(INDEPENDENT
REVIEW COMMISSION ON JAILS -
(The
following transcript contains many unintelligible portions due to the recording
not picking up the commission members.)
The first
portion of the meeting consisted of the commission members introducing
themselves
and providing biographical information.
For biographies of each
commission,
visit the Independent Review Commission on Jails section of the
Sheriff Gee: Thank
you. Good morning and welcome. Wow, never knew I had that much
authority. Dr. Sewell and members of the
Independent Review Commission on Jails, thank you for your time and service to
the community. The citizens of
Recently the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has been faced with reports of alleged abuse of inmates that have cast a critical light on the county jail system. I'm keenly aware of the community's reaction and questions about what has occurred and understand the public’s confidence in the jail system is essential in protecting its citizens. As sheriff, I'm committed to maintain the highest standards for all of our personnel. I also remain confident in the ability and integrity of these men and women to discharge their duties.
The men and women of the Sheriff's Office Detention Department must deal every day sometimes with the worst that society has to offer. Some arrive drunk. Some are under the influence of drugs. Many are embarrassed, angered and resentful of law enforcement. Nonetheless, they're entitled to fair and just treatment which is consistent with the law and basic tenets of human decency.
As a result of these recent allegations, the public deserves a reasoned, impartial and thorough examination into the inmate booking and incarceration procedures of their jail system. It is also time for the vindication of the honorable men and women of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office who have watched their reputation being tarnished by these repeated allegations of abuse. It is not this commission's responsibility to conduct an investigation into specific complaints. Instead your focus should be on any changes needed to improve the operations of the jail. Where good things are found, they should be reported, as well.
Your charge is to examine -- and I will list these -- patterns, customs and practices of conduct in the jails. Policies and procedures in place or which should be in place in the jails. Management and supervisory oversight in the jails and training and employee development in the jail system.
I want to stress the independence of this panel. You, the members of this commission, will have the full cooperation of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to complete your work. I'm confident you will follow a path that is appropriate and forthright. I would ask that you provide an initial report of your work by May 9th, 2008, and a final report with your findings and recommendations within 180 days.
In the coming weeks, the public will wonder what our internal investigations have found and what this independent commission has determined of how we conduct operations in the jails. We will listen to this commission when its report is completed. Your task is a difficult one. And I trust you will find a balance between objectivity and subjectivity that is fair and impartial.
In closing, I want to thank each of you for volunteering your time and talents to conduct the business of this commission. Each of you bring experience and a perspective that will help you produce findings and recommendations which can help bolster the public's confidence in the way that we carry out our responsibilities. Again, I thank you for your time and your dedication to this project. Dr. Sewell, do you have any questions of me?
Chairman Sewell: (Unintelligible).
Sheriff Gee: I am available at your beck and call, so if you need me to come and address you, I will certainly do that at any time or any of my staff members. So we're certainly there with you. Okay. Thank you.
Chairman Sewell: (Unintelligible).
Col. Parrish: Dr. Sewell, commission members, thank you. My name's David Parrish and I'm the colonel in charge of the jail system. I've been with the sheriff's office for 34 years and I've been in my current position running the jail system since 1981, 26 and a half years ago.
You're getting a -- you have a handout which has all the slides that are going to appear for the public here. So you don't have to turn around and look back that way and you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. And the one thing that I don't have a slide on up there that you're getting as well is an organizational table.
In the sheriff's office, we have four departments and I'm in charge of the Department of Detention Services. And we're subdivided into three divisions of a little bit more than 500 employees each. And I'd like to introduce the division commanders and a couple of other key people for you right now, 'cause you'll be spending a lot of time with them in the near future.
First I have
Major Robert Lucas, is in charge of Jail Division I, which is the Orient Road
Jail, which includes Central Booking.
Anybody who's arrested anywhere in
Major Tom Hall stepped out with the sheriff as he went out the door so I'll have to come back to him. Major Curtis Flowers, Jail Division III, is responsible for all the support functions within the jail system. He's in charge of our Work Release Center and the Criminal Registration Unit, which is kind of like Central Booking in reverse. That's where people get registered back into the community as they come out of prison. And then he's responsible also for all the support functions in the jail system. And a jail of our size is like a small city. So he has such things as food service, medical service, transportation, classification, inmate support, inmate programs and court security, which is -- we have about 150 bailiffs who are detention deputies who work in the courts. You know, he's responsible for them, as well. And Major Tom Hall has Jail Division II, which is the Falkenburg Road Jail, which is strictly housing. Falkenburg is our largest facility and that's where all of our future construction will take place.
The
jail system's comprised of two jails and a work release center. The Orient Road Jail has 1,711 beds and
includes Central Booking. The Falkenburg
Road Jail is actually 500 beds bigger right now at 2,304. And with the new construction that's underway
out there right now, it will soon be twice the size of the Orient Road
Jail. It will be just over 3,000 beds.
The total system capacity today is 4,190. And our authorized workforce is we have 1,056 sworn staff, of which about 150 are bailiffs so they don't actually work in the jails, and 350 civilians. These numbers do not include over 200 contract personnel. We have contract medical service and we have contract food service. We went to contract medical service in July of 1982 and we had went to contract food service a little over ten years ago. The good news, from an operating point of view, is that -- and I'll show you this in a little bit -- our average daily census right now is actually below the rated capacity, which is unusual for a jail.
You've got a number of handouts. This is a real handy one. It's what we hand out when we take people through for tours. And you've got the big version of that, which, for most people is the cure for insomnia because it's full of so many statistics that it just kind of goes, Wow. But the key ones are in here and there's some, some really important things that I think are important for the general public to know and certainly are the basis for what you do. The difference between a jail and a prison, we're pretrial detention versus prison, where everybody is off to serve their term of punishment. They've all been convicted.
We use some terminology in our jail system which is a little bit unusual. We don't talk about maximum, medium and minimum custody, although everybody knows what that is. There is no definition that applies county to county or state to state. So I just refuse to use that here. We have confinement, which is lockdown. We have general population, and our whole jail system operates under direct supervision, and we have reduced custody, which is the Work Release Center. If you can pop open the door or just walk away, that's reduced custody. So those are the terms that we use here, which I think are more meaningful than maximum, medium or minimum, which really have no consistent basis anywhere.
Last year we booked 72,211. The year before was our all-time high of 74,804. When Central Booking opened up here in 1991, we processed 44,000. So the number of people being booked into the jail has gone up significantly and that area has not grown any. Now, there is a plan for expansion in there, but right now that is the most overtaxed area of the jail system. And this is our average daily population. And as in most jails, it is always on an upward trend until three years ago. We topped out at 4,637 for our average daily census. That's well beyond the number of beds that we have in the system. Matter of fact, on our worst day that year, our count hit 4,926. We had a lot of people sleeping on stackable cots.
And then you can see over the next two years it dropped significantly. And we're now down below 600 over where we were three years ago, even though we're booking almost the same number of people. Last night's count was 3,818 ah, it's just, like, 3,828. We're way down below our rated capacity right now, and that's because we're moving people through the system faster than ever before. It's not because people are being diverted or because of a reduction in the number of bookings. It's the criminal justice system is working more efficiently right now than it ever has before. And our average daily census year to date is 3,977, which is down from last year's number, even.
Now, in the
lobby of each of our jails, this is our answer to the county's requirement for
public artwork. We put up the history of
jails in doors going from 1926 to the current.
And that's what that picture represents.
In 1981, when I was put in charge of the jail system, I inherited a lot
of very, very old facilities. And
fortunately, they're virtually all gone now.
But prior to 1971, we had a hodgepodge of jails that were operated by
various agencies. And through a special
act of the legislature at that time,
Right
out on this site, if you went out through staff entry right here right where
you parked, used to be Six Mile Creek, the county prison camp, which was run by
the Board of County Commissioners. It
held 158 and it was built in 1926. That
was for people sentenced to less than a year run by the BOCC.
And
then, of course, the Sheriff ran a jail.
It's at
We adopted
something here in Hillsborough County 20 years ago that was entirely unique in
jail operations, and it's called direct supervision. You know, there's about 3,300 jails in the
Now, I've had the opportunity to visit hundreds and hundreds of jails and I'm willing to bet that those 349 -- probably about half of them don't really operate in a direct-supervision mode. This is a self-reporting thing. This is where people say, Well, we have a podular design. That doesn't make you direct supervision. Or if you pull the deputy out at night, that's no longer direct supervision. So there's a number of jails that I've been into that I've looked at and I see some stats and they've said, We're direct supervision. And when I've been there, I go, Well, on paper you may say you are, but you're not operating that way.
But it is recognized as the most practical way to run a jail, where you actually run everything. I equate it to the teacher in the classroom. When the teacher's in the classroom, the kids are learning. Teacher's down the hall on a smoke break or drinking coffee, nobody's learning back here. The spitballs are flying. Erasers are going and that's exactly what we deal with. We're dealing with a bunch of bad grown-up kids. And if we leave them unattended, then the toughest one in the place runs it. And we decided a long time ago that we want to run the whole jail, not just the hallways and the control rooms. So that's what we have built for our entire jail system.
There are
three types of jails: There's called
first, second, and third generation.
First generation is called linear intermittent surveillance. The cells are in a line and the deputies or
the officers intermittently surveil, look in.
