that delineates the stats from our Jail.  This was announced via an email to the board from Debbie Bowers late last week.  From her email to the board:

"We decided that monthly statistics may be the best approach to give you significant information related to the Corrections Department operations.  Please find attached the first one; going forward, we will try to issue the report before the second Tuesday of each month."

See our first report, reflecting data from November of 2021, below.

Escambia Jail Deaths 2021

Sadly we had an inmate in our custody die a few weeks back.  It is being investigated and there have been stories in the media about this individual and her various medical issues.  As I said on the news, her death is a tragedy of immense proportion, and I join everyone else in wanting more information on what happend and what caused this death.

There are more details coming to light about what happened at the hospital before this individual was brought to the jail.  We will eventually get more detail and know with certainty what happened.

This was the 6th death at our jail in a year, a number which on its face seems shocking.  One individual with whom I spoke stated his belief that a recent study indicated that 90% of jails in the state have "0" deaths year over year.   I questioned this statement, I do not believe it.

So who was it that died this year, and how did they die?

In multiple conversations with our lawyer, I have been advised that there is very little that can be legally disseminated regarding individuals and their conditions and their casue(s) of death if such information is/was gleaned from a review of the patients' death certificate, due to state and federal patient privacy rules.  I respect and understand, so I will not divulge anything that is protected heatlh information and I have never seen any death certificates from any inmates in our custody.

But neither will I let a "narrative" build that our jails are death camps and our corrections officers are complicit in some sort of a negligent level of care which leads to death of inmates unnecessarily.

The media would have you belive that 25 year old triathletes are going to jail healthy and coming out on gurneys dead.  And they'd also have you believe there was nefarious conduct which led to such deaths and that oh, by the way, the deaths were all black citizens, not white.  That's what some folks would have you believe.  But it isn't true.

Here is the truth.

Of the 6 deaths of the thousands of individual inmates in our custody throughout 2021--four died at the hosptials where such individuals were sent for medical care---only two died "at" the jail.

4 were white inmates, 2 were black.

Ages were as follows:

68, 66, 64, 51, 38, and the last one was a 20 year old.

One died of a chronic medical condition, two died of complications from a virus, one of a sudden medical event, one from multiple issues related to treatment/refusal of treatment/treatment/refusal of treatment for a chronic, pre-existing condition, and the final one we are waiting to know about, the 20 year old.

Not one, so far as I've been told, suffered a beating or abuse by staff or other inmates leading to death.

Not one, so far as I've been told, was a result of our employees' failure to follow protocol and policy.

We have good, dedicated staff running our jail.  We have protocols and policies in place to keep inmates and employees safe.  Even still, it can be a dangerous place.  Look no further than the incident the other day where one of our officers was attacked and beaten viciously by an inmate.  It is a tough and sometimes dangerous job these men and women do working in our jail.

We have, at any given time, 1500 or more inmates in our care at the jail.  Many of whom have tremendous physical/medical issues and pre-existing conditions.  Many are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.  A high percentage of our prisoners have medical issues before they ever get to our jail and therefore we spend enormous sums providing care to these folks for which they have NEVER had care before.  We have a world-class infirmary and a dedicated medical staff in our jail.  We spend tremendous sums of taxpayer monies providing medical and dental services to our inmates.  This is the policy of this county, and what we as board members demand.We genuinely care about those folks that are incarcerated--our goal is ZERO inmate deaths while in our custody..

So if we as an organization have done something wrong--I'll be the first to say so and demand consequences.

But the other side of the story is, I won't stand for folks to be burned at the stake for doing their difficult jobs professionally in a really tough setting where most people would never want to work.

Folks who are truly interested in this topic should read this article.  It is loaded with stats collected from jails of all sizes nationwide and does a very good job of analyzing this topic with data and facts.

Outsourcing Jail Medical Function to Save Taxpayer Money AND Provide Better Inmate Care

Jail Medical costs are rising exponentially due to a number of factors.  The county should consider all models of provision of this care, including outsourcing, to curb costs and provide better care

County staff have been discussing the outsourcing of Jail Medical for the last several years---as these costs have grown exponentially.

At our last regular meeting--we had over $5,000,000.00 worth of jail medical budgeting that was being requested of us.  I pulled the item--as I knew we had been in talks with an outside provider to take the function over in order to achieve cost savings.

Several staffers received at least one proposal--however when asked about this at the meeting---there was a sudden sense of confusion and many staffers said that "no, they hadn't received the package and proposal."

So, I made a motion to pull the item, and the board voted to postpone the large medical expenditures--so we could all independently research what happened to the proposal from outside provider NaphCare.

(I never received the proposal either--although I was told it was sent to my office via FedEX.  I never got it, and ultimately had to borrow Commissioner Bender's copy)

Meanwhile---Jim Little from the PNJ called me yesterday afternoon and we discussed the reasons I moved to drop the expenditure and also why I think outsourcing could save us money and provide better care for inmates.  His column on this topic came out this morning and was a very good read.

