Florida Prisons

In Florida these units are called Close Management (CM). There are around 5 of these units throughout the states. They are similar to most control units in the other states. I have never been there but numbers are certainly in the thousands. Prisoners who file grievances or lawsuits are prime targets for CM The Florida DOC had to close a lot of its CM units a few years ago because of a successful inmate’s lawsuit.

The correctional staff here don’t like to perform their jobs. When a prisoner has any type of call-out they will try to bribe the prisoner by offering them cigarettes or anything to do with tobacco products, drugs, etc. It’s being done on a monthly and weekly basis. They will try anything to stop a prisoner from receiving what he is required to have. That’s plain deceitful. They don’t care because all of them do evil things and it’s covered up and that’s awful.

One morning on June 5, 2008, the officers refused to open the food flap to feed a prisoner. He told the prisoner, I don’t care if you never eat - now go kill yourself. One time last year (May 2007) I had a sty on my eyelid so I was told to sign up for sick call. I did. When I went up there to be seen the medical nurse told me there’s nothing we can do for you. So it was left untreated and I was charged $4. The whole thing was a waste of my time.

Another thing, I want to address, is when you file a grievance they will deny it even if your point is legit. And then they will try to retaliate by writing you a disciplinary report or putting a knife in the cell while you’re on a call-out or at recreation, etc. This is some of the criminal injustice that needs to be exposed. I believe with your support we will see some light at the end of the tunnel.

On June 3 I was pulled out of the cell I’m assigned to. I was removed by correctional staff Sergeants Mason, Rivera and Covey. I was handcuffed with leg irons on, helpless. They placed me in the shower. Out of the camera view they beat me and kicked me until I fell out. They tried to kill me. This was a very dangerous incident that took place with me. A lot of outrageous and awful things take place in here and it needs to be exposed. After they attacked me they placed me back in the cell. It looked like a hurricane hit the cell. They took all my personal things.

The correctional staff instigate conflict amongst they prisoners. They will get the prisoners to fight one another. They correctional officers are very capricious, you don’t know what move they will make next.

The correctional staff try to discourage all the prisoners from coming out of the cells for showers, shaves, haircuts, etc, things we’re required to have. They tell us they will place a knife or drugs in the cells if we leave.