And that's the way Morgan Street, the original portion, was built and
that's what you're used to seeing on TV most often when you see, you know,
shows like "The Big House" and that kind of thing on television. And the officer in this picture is walking
down the catwalk, looking through the bars at the inmates. And when he goes from one cell to the next
one, he doesn't know what's happening back here. Doesn't know what's ahead of him or what's
around on the other side. That's why
it's called intermittent surveillance, and the cells are all in a line so it's
called linear. The picture on the right
shows the view from inside looking out through the bars towards the catwalk and
that's what we see over at
And this is a different version of the same thing at the old Stockade, which was just a bunch of big dormitories and the officer on the right, that was the officer's workstation, which I was very glad to see that facility go. This is the Morgan Street Jail Annex. This is the second generation of jails. It's called podular remote surveillance. The cells were built in a pod and the officer sits in a workstation. And the little glass bubble up in the top of that picture is where the officer sits. The one who's really locked up is the officer. And then the inmates are out in that dayroom or in cells. And the picture on the right is the view from the officer's station looking out. Once again, it's a podular shape but you're only intermittently looking and you can't do anything if something happens. You still have to call for help. So there's no supervision involved.
Orient Road Jail is the third generation. It's called podular direct supervision. The Orient Road Jail is 636,000 square feet. That's 14 acres of jail under roof. It's a big facility. This is the only jail you're going to see today. Later I hope that you'll go to Falkenburg, and I encourage you to wear your walking shoes when you do, because Falkenburg is huge. I mean, Orient looks and feels big, but Orient is really huge. And the first thing that a deputy does when he or she is assigned out there is go buy a pedometer so they can see how many miles they walk each day.
Podular direct
supervision. This is an officer's
view. And this is what an inside of a
pod looks like. You can't take a picture
of the whole thing because it's kind of L-shaped or V-shaped. You'll see that as we go in today. It's 24 cells over 24 on a ground level. 16 of them are doubled up. It's 64 to a pod with one deputy and the
deputy runs around just like a teacher in the classroom. That's the way 90 percent of our jail system
operates, with a deputy with 64 inmates up to 72, still with one deputy. If we have to crowd beyond that, then we put
a second deputy in during the daytime when the inmates are awake and pull the
second deputy out when the inmates are asleep.
You know, it's just too much for one person to handle. But this is the way
Now, this is Central Booking. Picture on the left was taken when Central Booking opened back in '91. It wasn't a staged photo. Booking wasn't so busy back then. The booking picture on the right is the way booking looks all too often right now. Now, when you go through for your tour today, keep in mind that this is not the busy time of the day. You know, it's really, really cranking up in there late in the evening. And Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, ironically, are our busiest days. This past Saturday turned out to be a very slow day. I guess we had a lot of rain and people were good. They stayed inside.
But booking is referred to as open booking. It's like going into a bus station or an airport waiting area. Our booking is not like a typical booking facility in a jail, where the concept is we don't know what we're dealing with, what's coming off the street. We don't have any background. We don't know their criminal history. We've just got an arresting officer who's nailed somebody for something and he may have an incredible record. I don't know whether he's violent or not. We need to take universal precautions with regard to their criminal history, and therefore, everybody is put in a holding cell and kept separate. The inmates stay over there, we stay here. We took a different approach here. The open booking concept, we said, This is how we're going to teach inmates that our whole jail system works under the concept of direct supervision. It's instant repercussions for your actions.
And so we have what's referred to as the self-fulfilling prophecy when somebody comes into jail. We really don't care what you did on the street. It doesn't matter whether you wrote bad checks, held up a 7-Eleven or committed a carjacking. When you come to our jail, we expect you to behave. Have a seat, take a number; we'll process you. We have only six holding cells. I've been in many jails where it's just row after row after row of holding cells and very few people are processed out here and then they're immediately put into cells.
We do just the opposite: Everybody comes in and sits down in the waiting area. It's only if they have to be separated for their own protection or if it's a high-profile person, or if they're misbehaving that that get placed in a holding cell. And if they start trying to tear up our holding cell, then the next step is a restraint chair. And we use the restraint chair -- they're used in most jails around the country now -- we use a restraint chair in booking an average of one time a day on an average of 200 bookings a year, which I think is a very amazing statistic, because as our sheriff indicated, a lot of people come in the jail unhappy, up on drugs or alcohol, and they're not their most stable. And I think that's a good statistic that we have there. But it's instant repercussions for your actions. Have a seat. Take a number. We'll process you. If you don't abide by the rules, then you've earned something else. Instead of, We don't know what you are, therefore we're going to assume that you're the worst. And it's backwards from the way we do business, you know?
This
is the Falkenburg Road Jail. And the red
area is under construction right now.
When that's completed, this will be a 3,032-bed jail with 200 beds of
infirmary space. That will be twice as
big as
This
is what a dormitory looks like at Falkenburg.
And I know the public and the commissioners like this because you can't
build a cheaper, a jail any cheaper than we have at Falkenburg. We use precast panels and a pitched metal
roof and clerestory lighting, and it's just a great big open box, and that's
perfect for general population. There's
no difference in classification for housing between
One
of the measures of a well-run sheriff's office and jail operation is
accreditation. I've had people laugh at
me when I've talked about having an accredited jail and actually mock me for
it: Oh, wow, great. It's a good jail. You're going to have more people want to go
there. You know? No.
You know, accreditation is the best measure you have of what you
actually do. You can have SOPs this
thick, but if you don't follow through with actual operational compliance, you
don't have much. And in the sheriff's
office, we're one of 28 sheriff's offices in the United States that have gotten
the National Sheriff's Association’s Triple Crown Award for being accredited by
CALEA, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement, the law enforcement
side of the sheriff's office, by ACA, the American Correctional Association,
for the jail operation, and by NCCHC, the National Commission on Correctional
Health Care for medical. And we have
achieved that. The CALEA accreditation,
we were the first in the state of
Being
accredited doesn't guarantee that you're not going to still have problems, as
evidenced by the fact that we're right here.
But it's the best way you have of trying to ensure compliance with
reasonable and constitutional standards.
And that's why we've always taken a position that we have nothing to
hide. The media's always welcome. We have thousands and thousands of people a
year who come through for tours. And
come in and take a look. The only thing
we ask is you not take pictures of inmates' faces as you're coming
through. We're also accredited at the
state level by the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission. We were the first in the state of
Now, my closing comment deals with our most important product. And GTE what GE used to say, you know, Progress, our most important product. And I've always said that people are our most important product here. Our jail structures are important. They're expensive to build and to operate, but they are nothing compared to the cost of staff. Buildings are really the cheapest component. Over the 30-year life of a jail, 10 percent of the jail's budget, total budget, goes towards construction. 90 percent goes towards operations, most of which is for staff. So if you build a staff-efficient facility, you're building a good facility from the taxpayer's point of view. If you've built a good facility for staff to work in, the people who are really locked up for life, our deputies and our employees -- they're here for 10, 20, 30 years. You know, they didn't do anything wrong so why do they have to work in a nasty place, as opposed to the 22 days on average for the people who are booked. Who's in jail anyway, them or us? Really it's us. But if you build a good place for them, hopefully you'll be able to recruit people and then retain them, which is rather important in this business.
And
so I always use a quote that was made by Austin McCormick in his, a book
called The New Red Barn back in 1978.
And he said, "If I only I had the right staff I could run a good
prison --" I always change that to "jail" "-- in an old red
barn," meaning that even in an old facility, if you've got good staff, you
can have a good operation. And I've been
in brand new jails that are gorgeous to look at, and they're a disaster because
the people haven't gotten with it yet, you know? And I'm proud of the staff that we have
here. And we've had, as in any big
operation with over 1,600 employees working in here -- we're going to have
people that are going to make mistakes, do things wrong, not follow the rules,
even if they've got a good track record up until now. And that's what we're here for. But I want to guarantee you that you have
unfettered access to anything that you need at any time of the day or night,
any day of the week. We're here to help
in any way possible, the entire staff, and we welcome you here. Thank you very much.
Chairman Sewell: Any questions from the commissioners for Colonel Parrish?
Comm. Kensel: Colonel, what percentage of other jails use the open-booking concept you described here/
Col. Parrish: No, I
don't have a statistic on that one, but even in direct-supervision jails, there
are many of them that don't go to it or they go to it partially. When we opened up our booking facility in 1991,
it was the largest -- nobody had done anything on that scope before. I guess the most --
Comm. Kensel: Then my next question is, if over 90 percent of jails are not using direct supervision, it’s been around for a while, why not?
Col. Parrish: Because not many people get an opportunity to build a new jail. If you get a chance to do one in a lifetime you're lucky. By the time I retire, I'll have overseen the construction of more than 5,000 beds, 1.5 million square feet at $232 million worth. Nobody gets a chance to do that. It's just because we had to eliminate a bunch of crummy old jails that we inherited when we consolidated. You go into most counties and they're working with the jail that was built in 1964 and maybe they added a little bit on since then. But nobody's giving them a checkbook to go back in and replace like we were able to. It's just -- there's jails that go back to the 1800s. You know? I mean, it's -- not many, fortunately, but they're still out there. Yes?