The areas where it appears we can save the most money include:

--Reduced tranport to outside facilities--perhaps as much as 50% (saving guard staff time and vehicle wear and tear)

--Elimination of our costly Jail Med Malpractice insurance (Contractor would take on this cost)

--better overall care for inmates via proactive, initial assessments and flagging of inmates who are at risk

--staffing stabilization

--full utilization of our state of the art infirmary for more on site procedures (dialysis and other minor medical procedures for which we currently transport--costing us staff time and additional fees to dialysis providers)

--Savings via achieving a (much larger) economy of scale for pharmaceuticals

I plan on bringing the topic again at our October 14th meeting, at which point I will attempt to build support for the county developing an RFP for outsourcing jail medical.  At least this will allow for multiple companies to present their best offers and creative solutions.

At the end of the day--I am certain the board will choose wisely and will find an option that saves money and provides the care our inmates need. 

The Cleanest, Nicest, Most Modern Facility That You'll NEVER Want to Visit......

The very close to completed, brand new $140 Million Dollar Escambia County Jail is a massive, clean, and modern facility.  In fact, it is probably-undoubtedly- the cleanest, nicest, most modern, facility that you'd NEVER want to visit...

Circuit Court Judge Gary Bergosh, right,
tours our newly constructed Jail facility
Wednesday, January 27th 2021

No, you certainly don't want to visit this new, sleek, nicely-designed, technology-infused Escambia County facility once it is open for business in the next 30-45 days unless you are an employee here OR you happen to be touring the facility (which is why I was there yesterday evening).  

Staff had invited me to tour the facility along with Circuit Court Judges Tom Dannheisser and Gary Bergosh.

Along for the walkthrough Wednesday evening were County Facilities Director Cassie Boatwright, County Public Information Officer Laura Coale, as well as Commander Scott Nash, Captain Shawn Hankins, and Lt. Jason Walker from the Escambia County Corrections Department.  The project manager and supervisors from our construction contractor Whitesell Green-Caddell were also present to answer questions and guide us safetly through the still "technically" under-construction facility (thus the hard-hats, safety glasses and vests for all visitors). 

Inmate POD area in Escambia County's new
Correctional Facility 1-27-2021

(NOTE:For multiple valid reasons--most notably the COVID-19 Pandemic and the devastating impact that has had on worker availability and the acquisition of the necessary, specialty supplies--the actual final completion of this jail will wind up being nearly 12 months behind schedule....)

But after the last year we have all endured and lived--a one-year delay in many respects feels like good fortune!

As we walked the various spaces of this four-story, 303,000SF facility--including holding cells, pods, intake areas, galley/kitchen, infirmary, staff spaces, and exterior areas--the correction's employees were quick to answer questions and to point out all the attributes of the facility.

Intake area in Escambia County's new
Correctional Facility 1-27-2021

Director Boatwright spoke to the size of this facility compared to other district buildings. "This will be the second largest county facility at 303,000 SF once it is completed, just behind the Judicial Complex that is 330,000SF."

Lt. Walker, who led the tour and did most of the talking, seemed enthusiastic about the facility coming online next month and housing inmates starting in April.  "This project has been 'my baby' for the last 5 years and it is great to have been able to watch it grow up out of the ground into what it is today" he remarked.

We spent nearly an hour and a half going through the new jail--from the front entrance to the fourth floor to the first appearance area to the video visitation area--- and just about every space in between.

I was impressed with the infusion of technology incorporated into the design. (some pictures I took on the visit cannot even be shared on this post for fear some of the technological features could be compromised).  This facility actually has nearly 700 Closed-circuit cameras installed that will cover nearly every space in the jail--with the exception of toilet and shower areas.  It will be totally covered with cameras, monitors, and technological capabilities that will make it safe and secure.

But it will be more than just a secure facility;  it will also have more to offer for inmates.

"Look, jail is not supposed to be comfortable--and it isn't and it won't be comfortable being in jail.  But this facility has more things to keep the inmates occupied--which is good for them and for the officers" said Commander Scott Nash.

He was referring to the outdoor recreation areas in each pod, the common areas, the iPads which will be available for inmates to rent for watching movies, the TV's, family video visitation areas, telephones, books, and games that will be available for the jail occupants.

Kitchen/Galley area in Escambia County's new
Correctional Facility 1-27-2021

Lt. Walker chimed in "95 percent of the inmates get with the program and just want to do their time and get out--and if we can keep their time occupied it is good for all of us."

Being who I am and how I think though--I asked about the 5% that cause trouble.  I asked to see the "hole" or wherever/whatever solitary confinement cell they had looked like.

"We don't have a solitary confinement hole here" Commander Nash quickly pointed out.

"We deal with the 5% of troublemakers by taking privileges away as their misbehavior increases/escalates." state Walker.  "That can be effective in curbing the behavior sometimes." he continued.

My big question was about the open, unsecured guard station(s) inside of the PODs in the common, day use areas.

"Won't this put the officers in danger--being exposed and alone in an area with as many as 60 inmates?" I asked?