Comm. McKinnon: So the open booking and open direct supervision, is that considered like a best practice in my field in terms of -- if you said, like, if you built a new jail, you would automatically decide on that kind of --
Col. Parrish: Yes, you should, but there are a lot of people who still can't accept that. You know, there are people who have worked in traditional jails forever. And when I came back with this brilliant idea of putting a deputy in a pod, you should have listened to some of my staff going, Oh, yeah, Parrish. Yeah, right. You're going to sit in your office and my life's on the line back here with all these inmates face to face with them for 12 hours. Well, now we know that it's a safer work environment here than it is in a traditional jail. The worst injuries we've ever had have happened in the confinement area, the traditional form of housing. But -- I'll keep my hands back here -- but there are still many people who look at it and go, There's no way. That won't ever fly. The public won't understand. They see it as coddling inmates. They see it as being soft on crime. And particularly for smaller jails, it is problematic. You have to have a certain scope of size to make it work, because you do have to be able to separate inmates, and in a jail our size, that's not an issue. But if you're running a 50-bed jail, you can't very well build a direct-supervision facility.
Comm. McKee: Colonel, of the allegations that this commission – what percentage of them occur in open booking, what percentage occurred in confinement, was there any place or area in the jail -- where you would be getting a lot of complaints of abuse, et cetera?
Col. Parrish: Let me just tell you that we routinely get complaints from inmates all the time. That's part of our business. Right? We always get more complaints from people in the booking area than elsewhere about use of force. That's because we have such a volume going through there. And because that's where people are up on alcohol and drugs and they don't remember anything, but they think they do later on. And that's why we put video recording in booking -- ten years ago? I don't know. We did it when you used VHS cassettes, and every four hours we had to keep changing this bank of -- you know, and so we were always -- somebody would forget to do it or you couldn't find that one, and we couldn't keep it for the length of time that we do now. And it wasn't until technology changed with a hard-drive recording capability that we're able to keep it for four years and nine months and it just runs continuously. And then subsequently, within the past year, we were able to add that capability to all cameras in the jail system, not just in booking. But of course, because of the storage requirements, we don't keep it for more than five days there. We just want to be able to see what transpired when somebody says something back in housing, well, we ought to be able to monitor what staff's doing and that sort of thing.
In booking, our legal staff has asked us to save this for that period of time because of the statute of limitations on filing complaints. Now, in the most recent case, yeah. The uh the wheelchair incident, an indefensible thing. I'll never understand it completely. But the remainder of the things that we've had come up have all been associated with booking because it's kind of jump-on-the-bandwagon time there. And some of those cases had been investigated previously. Some of those people are in state prison based on assaults on our staff. Those are the kinds of things that, you know, will come out as we go through them on a case-by-case basis. But that's where we always get the most complaints, is in booking because of the mental state and the inebriation state and such of the people coming through, and because of the volume that's there; whereas, people in other parts of the jail are there for a lengthy period of time just to go through their routine. Many people are in and out in a matter of hours in booking. They never even come into the jail.
Comm. McKee: There was an article in Op Ed yesterday in the Tampa Tribune by Joseph Brown about the jail, he listed several incidents of abuses against the guards, to what extent does your system of the pods cut that back or does it not make any difference?
Col. Parrish: No. It cuts it back tremendously. In the case that they talked about in the paper there where Deputy Birch was slashed in the neck, was in confinement housing. And that's the one-tenth of the system where we have most -- the disciplinary confinement, administrative confinement, protective custody, the lockdown area, which you would equate to maximum security. All right? And general population, sure. There are assaults on staff there and they have occurred. But very seldom. And matter of fact, we've had inmates come to the defense of the staff there. I use this example. I mean, our law enforcement officers do a great job. They arrest people on the street for allegedly violating the law. They bring them to Central Booking. We process them. We take 64 of these people, put them together in one pod, take an unarmed deputy, put him in there with them and say, “Okay, make them behave for 12 hours at a time.”
Now, my sons, when they were growing up, got into fights. I can remember seeing bloody noses. And they're brothers, for heaven sakes, you know? We're putting 64 people who have already shown us they can't abide by society's rules. We put them together in one place and even with direct supervision, that doesn't mean magically everything's going to be perfect. You know? But the incidents of assaults, of inmates on inmates, inmates on staff, is far less in a direct-supervision model than in traditional housing where you don't even know what's going on. Because the inmates have got nine-tenths of the building. Staff has got the hallways and the control rooms, one-tenth. And the toughest inmates are running the rest of it and they just have to wait 'til you're out of sight to do whatever they want to do. You don't even know what's happening in there. In the direct-supervision model, like we have, the deputy is there with them. Can hear, see, feel the tension levels go up and down. We know what's happening in the jail. And so it's a much safer environment all the way around.
Comm. Fridell: Colonel, with regard to the counters in open booking, is there any system whereby those videos are viewed periodically by chain of command as a form of supervision and oversight?
Col. Parrish: Well, they're reviewed by the shift commander. I don't sit down, the majors don't sit down and just review routinely. You know, division commanders have used our cameras for a number of reasons. Generally when we have concern over something we'll go back and look at. Every time there's a use of force or something like that, yes, the cameras are reviewed to determine whether, what the person has alleged is true or not. That's incorporated into the report that's a follow-up on every one of those instances. Yeah.
Chairman Sewell: Colonel,
I think one of the things we’ll want to do over the next several sessions is
have some detailed conversations about that specific procedure (unintelligible)
and also look at some data in terms of complaints filed and the things alleged
by both civilians and by members of the work force. Other questions by the
commission?
Col. Parrish: Thank you very much.
Chairman Sewell: Thank you.
Chairman. Sewell: (Unintelligible).
Comm. Hafner: Well, I contacted
Delta Airlines (unintelligible) asked if they have an earlier flight
(unintelligible). My career in
corrections is (unintelligible) years. I
started out (unintelligible) 1974 with the Florida Department of
Corrections. And (unintelligible) and in
1981 I became the director (unintelligible)
Chairman. Sewell: (Unintelligible).
Aimee Elliott: Good
morning. I'm here to talk to you today
about jail accreditation. There are 23
jails in
According to ACA, the benefits of accreditation are improved management, defense against lawsuits, reduction in liability through adoption of sound operating procedures, demonstration of a good-faith effort to improve conditions of confinement, increased accountability, enhanced public credibility for administrative and line staff, establishment of measurable criteria for upgrading programs, personnel, and physical place, and also improve and standardize record keeping. ACA accreditation started with the Morgan Street Jail. We were accredited January 1989. Then Orient Road Jail was accredited in August 1992 followed by the Work Release Center in August of 1995. And Falkenburg Road Jail was August 2001.
ACA is comprised of 384 standards with 60 mandatory and 324 nonmandatory. We must receive 100 percent compliance in mandatory and 90 percent in discretionary standards to remain accredited. We received our last accreditation in May of last year, 2007. Founded in 1998 from Florida Model Jail Standards was FCAC, Florida Corrections Association Commission, the state accreditation agency. That also is a three-year cycle. FCAC was the first in the state to undergo an audit by FCAC. And in October of 1999, we were accredited.
FCAC is comprised of 233 standards with 101 mandatory and 132 nonmandatory. As with ACA, we must receive 100 percent compliance in our mandatory and 90 percent in the discretionary to remain accredited. Our next FCAC audit is in May this year, 21st through 23rd. Developed by the Florida Legislature in 1996, Florida Model Jail Standards was developed to inspect the jail and operational areas. We are inspected by the Florida Model Jails every year to remain compliant.
Some accreditation facts: Accreditation provides for a safer working environment and living environment for both staff and inmates. We do this because we are committed to professionalism. Our Morgan Street Jail is pictured on the front of the 3rd edition manual right here in the center. And Colonel Parrish sat on the committee to write the 4th edition standards, which is this book here. The 4th edition standards are performance based. And this enables administrators to monitor activities and measure over time the outcomes of their efforts. It describes the conditions to be achieved and maintained. We have to prove what we say we do. We conduct yearly mock audits of our facility to ensure standards and compliance are maintained. Our facilities have also been tobacco free since 1990. We have a fire, safety, and sanitation program that was developed to assist in the compliance of 27 standards. And if I could just introduce quickly Chris Dennard [phonetic]. He is our fire, safety and sanitation officer. He mostly conducts monthly facility inspections, as well as myself. We work hand in hand with accreditation. And he handles all fire, safety and sanitation inspections that occur yearly, quarterly or monthly to include the fire marshal, fire extinguisher, fire alarm, fire hydrant, air packs, bio hazard, fire alarm sprinkler and Department of Health state inspection.
Our team of FISOs is currently 93 people, and they're developed to assist the Department of Fire, Safety and Sanitation officer. They inspect the facilities weekly and document all deficiencies. And our team of 93 consists mostly of sworn staff but a few civilians do participate in that program. The process of accreditation, each standard has a corresponding file. The actual written standard and the departmental policy corresponding to the standard are added to that file to prove compliance. Then proofs of documentation, which are usually daily paperwork, are also required to be placed into the file for a period of three years to show compliance. We must show that our policies or written directives are carried out in our everyday practices. The assessment team visiting our facility consists of three auditors and lasts for typically three to four days. One auditor is a designated team leader and is responsible for the organization and supervision of the team's activities. During the assessment, the teams tour the facilities; review each standard and its prepared documentation. They conduct interviews with inmates and staff. There's no limit to the number of interviews that the auditors can conduct.
The areas that the auditors focus on: adequacy and quality of programs, activities and services available to inmates. All incidents. Overall physical conditions. Adequacy of living, support, and maintenance of sanitation, health and safety. At the conclusion of the on-site assessment, a report is prepared and handed to the commission granting the accreditation. An exit interview takes place allowing the audit team to express their findings to staff, and before accreditation can be rewarded, a panel hearing, consisting of commissioners reviews the assessment report and recommends reaccreditation. As with all visiting auditors and tour groups, we welcome the opportunity to show this commission our facility and its operation. There are no limits to areas the commission wishes to tour or to the interviews being conducted. Thank you.
Chairman Sewell: Question? Thank you
Unknown Comm: (Unintelligible)
Aimee Elliott: Yes.
Unknown Comm: (Unintelligible)
Aimee Elliott: Yes. Yes. ACA requires us to provide a list of documents that we report incidents on. The number of incidents. (Col. Parrish assisting in commentary from the audience (Unintelligible) Thank you.
Chairman Sewell: (Unintelligible).
Joan Carver: Good morning and welcome. My name's Joan Carver and I'm the medical services manager for the sheriff's office. I've worked here for 7 years; I've been working in jails for 22. And I'm a registered nurse. I'm going to talk a little bit about NCCHC and I'm also going to talk a little bit about our medical services.
As the colonel mentioned, our medical services are provided by a private company. We've been privatized since 1982. Our first accreditation in the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office was with National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which was our medical services accreditation. That was in 1983. We've maintained that accreditation all of these years, and, in fact, every vendor that has been here under our contract for medical services, it's a part of our contract that they maintain our medical accreditations.
The NCCHC was established in the 1970s and it was established because ACA really didn't have a medical component. And like most medical programs, JACO didn't seem to work well for jails. They're more hospital based. Jails are more of an outpatient setting, although we've moved more towards in-patient as time has gone on, and we have much sicker inmates. We now have infirmaries. Here at Hillsborough we have 100-bed infirmary, which is pretty unheard of for a jail. In the 1970s it was found that the ACA didn't have any medical standards so a group of professionals from all areas of expertise like law and health care and corrections, got together and decided, We need to set some standards for health care in corrections. And that's what they did. And they actually came up with a total of 73 standards, which have changed over time, but for the most part, they're minimal standards that we have to meet. But they are not easy standards, by any means, when it comes to providing health care in a jail setting.
Of the 73 standards, 35 of them are central, which means we have to meet that standard in order to pass accreditation, and 38 of those standards are important, which we have to meet 85 percent of those standards to pass. And of course, when a site audit is done, it is announced. It is posted in all the pods for 30 days. It has to be posted while they're here that they are here so that if our patients want to talk to the accreditation people, they can do that. And then they pull their charts if there's anything that they want to look into. There are actually nine sections to the standards, and those sections cover areas like administration of your health care program, maintaining a safe and healthy environment, personnel and training. It even includes staffing, you know, what staffing levels do you have to have in a jail.
It talks about health care services and support. Talks about inmate care and treatment issues. Health care promotion and disease prevention. Special inmate needs and services. Health care records and medical legal. It is a voluntary accreditation. There's a little less than 500 institutions accredited by the NCCHC nationwide and that's jails and prisons. Our last accreditation was in April 16 through 19 of 2007. And out of that accreditation, we were honored with an award called the 2007 Program of the Year Award, which is a very prestigious award. They're very sought after in the health care realm of corrections. And it was awarded to our Discharge Planning Program, which is another unique aspect of a jail operation at our jails because our average length of stay is 22 days. You don't really think about discharge planning but we have many patients here that have severe medical problems and chronic medical diseases. So it was a collaborative effort of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Hillsborough County Health and Social Services, and Armor Correctional Health Care that put together this discharge program. And it actually helps people that have medical problems, severe medical problems, when they leave our jail, they leave with medication in hand, prescriptions and a linkage to the community to continue their health. And we're very proud of that. That's all I have. Thank you.
Chairman Sewell: Questions from the commission? Thanks.
Chairman Sewell: One of the other areas we wanted to get oversight into is the whole issue of training of detention personnel, basically.
Maj. Previtera: Good morning, Dr. Sewell, members of the commission. I'm Major Jim Previtera and I am the Training Division Commander with Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the training of sheriff's office personnel, and in particular, the training of our detention deputies.
In
order to provide you with an accurate portrayal of training at the sheriff's
office, it's necessary to speak briefly about the immediate past history of
agency training. In November of 2005, I
accepted the position as the training director at the sheriff's office. I came to this agency from the United States
Secret Service in
From
the onset, Sheriff David Gee made it clear to me that he believed that agency
training was in need of significant improvements, and he charged me to do that
which was necessary to bring the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office training
programs to a level recognized as the very best in our profession. As we began to move towards the sheriff's
stated goal, I found that indeed there was significant work to be done. Records keeping, curriculum development,
lesson plan management, and the administration of training in general was
behind acceptable standards for an agency the size of
My initial assessment was that there was immediate need to increase permanent training staff, correct deficiencies, and improve our training facilities. The sheriff responded to these requests, and in January 2006, Sheriff Gee created the Training Division, providing additional staff, funding and focus for what he stated to be one of the highest priorities of his first term in office. With additional staff and the discretion to change agency training philosophies, the Training Division became more involved in basic recruit training, and set out to rectify significant problems that existed with relation to training records. Stricter standards were enacted for our new deputies, and we pushed development of a nontraditional scenario-based curriculum that would compel trainees to demonstrate comprehension through performance.
Scenario-based training has been proven extremely effective, especially with regard to use of force training and, in particular, so-called de-escalation training. We also undertook initiatives that were designed to foster esprit de corps in our recruits and initiated the title of cadet for those men and women training for law enforcement and detention deputy positions. We have also enacted changes to in-service training for all certified personnel. In many ways, in-service training as it existed in 2005 was conducted with the intention of satisfying requalification. The annual courses met state-imposed mandates for training specific objectives and specific objectives necessary to meet accreditation standards. The remainder of the training was comprised of operational training related to agency-specific subjects and covered such topics as driving, first aid, or defensive tactics. Instructor-to-trainee ratios, however, were well beyond acceptable limits and the annual program was executed in a manner designed to complete the cycle as expeditiously as possible. In many ways the administration of the program as I found it was counterproductive to providing effective training for the nearly 4,000 members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
Beginning in 2007, changes were made to the manner and the method by which we delivered in-service training. Class sizes were reduced substantially, and instructor-to-trainee ratios were targeted at a goal of 1-to-8 for high-liability training subjects and scenario-based classes. Additionally, a number of new instructors were identified and trained to introduce a different perspective to our training. Training days were shortened from 12 to 8 hours to reduce both instructor and trainee fatigue, and several new job-relevant subject matters were introduced to include reactionary shooting drills and so-called ground defenses for unarmed confrontation. Both detention and law enforcement programs underwent these changes.
Several new programs have also been introduced to training in the past 18 months. Beginning last July, all new sheriff's office law enforcement recruits were required to successfully complete Sheriff's Orientation Training, or S.O.T. as it's become known. S.O.T. is a quasi-military residential training program that places a strict emphasis on self discipline, integrity, commitment, and teamwork. All recruits are required to live by a strict cadet honor code which supports the fundamentals of Sheriff Gee's stated mission, vision and core values for this agency. To date, the program has shown early success to the performance of those cadets, both in the academy and in their personal lives. Disciplinary write-ups during academy training have been reduced, and to date, there has been no S.O.T. cadet dismissed from the academy or module training for disciplinary reasons. Because of the success of this program, we are scheduled to introduce this program for detention recruits this July, and we anticipate the same results. Both the Polk and Orange County Sheriff's Office have indicated the desire to emulate this program.
On the subject of detention training, I furnished you with relevant materials from the detention academy training and other specific subject matters relevant to this commission's inquiry. Detention cadets receive 535 hours of academy training on a curriculum prescribed by the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. This program is administered by the Hillsborough Community College Criminal Justice Institute as the state-certified training center for this county. The sheriff's office delivers an additional approximately 200 hours of training and a detention module which follows completion of the academy. The detention module training program is the final step in the basic training of a detention deputy. Module focuses primarily on training related to agency-specific operational matters, but there is also additional instruction that builds on defensive tactics and force application training, which was acquired during the academy.
In the past year, detention module has been revised to improve the substance and quality of the training. And we have implemented a scenario-based curriculum and it is still ongoing. The highlight of the scenario-based curriculum is a three-day final practical exercise. During these FPEs, the cadets are placed in environments the signed to simulate the conditions that they will work under when they reach assignment in our jail system. Role players interact with these cadets acting as inmates, and they rep excuse me present the cadets with an array of problems that might be encountered during their careers. There is a strong focus on the practical use-of-force application. Several scenarios prompt the cadets to demonstrate an understanding of agency use-of-force policies and procedures in actual application. There are real physical confrontations incorporated into this training which induce an identifiable level of stress in the cadets and instructors closely monitor each cadet's performance to ensure that defensive tactics are performed correctly. But equally as important, to verify that the cadet uses a proper level of force at all times and de-escalates accordingly.
Any cadet who fails in these areas receives immediate remediation, but in egregious violations of policy and application, a cadet may face immediate dismissal. Only after a detention cadet completes the academy and module training and passes the state certification exam do they become a deputy sheriff. Their formal training ends at that point, but for eight additional weeks, these new deputies are paired with a senior field training officer in the jail who evaluates their performance and acts as a mentor for them. This program is administered through the Department of Detention Services.