Guard station in a POD in Escambia County's new
Correctional Facility 1-27-2021

Lt. Walker came back with a resounding, reassuring response. "No it won't.  We have protocols in place for officer safety, and the officers work with the inmates to keep the behavior in check.   It is all about communication and getting them to trust you and work with you---and these open stations are safe and effective--they work very well" he concluded.

Inmate POD area in Escambia County's new
Correctional Facility 1-27-2021

There is no doubt that this facility is first rate and modern.  It is really quite amazing.  And although it is hard to get excited about a jail--as a commissioner who was a part of making this happen I take satisfaction and pride in what this will be once it is operational.  It will be a safe and secure place for our employees and our citizens who end up confined within its walls.  But most importantly--it will allow us to once again be self-sufficient and not reliant on Walton County (or anyone else) to house a large number of our inmates.  

And bringing the inmates back to Escambia County starting this April will save Escambia County taxpayers $Millions of dollars yearly!  That is, in and of itself, reason to be excited about getting this jail open for business!

Escambia County's New Jail

I was recently given the opportunity to tour our new jail--currently under construction but behind schedule due to a number of factors.

According to the foreman who escorted me on the tour--factors leading to the delays include a shortage of workers due to COVID-19, a lack of specific materials needed that are not being delivered due to supply chain issues for these specialty projects, and the actual work itself is now exceedingly difficult as workers inside the jail must be masked-up at all times while working.

"The masking has slowed the productivity of the workers" said the foreman.

Once the jail is completed, however, it will be impressive.  It is massive, four floors, and lots of high-tech features that will keep the facility secure and the guards safe. Originally slated for a summer, 2020, completion--the current estimate is that completion will be December 2020 or January 2021. Below are some pictures I took during the tour.

I'm Requesting an Add-On for Thursday's COW to discuss Coronavirus/COVID 19

As we see this  Coronavirus erupting nationwide and worldwide, I believe we need to be proactive in our leadership in discussing how we will handle an outbreak locally should we encounter such an event.  We should be having discussions with citizens and community partners NOW with respect to how we will handle mass-transit if this virus spreads locally (e.g. staffing if drivers get infected, disinfecting plans of bus surfaces, etc.).  We need to discuss preparations and steps we will take at all of our public facilities.  We need to socialize our plan and we need to engage our stakeholders publicly on this.

But my biggest concern is what will our plan be for our jail?  (We DO NOT have any infections in our jail at present, NO INFECTIONS)

But if we are put in the unfortunate circumstance that we have one or more infections in our jail--then we need to be prepared with a plan of how that will be handled--because that could become a problem of geometric proportion if it occurred.  We need to be discussing this now, just as other communities are. 

So therefore I have spoken with Janice Gilley this morning and sent her the below request to add an additional item to this week's committee of the whole for the express purpose of discussing our pandemic plan with relevant stakeholders and the general public.

I am not an alarmist, and I am not trying to panic folks--but we need to get ahead of this locally.

Now is the time to show proactive leadership on this topic----not after we have an issue erupt!

My email to staff:

Builder's Update on Escambia County's New Correctional Facility

Commissioners received a progress report today on the status of construction of our new jail....

Escambia County Corrections and Jail Medical Receive a Clean State Audit

I received the following email from Jail Commander Selina Barnes as a result of the yearly compliance audit that was conducted Friday morning at our County Correctional facilities:

"Please see the attached FMJS Medical Compliance inspection for this year. In compliance with the FMJS requirement 2.7, the report is to be sent to the BOCC as well as the FMJS Chairman James Aguiar. There were no serious or notable violations found during this inspections at the Main Jail, Work Release or County Road Prison."

from the report:

"An inspection was conducted of the Escambia County Correctional Facility’s Medical 

 Department on July 13, 2018 at 0900 hours, with the following inspectors:  Tonya Rainey, LPN Leon County Detention Facility...I am pleased to announce no Serious Violations or Notable Violations were found.The Medical Departments at all locations werefound to be neat, orderly and meeting the requirements of the Florida Model Jail Standard"

Do Drug Patches Work? Read the Handwritten Testimonial for Yourself Below....

As I discussed in a previous blog post--we have a funding problem right now pertaining to drug patches for certain individuals that find themselves cross-ways with the justice system locally.

According to one source that is intimately familiar with this issue--there are times when some offenders with significant drug problems are placed on these drug patches and as a condition of their continuing probation.

Recently, it was brought to my attention that funding for a number of these offenders was drying up-- and as a consequence some of these folks on probation might end up back in our jail at a much greater cost to the taxpayer per day than what the cost to keep them out of jail and on drug patches would be.

I have asked staff to look into funding options--because all the judges should have this option available--It saves the county money.

I know a request for funding has been made to the sheriff --from the LETF.  Regardless of how that request is handled, I will be making a $5,000.00 purchase from my discretionary fund for the procurement  and use of these patches locally--because, again,  these patches save the county money!  More importantly--these patches help offenders stay off drugs in many cases.  Read the recent, firsthand testimonial to this below......