As a law
enforcement trainer, and specifically the head of training for this agency, I
was disgusted when I first viewed the video of Brian Sterner's treatment at
this facility. Although I personally
believe that the deputy's treatment of Mr. Sterner was inhumane and
indefensible, I cannot point to a single failure in training which would lead
to such behavior by a deputy. Despite that
assertion, the Training Division must develop an effective program to
continuously educate all personnel on the proper treatment of persons with
disabilities and give our members training to support existing policies and
procedures on such matters. To achieve
that end, I requested a meeting with representatives of the
I first met with representatives of this group on February 20th, and both have agreed to support the sheriff's office in examining our training needs with relation to dealing with disabled persons. These groups have subsequently toured the Orient and Falkenburg Road Jails, and we have established a tentative timetable for conducting a needs assessment and staffing focus group discussions about the ways detention personnel interact with disabled citizens. I am confident that this partnership will continue to develop into a productive relationship and look forward to a long-term relationship with both groups.
As I close my remarks to you today, I assure you that the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Training Division takes our mission seriously. We have been empowered by this sheriff to shape the future of an organization and in the past two years, we've made significant progress in correcting the problems I alluded to in my opening comments. There are still several training issues that must be addressed, but I'm confident the dedicated men and women who I am privileged to lead stand ready for those challenges. We look forward to working with this commission in the months to come and we stand prepared to provide whatever additional information is needed for you to complete your inquiry successfully. I welcome your questions at this time, and I thank you for allowing me to come here and speak before you today.
Chairman Sewell: Any questions from the commission?
Comm. Lane: I’d like to know, how are the psychological evaluations administered to the deputies, detention deputies?
Maj. Previtera: An applicant for a position with the sheriff's office as a certified deputy is given a psychological evaluation. However, after the initial psychological evaluation, it would be at the discretion of the supervisor and of the department to request additional psychological testing should they determine that there is a need for that.
Comm. Lane: Okay. What are some of the first signs of burn out for a detention deputy?
Maj. Previtera: I would defer it to Colonel Parrish to comment on that. We -- in training, although we offer career enhancement type training programs, I defer it to the colonel for his expertise on that. Yes?
Comm. Kensel: Major, how long is annual in-service training for detention deputies, and give us an idea, if you would, what does it contain, what are the contents of the in-service training for these detention deputies?
Chairman. Sewell: Major, if
you could hold your answer, let’s go ahead and get the answer to the burn out.
Colonel, could, respond to
Col. Parrish: We look at uses of force, depending upon where somebody is working, if you’re working in a pod, you’re not going to have nearly the uses of force if you’re working in ordinary confinement housing, so those are things that we have to look at, those are the tracks for everybody in the sheriff’s office, on the street and in the jail system. We look at individual cases in which people communicate with people. That comes from supervisors. We look at what they’re doing on the outside, because often times what any problems they may have at work carry through into their private lives as well and so they look for what’s happening there and then compliance with the rules, we’ll look at complaints that we get on somebody if we have to have a disciplinary investigation. There’s no specific things, other than that’s basically what our division commander’s are looking at.
Maj. Previtera: If I may reply to Mr. Kensel's question. As far as in-service training goes, there's a regular annual program. There are mandates that are required by the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission that there be 40 hours of advanced training completed over a four-year period. Within that four-year period, there are some specific subject matters that must be renewed on a two-year basis. For instance, they recently implemented a firearms requirement. The length of the program varies, depending on the curriculum. It's generally no less than 24 hours. It could be as much as 40 hours, depending on the curriculum that we intend to deliver.
Comm. Kensel: What kind of topics does that curriculum include?
Maj. Previtera: We've covered fire safety. We cover CPR, firearms, discretionary shooting. There's defensive tactics, a review of the use of force, any changes to the use-of-force policy that may arise from year to year or any changes in tactics could be covered in in-service training. Yes, ma'am?
Comm. McKinnon: We know that
40 to 60 percent people that are incarcerated have mental illness or a
substance abuse disorder. Are there trainings specific to those kinds of
issues? I know, like, CIT training. Are those kinds of things in place?
Maj. Previtera: Yes, ma'am. In the materials that I've provided you, in the basic recruit curriculum for detention, there are subjects related to dealing with persons with mental illness and autism and special needs. On an in-service training basis, we rotate the curriculum and it's ongoing. In the last two years -- and I'm not sure prior to that -- that we, in the last few years, have dealt with that. I did, last year, talk to the people that are involved with the CRIT Program for law enforcement about the possibility of introducing that training into detention. And that that's been an ongoing discussion and something that we would like to do. Yes, ma'am?
Comm. Fridell: Major,
we know from laboratory studies as well as experience that the corrections
environment has a big impact on personnel and I want to go back to
Maj. Previtera: We in recent years we've discussed health and fitness. We've talked to the classes about the importance of some type of regular fitness program in relation to dealing with stress. And this is just in recent years. And there has been -- there have been, in the past -- there is some discussion in that about stress management. But it's not an extensive discussion.
Comm. Fridell: And is there any training that deals with how a peer might intervene with a peer who is, “losing control” or not acting in accordance --
Maj. Previtera: Not to my knowledge in recent time, unless the colonel knows of something different.
Maj. Previtera: We do
have an Employee Assistance Program here that I believe most of our employees
are well versed on. It's introduced to
them when they first arrive. But as far
as recent ongoing training about, you know, recognizing signs of stress in your
peers, not that I know, to my knowledge.
Yes, ma'am?
Chairman Sewell: Any questions from the commission?
Comm. Lane: I was
wondering
Maj. Previtera: Yes, ma'am?
Comm. Lane: I was wondering, when an officer brings in a prisoner, is there an alert system set up to alert Central Booking that this is an irate prisoner coming in? You know, if we were going over to the hospital Tampa General and they would alert the emergency unit, we have a heart patient coming in, is there any system set up?
Maj. Previtera: Again, I defer to Major Lucas or Colonel Parrish for more specific details about how that system works.
Maj. Lucas: We use the communication basis (unintelligible). If the officer on the street has a problem concerning some type of physical confrontation, they will alert Booking through Dispatch. We in turn will have deputies standing by. We know that there is safety and security in numbers. So the idea is to meet the officer in the sally port and try to restrain him properly so we can bring him into booking without any confrontation.
Col. Parrish: Can I follow up on that?
Chairman Sewell: Sure.
Col. Parrish: We can’t count on law enforcement to always keep us informed as has been shown over the years, so our receiving officers have a series of questions they ask everybody coming in, is there anything we need to know about this person? Did you have to use the TASER on him, did he get hit with OC, or is there some medical issue or something like that. And that’s the kind of thing that you have to follow up as they come through because many times their issue was taken care of out there and now they just want to come in and drop them off. They need to pass that along to us if we have a question on that. There’s a constant communication issue between what happens on the street and what happens within the jail. And then on occasion, you know, we’ll have somebody delivered to us already in total restraints. I mean they’ve been placed in a hobble tie with a spit mask and everything else on them, when they’re coming out of the car because they’ve had that issue out on the street. And then we give them the opportunity to say, Okay, do you want to behave? We can take these things off and you can walk in, and if they’re totally uncooperative, then we have to clearly carry them in.
Chairman Sewell: Colonel, the questions, do they standardly ask that or does the deputy or the detention officer make the decision to ask it or what?
Col. Parrish: No. Our policy is that you will do that to everybody. And I can't guarantee that everybody always does it but that's what's supposed to happen right there, just like we're supposed to walk everybody down and we have to (unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Other questions from the commission?
Comm. Velboom: Major, the in-service training for Corrections, is that different than law enforcement?
Maj. Previtera: Yes, it is. They're two separate programs. And in the front of the materials that I've provided you is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. And you'll see in there that we do have a section dedicated to detention training under the Training Division and a section dedicated to law enforcement training. Our firearms training facility in Lithia, the Walter C. Heinrich Practical Training Site, is the only location where we have detention personnel and law enforcement personnel intermingled. And they work jointly on training for both sides of the house.
Chairman Sewell: Major, a couple of questions. Talk a little bit about the interaction between the HCC and offering the basic correctional officer training or retraining and what you -- how much do you all participate in that and how does that (unintelligible) the two (unintelligible)?
Maj. Previtera: If
you're not familiar, the State of
The training that the law enforcement excuse me that the detention module training that follows the academy is designed to build on the academy training, but it's also designed to focus on those issues that are specific to our system here in Hillsborough County. But the relationship and the interaction and the building process has improved.
Chairman Sewell: One of the things you were talking about in the scenario-based training and particularly the final three days that you use as the test --
Maj. Previtera: Yes, sir.
Chairman Sewell: -- what's your instructor-to-student ratio there?
Maj. Previtera: What we do is, because we require such an intense instructor-to-student ratio during those final practical exercises, is we incorporate assistance from the Department of Detention Services. And what they do is they provide one field training officer for each two cadets. So we have a 1-to-2 ratio of instructor to cadets. And that does not include the training staff that's present to evaluate their performance. And I'd point out that the problems on the final practical exercises range from very routine, if you will, all the way through medical emergencies, CPR, and then there are, as I alluded to in my comments, physical confrontations that take place. And during those scenarios, Dr. Sewell, we have our control tactics, our defensive tactics instructors present. And there is oftentimes more than one to ensure that we not only make sure that they're carrying out their training properly, but more importantly, that they understand the use of force and that their escalation and de-escalation is appropriate at all times.
Chairman Sewell: Normally how many cadets do you have in a Corrections class?
Maj. Previtera: The goal is to have about 24 cadets in a detention class. That number varies, of course, contingent on our recruiting. And I might add -- I should have mentioned in my comments that about a year ago the sheriff also placed recruitment and screening under the Training Division. So that also falls under our purview. But it is contingent upon how successful we are at recruiting. 24 is the goal and we generally run right in that area, between 20 and 26.
Unknown Comm.: (Unintelligible).
Maj. Previtera: Yes, sir.
Unknown Comm.: (Unintelligible).
Maj. Previtera: The Sheriff's Orientation Training is a two-week residential program. We have a cadre of instructors that have military experience or have some specialty related to training that are incorporated into our training cadre. It is run much like a military-style boot camp. It is the rules are rigid. There is a strict emphasis on discipline, especially on self discipline. And there is we really push the concepts and core values of the sheriff's office. And there's teamwork. During that we deliver really an orientation to the sheriff's office, but also an orientation to the goals and philosophies that this sheriff has for this agency. We, as part of that, have also incorporated community service projects where the cadets go out into the community as part of that Sheriff's Orientation Training Program.
Primarily we've been working with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches in performing community service projects. But there is a physical demand to the program. We have zero tolerance for any type of integrity violation, and we have zero tolerance for any, you know, lack of self discipline. The instructor-to-trainee ratio is intense. It's about 1-to-3. And you know, it's up in the morning early and it's a long day. And we try to really bring them to the limits. It also gives us, Dr. Sewell, a unique look early on before we make a substantial investment in a cadet, at their ability to deal with stress.
And we have seen in just the first two Sheriff's Orientation Training classes for law enforcement, candidates that on paper look very promising, but in performance have difficulty dealing with stress. And they subsequently were separated from the program, either voluntarily or by our choice. And as a result, you know, we save the money of going all the way down the road to find out that this person has problems dealing with stress.
Chairman Sewell: But you do this, at least in law enforcement -- I understand that you're going to be doing it in corrections -- you do this before they go to academy?
Maj. Previtera: Yes. This is as soon as they're hired. They spend two weeks at the Walter C. Heinrich Practical Training Site. They arrive on Sunday evening. They're dismissed on Friday evening for the weekend, and they return on Sunday evening and stay again 'til Friday. The following Monday they would begin the academy. We are scheduled to begin this program for detention in July of this year.
Chairman Sewell: We've got use-of-force materials that are going to be extremely appropriate for the board to read probably first and then discuss with you and Colonel Parrish and whoever else is appropriate in a later meeting, probably at our next meeting. Thank you for providing that, if we could. I think that's something we're all going to pay some pretty -- it's a good homework assignment for us and then come back and ask some questions on that.
Maj. Previtera: I'd also like to mention that when these first incidents came to light, I asked the sheriff for specific temporary assignments to training to work on the use of force and to assist in any way we can this commission, or if there's any policy changes that are deemed appropriate, you know, to work on those. Lieutenant Kyle Cockream, who's been affiliated with training at the sheriff's office for a long period of time, has been temporarily assigned back to the Training Division where he spent a substantial period of time. And he'll be available to the commission to assist in any way you need him.
Chairman Sewell: Any other questions for Major Previtera?
Comm. A. Palermo: Yes, Major. I commend you for going outside and proactively
looking
for advice from -- what was it? The
Maj. Previtera: Yes,
ma'am. We've met twice. Following our second meeting which was after
we took a tour of
The goal of all three groups, the sheriff's office, and both of these groups, is to provide meaningful training and an educational experience where our deputies will leave that training session better than they arrived in terms of their knowledge and their ability to deal with persons with special needs.
Chairman Sewell: Other questions? Yes, sir.
Comm. Kensel: Major, I'm not sure if this should be addressed to you or to Colonel Parrish. Since this series of events has occurred and every few days we're seeing additional videos and things on the evening news, has anyone within the sheriff's office gone through, gone back through those files, back through those videos that you keep for four years and nine months, I believe you said, to see if there are any other incidents that have not yet come to light, to see if you have other issues that may jump up and appear?
Col. Parrish: I got
a note to stand at the microphone because they couldn't record me right. We did that initially with everybody who'd
come in in a wheelchair. We had 25
people in jail that day that were in wheelchairs. We went back and pulled the videos on all of
them just to see, Is this an anomaly or has something like this happened
before. Routinely whenever we have
something come up, we'll refer to Internal Affairs for further review. And as I said, we have not, gone back
-- it has gotten to the point where it's very difficult to try and carry on an
ordinary job while responding to the flood of requests from the media for video
on one thing or another. And I am tasked
with personally reviewing every foot of anything that goes out before it goes
out. So I've spent a lot of time in
front of a computer.
Inspector Jose Phillips, who I neglected to introduce, he's the inspector for the jail system. He reports directly to me and he looks at everything from an administrative point of view. We have two detectives who work in the jail who do not report to me. They're part of the law enforcement side of the sheriff's office. But their job is to investigate crimes and such within the jail system. He and they work closely together. He doesn't investigate crimes but he looks at things from an administrative point of view. And he personally pulls everything up for me first, and then I sit down with him and we go through all of this and then we look at use-of-force reports and all of that sort of thing.
So it's physically impossible to go back and pull everything that we've had before. But that's done routinely in our business. We always do that. And as I commented earlier, that's the kind of thing that, you know, you'll have access to and you can see. Most of what has come up since then has already been examined or, you know, people are in prison on this already for it. There are videos that are being used against us right now of people in prison for assaulting our staff. But that's not the way it's coming out, you know? And so it's just been kind of an exasperating process. But many of these cases are things that we had previously had reviewed by Internal Affairs anywhere from six months to two years ago, and now suddenly it's as if it just occurred.
I had one case that came up in 2001. This guy came forward with, "I had all these issues and problems." And we went, "I'm sorry. That's beyond the statute of limitations and we don't keep tape back that far." So he disappeared. And I (unintelligible). So that's not to say that we don't have issues or other things, but we do look at that every day all the time. We take every complaint that we get seriously and if there's any issue at all where we feel that there’s it's not a straightforward matter from a video, it gets referred to Internal Affairs for their call. But that's our standard policy in the sheriff's office on an allegation of excessive use of force. It's out of our hands. We're not allowed to investigate it. Thank you.
Comm. McKee: Excuse me. I think this has been answered, but at what point would I -- if I wanted to join the sheriff's office, make a decision to go to law enforcement or detention? Is it a certain number of years in detention then law enforcement, or can a patrol officer go back and go into detention, or are they two separate areas?
Col. Parrish: They're two separate areas. I sit on the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. I was appointed by the governor to that. And you come in as a law enforcement officer or as a correctional officer under state standards. We call them detention deputies and law enforcement deputies. And you go through a separate academy. We do have some people who start out in detention and then later opt to become law enforcement deputies. There's a couple of reasons: One, there's certainly more freedom out in the street than you have inside the facility. There's better pay on the street than inside the facility. And some people see it as a stepping-stone.
But a standard within the sheriff's office is you have to go back through the whole academy, even if you're prior certified on your own on the detention side, so that you get that proper training as the major talked about, being grounded properly in the sheriff's office, our whole training program. So we have some people who start out in detention and later become law enforcement deputies. It doesn't work the other way. I've never had anybody start out in law enforcement and then opt to become a detention deputy.
Unknown Comm.: Does the employee screening differ across those two groups, coming in?
Col. Parrish: Basically the screening is the same. There are a couple of differences. Under Sheriff Gee, he has raised the bar for law enforcement for education; that is, only high school or GED required for detention. And the other thing is that there's a different psychological profile for somebody who's going to work locked up for 12 hours inside a pod with 64 inmates in his face or her face as opposed to in a patrol car with a certain level of autonomy out there. Beyond that we're basically the same. And I'm stepping on the major's toes here. That's his territory.
Chairman Sewell: Let me follow up with that. Do you know what the differences are in the psych profiles?
Maj. Previtera: I would have to get that information for you.
Chairman Sewell: Does Dr. Skotko do both --
Maj. Previtera: The tests are the same but I believe that the method by which they're interpreted is different. And I may be corrected by Dr. Skotko, but I can get that information for you.
Chairman Sewell: Could you get that? Because we may want to have Dr. Skotko talk to us at some point, too.
Maj. Previtera: Yes, sir. We can certainly make him available. Yes, ma'am?
Unknown Comm.: Do people, once they go to detention -- are there a separate group of employees that work primarily in booking or is there a rotation?
Maj. Previtera: Again I'll have to defer to the colonel on that. If there's any other training question, I can answer those real quick and then I'll just the colonel answer some of those others.
Chairman Sewell: Any other training questions? Colonel, it's yours.
Maj. Previtera: Thank you, Dr. Sewell.
Col. Parrish: There are some people who are dedicated to booking, booking clerks. We use civilians who do that. That's all that they do. That's the only place they can work. There are certain nurses. We keep three nurses on duty 24 hours a day in booking to do medical screenings. They're generally the same people but not always. There may be somebody who fills in. Deputies bid once a year for where they're going to work, what shift and location. All right? And that way they know And we work 12-hour shifts. You're on for two, off for two, on for three, off for three, and then you start over again. So every other weekend you have off. And you bid for day A, day B, night A, night B, depending upon your seniority.
We have an override capability. And I know this will be of interest to you, that we'll look back at certain people and we say, You've been there too long. You've had certain issues. You can't bid there this time. We're going to move you, no matter what. We do the same kind of thing with confinement housing, which is more traditional jail versus direct supervision. Everybody has to work in direct supervision first. You can't bid the booking immediately with no experience. You know, we want you to work in a pod first. We don't want you to work in confinement housing immediately. We want you to work in a pod first. That's what our business is. And then you can go to one of these specialties. And some people want to just stay there forever and we'll say, You've had enough there. We're going to have to put you back in in this other area.
So yes, they're basically going to be there for at least a year, and some people have worked there for a number of years. There are some people who really like that kind of work versus other areas, as long as there are no other issues. Or like supervisors. We had one sergeant who retired here after 22 years of his 24 years he spent in booking. That's what he was good at and what he really liked.
Chairman Sewell: Other questions? Colonel, thank you.
Col. Parrish: Thank you very much.
Chairman Sewell: Why don't we take about a ten-minute break and come back and we'll begin -- housekeeping: Restrooms are right across the --
(END OF PART ONE)
(INDEPENDENT
REVIEW COMMISSION ON JAILS -
3/10/08, AFTER TOUR)
Chairman Sewell: -- in the state of
Col. Parrish: Yeah, thank you.
There was a standing joke that they always have a hook out for me when I
talk too much when we have a tour. And I
got to see it from the other side with Major Lucas this time. So he's planning to take my place in about a
year and he's learning real well. I want
to leave you with a film. You've gotten
a little booklet that's from the National Institute of Corrections.
I
sit on the NIC Advisory Board and was appointed by Attorney General Ashcroft to
that a couple of years ago. NIC provides
technical assistance to jails and prisons nationwide. And one of the books that they put out is What
Every Funding Authority Needs to Know.
You can read it in about 15 or 20 minutes. It's really designed for county
commissioners. But it lays out what a
jail needs to be and why it's worth spending money to have a jail meet
constitutional standards. And then the
companion piece to that is this 22-minute videotape. It's called "Beyond the Myths of Jail in
your Community," also put out by NIC.
We show it on public access television here with comments from, I think,
Commissioner Norman, who was, at the time, on the Public Safety Coordinating
Council, and from the sheriff. And it
tells in just a few minutes, it explains what a jail is. And it fits for little jails, for big jails,
for direct supervision jails, for podular remote; many are intermittent
surveillance or whatever type. And it's
very generic and applies all over the
You
know, I've worked with Jan Bates -- she's our inmate programs manager -- and I
sat down in helping to develop the script for this way back when. And it's really an excellent thing that I
think you ought to take just a few minutes to take a look at when you get a
chance.
So
I'll leave this with you, as well. You
didn't get a chance to see the whole jail by any means. We showed you a typical pod: 4-Alpha. There's about 26 of them like that. And we showed you 6-Charlie. 1-Charlie is just like that at the other
end of the building. There's two 56-bed
confinement pods here, 112 beds of single-cell confinement space. And all the rest of the 1,711 beds are direct
supervision like 4-Alpha was that you went into. All right?
You
didn't get a chance to see master control or the
Downstairs
on the first floor there's something called the
And
then I would encourage you to come back into booking at a time when it's busy,
which is really busy from, you know, 11, 12:00 at night up until 4 or 5 in the
morning. Ironically, our busiest days
are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I
mean, everybody thinks it's Friday and Saturday. That's not true. Part of that's driven by the fact that we're
our own worst enemy. I mean, we go
around and pick up people all over the state on certain days in the middle of
the week, and we have other things going on that help drive that up.
I
think I mentioned that, you know, we service 25 law enforcement agencies. Well, 55 percent of all the bookings are made
by the sheriff's office. All the
arrests, 55 percent are made by the sheriff's office. 35 percent are by the Tampa Police
Department. Everybody thinks of TPD as
being really huge. And it's a big
agency, but my department, the Department of Detention Services, is bigger and
has a bigger budget than the whole Tampa Police Department. I'm just one portion of the sheriff's
office. And then the other 10 percent of
all the bookings are distributed among the other 23 agencies that we service,
everybody from
I
would encourage you to come back, too, to tour the Falkenburg Road Jail, which
is our future. And it does not have a
booking component, but inmates come in here and basically stay here for about
72 hours and then they get moved to Falkenburg.
Some people get moved to
Falkenburg immediately if they require a lockdown, confinement, and we don't
have enough space over here. They may go
over there. If they have to go to
infirmary, they go to Falkenburg, because we have two 50-bed infirmaries at
Falkenburg, and we do not have any infirmaries here. It doesn't make sense to have multiple infirmaries. They're too expensive to operate.
We
do have a clinic at each jail where people are examined but the only infirmary
space is at the Falkenburg Road Jail.
But that truly is the future of our jail system, and you can see the
evolution of our design over the years out there. We've saved a ton of money 'cause we don't
have air conditioned and heated corridors.
They're open, covered walkways like an elementary school has. The jail's a lot bigger than here, and yet
air conditioned living space is less than we find here because we don't have
all those corridors and such. So I know
the commissioners and the public really appreciate the fact that we've done
things as economically as possible out there.
And
the other thing is that that building is designed so we can just keep on adding
to it incrementally as we need to.
Outside the fence and then we kick the fence out, incorporate it
in. We have the economy of a cheap
free-standing building much like the state prison has inside a double-fenced compound,
but it's all crunched together like a jail needs to be and it's near the
courthouse. We ship 2 to 300 people a
day to court, 275 on the average.
And
it would be far worse if we were not sending viewing all those people on
video for first appearance court. You
know, that would be another 100 to 150 a day there, as well. So jail needs to be near the courts. It doesn't make any sense to be out in the
middle of nowhere somewhere, because we've got a lot of activity associated
with the courts. So I'd be happy to
answer any other questions you have and then we can do whatever you need to to
move it on to public comments.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
Questions from the commission?
I'm sure we'll have some more for you sometime, Colonel.
Col. Parrish: Yeah, I'm sure we will.
Chairman Sewell: Thanks.
Col. Parrish: But I thank you for taking the time to go and do
that. And although I was kidding with
Major Lucas about moving it along, what you needed was more detail here than we
normally do give on a tour with a civic group like Leadership Tampa or Tampa
Connection or
Chairman Sewell: Thanks. For sure within the first 60-day period,
we'll take you up on your offer to see master control and the Operations. David, could you do me a favor and hand me my
daytimer?-- but we'll take you up on the offers to see those and we will work
out something to come out on the busy
times so we can see -- get a different perspective, because I think that's
important. One of the things I asked the
commission to do was to bring calendars.
We've got, obviously, some things we have to accomplish in the next 60
days. And I think part of part of our
-- as we talk about what we want to do work-plan wise, part of the issue is how
frequently do we want to meet. And I
know that everybody who's on here has a busy calendar and one of the things
that Director Hafner and I talked about is right now, particularly with some of
the things they're doing in the legislative session, Mondays and Fridays are
better days for him, and I'm not sure how that is with the rest of the
commission.
Unknown Comm.: Same here.
Chairman Sewell: So I throw that out as an issue. Are Mondays and Friday or Friday's a fairly
good day?
Unknown. Comm: Friday's great.
Chairman Sewell: Friday's great?
Unknown Comm.: Friday's better.
Chairman Sewell: Friday's better?
Unknown Comm.: Yeah.
Chairman Sewell: Fridays.
Chairman Sewell: Fridays.
Unknown Comm.: (Unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: If, well, let's see, if we can could,
set the next meeting date and in the meantime we'll get a possible calendar out
for you.
Unknown Comm.: Except for the 21st.
Chairman Sewell: Except for which one?
Unknown Comm.: The 21st.
Chairman Sewell: The 21st is bad for you?
Unknown Comm.: Yes.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
Unknown Comm.: Just (unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Now, how many couldn't make it to the
21st? Let's see that
number. Fair enough.
Unknown Comm.: Could make it?
Chairman Sewell: Could not make it.
Unknown Comm.: I can't.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
So I've got two. Everybody else
can make it to the 21st?
Unknown Comm.: Yes.
Unknown Comm.: Uh-huh.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
How about we go ahead and plan it for the 21st? Really, then as we go through, there will be
some days that everybody can't make. And
we'll make sure we keep you all in the loop.
And if something changes, then we'll look forward to you being
here. Is that all right?
Unknown Comm.: (Unintelligible).01:24:17
Chairman Sewell: And we need affirmation. It's just a little thing.
Unknown Comm.: Yeah.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
The next meeting will be the 21st.
Unknown Comm.: Of March?
Chairman Sewell: 21st of March, yes.
Comm. Kensel: 10 a.m.?
Chairman Sewell: Is 10 a.m. good for everybody? You want to start earlier?
Unknown Comm.: I'll start earlier.
Chairman Sewell: 10:00?
Unknown Comm.: (Unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
10:00, then? That means that probably,
unless he comes in the night before, Director Hafner should be with us about
10:20, 10:25. So -- all right. We'll work on location and get that out to
everybody as soon as we know location and all.
In all likelihood it will not be back here because we're going to move
it a little bit, too, but we will let
everybody know and we will particularly let the media know so you all can let
that out, as well. And we'll have it on
our website at the sheriff's office.
What two or three or four areas would you most like to see on the agenda
for the next meeting, from what you've heard today?
Let
me throw out a couple of things and then see if you all agree. One, one of the things we did not get into,
although we heard it discussed when we did our tour, was a full discussion on
use of force, in particular the continuum of force. And I'd suggest that that is -- is one of the
areas we have to consider and probably need to get into early on. Are you comfortable with that? Okay.
So we'll have scheduled whomever can do that presentation.
Two,
one of the discussions, as well, that we heard today -- and this is fresh in my
mind and it's a very small mind -- I wanted to throw it out. We talked about the difference in
psychological evaluations based on your question,
Unknown Comm.: Uh-huh.
Chairman Sewell: So we'd ask Dr. Skotko who does their
psychological evaluations to be prepared to work with us on that.
The
third area -- and we've got it in the books, and again, we didn't go over a lot
of it -- was the human interaction segment of the training program. Part of that's required by the Criminal
Justice Standards and Training Commission.
Part of that is adapted to what they do with the 200-hour training that
they do for
Comm. McKinnon: That's good. And I'd be really interested not just the
training for people that are being hired, but people that have been in place
for longer periods of time and more of the annual kind of update
training.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
Comm. McKinnon: Because it's incredibly thorough for
people coming in as to who you hire --
Chairman Sewell: And how do we keep them up?
Comm. McKinnon: Right.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
All right. So we'll build some
more in-depth discussions about the issues related to training, in particular
that human interaction part. Okay. What other what other areas?
Comm. Velboom: Internal Affairs, to talk about the use-of-force complaints
and how that's monitored and how that's 01:27:36 (unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
Comm. Fridell: (Unintelligible) In terms of use of force
(unintelligible).
Comm. Velboom: Right.
Chairman Sewell: Yeah.
All other types of grievances that we have. Okay.
Comm. Velboom: Right. The grievance
(unintelligible).
Comm. Kensel: (Unintelligible) give us copies of those.
Chairman Sewell: We'll ask for copies of the
forms. And I had given staff some
suggestions on some issues in terms of numbers we need to look at centered around that, as well. So -- okay.
So -- Go ahead.
Comm. Lane: (Unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Yeah, we need to provide some
discussion on (unintelligible). 01:28:12 What
Comm. Fridell: And I think the other issues will emerge as we talk
about them.
Chairman Sewell: Right.
Comm. Velboom: Which it may be the evaluation process of the detention
deputies and how that (unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
Good.
Comm. Fridell: That's good.
Comm. Kensel: If not we'll take (unintelligible) management, chain of
command and (unintelligible).
Chairman Sewell: Good.
Comm. Fridell: Oh, yeah, first-line supervisors.
Comm. Kensel: Right.
Chairman Sewell: Okay.
I'm sure if we don't get this all in the next meeting, we can get it the
next two meetings. So -- all right. Any other issues we want to put on the next
one-plus meetings?
Comm. Fridell: That'll get us started.
Chairman Sewell: That'll get us started. All right.
Comm. Kensel: Yeah. So now all
we've got to do is
Chairman Sewell: Yeah.
And we'll work out -- we'll do the Falkenburg probably after we've had a
meeting or two, and then make a decision what we're doing in the first 60 days
or within the six-month thing. We got the good news is, is having six months,
we've got a little bit broader period to look at some things. So -- all right. So then the next meeting will be on the 21st
and we'll work out the agenda, have some drafts out that we can look at within
the next couple of days. And we will
have before the -- Mickey -- Mickey was here -- we'll have before then the
minutes for this meeting for us, because they promised a turnaround time. Okay? Any other issues about our work plan or our
scheduled meetings that we have not discussed?
Okay. Next is Public Comments. Right now I've got two public comment
cards. Do we have any more that have
been turned in? Let me call these. The first one is Gerald White. Mr. White, you can come down to the
podium. And I'm still sitting with just
two, right? We normally would do a
three-minute time limit on these but with only two people let's do a
five-minute time, but we need to try to keep it within five minutes.
Gerald White: I don't have much to say. I’m Gerald White. The reason I came, I served as a member of
the Hillsborough County Commission, Citizen Advisory Committee. And I was the vice chairman of the Citizens
Board and I served on the board for eight years. And one of the things that I tried to make
sure was done, because our meetings were televised to all the residents of
I've
learned a lot through hearing from that
we were able to broadcast to the community.
So that as a citizen, my confidence was shaken over the wheelchair
incident. The incident you know was
really troubling, not to just me and my neighbors, and all the citizens of this
county. But I have not lost faith and
hope and belief in the sheriff, David Gee of
I
have one request as a citizen, a taxpayer, a voter of
But
this is something that we can see day in and day out on the news. And it's extremely troubling. And if there's something wrong in our system,
I want it fixed. I want it solved. I want positive recommendations. And I've heard some very, very interesting
comments from you all today that's really intriguing, that really I'm looking
forward to is there anything to it. And
I've worked for Tampa Electric for 25 years, worked 12-hour shifts. And I know how stressful that can be. I know how difficult it is to stay awake, to
be alert, to be on the ball for 12 hours.
And stress is a real issue in the workplace. And so I hope that y'all really take a
special look at that. And training.
I,
I , I enjoyed hearing the comments about training. It's important that our sheriff’s deputies
and our corrections officers have adequate and efficient and comprehensive
training. We want to know, as citizens,
that we have the very, very best. And as
a taxpayer, I -- I don't mind paying more for the best as it relates to law
enforcement. And so that's all I can
ask, you know. And I really appreciate
this commission. This is a gift to the
citizens of
Give
us your best work. Make us proud again, because
I have been shaken. And I don't like the
way I feel now. I want to feel
better. And I pray to God through your
work you will make us all feel better about the sheriff’s office, about the
fitness and ability of the deputies and the correctional officers. And we all could be proud and continue to be
proud as citizens of
Chairman Sewell: Thank you, Mr. White. Are there any questions from the
commission? Thank you very, very
much.
The
next card is from Al McCray. Let me let
me take a second as Mr. McCray's coming to the podium. One of the media asked me earlier today what
can citizens do. And I think citizens
can do a couple of things: One is be
involved in the process and give us information and share their concerns and
the good news with us.
And
two, to be to be supportive of what we're trying to do in in doing this
objective, independent review. Mr.
McCray called me earlier this week and we spent about an hour yesterday together
talking about some of the issues and concerns he had, and again, some of the
good news and bad news. And he offered
to come forward and share some of shows concerns with the commission and
offered his services in any capacity that we found appropriate to use, and
we're having some further discussions of that.
So, Mr. McCray?
Alvin McCray: Okay. My name's
Alvin McCray. I just thank Jim for
spending, I guess, two hours yesterday, on Sunday, in St. Pete. I really appreciate that. My name's Alvin McCray. I've been here 15 years now. This this here represents closure to me. I have been traumatized for the last 7 years
at what happened to me when I was in jail here on probation violation. My background's very simple. I'm president of 01:36:11 (unintelligible)
No
problem with the officer who arrested me.
I mean, very nice, professional guy, you know? He allowed me to have my car towed, all my
phone numbers transferred. He asked me
what station I wanted to listen to. Of
course I said WFLA, the news station.
That's Jack, Tedd and Sharon. But
when I got to Central Booking, I mean, my world turned upside down. I had a car wreck a week before I got
arrested. And from previous experiences
I know you want to disclose everything you possibly can before you get assigned
to a holding cell, because there's so many times there are fake calls for
sickness in jails.
When
I went to the medical unit, I was given a form after form to sign, and I was
basically told, "Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign." Well, I wanted to take time to read those
forms, to make sure I properly disclosed my condition. In about two and a half minutes, Deputy
Albright -- to me, he had, like, a Stormtrooper mentality. He yanked me up and threw me in a holding
cell for hours. And he taunted me. He would come in front of the cell doing this
here. The whole while, you know? I guess this was the paper and this is you
reading it and this is you signing. About
an hour later he came and posted a notice on the on the glass door.
Maybe
an hour later he came and got me and I said, "Look, I want to file a
complaint 'cause I don't like what happened to me." He said to me, "You can't file a
complaint." So I demanded that that
that I file a complaint. He goes to his
supervisor, a Sergeant (Unintelligible) 01:38:04 at that time, and the sergeant was
(unintelligible) like this here and I said, "Sarge, I got a complaint to
file." He said to me, "Shoo,
shoo, shoo, shoo. Out of my
face. Shoo, shoo. (unintelligible). Nothing happened to you. Shoo, shoo, out of my face." And I didn't appreciate that. You know?
Here I am a taxpayer. I'm a
citizen. I work very hard." And, you know, for a uniformed officer to
treat me like a barnyard chicken/animal was very very humiliating. Now, and that took about 19 seconds. And those 19 seconds have stained me for the
last seven years. And I and I'm really
traumatized, you know?
It's
very -- when I finally got to my pod, guys in my cell, I told them what
happened to me, and they said, "Man, you're lucky they didn't beat you
up." I said, "What do you
mean?" "Man, you're lucky they
didn't take you to a broom closet and beat you up." I said, "No, you got to be kidding
me." "Yeah. We're serious." You know, I was too afraid to file a
complaint at that time. I really
was. You could say I got hauled into
Even
when I came back I was still afraid to file a complaint. But being traumatized I had to do
something. So I went to the jail and I
spoke with a Lieutenant Berry. And I
said, "Well, you know, am I wasting my time or what?" I 01:38:24 (unintelligible) happened this
year. So Lieutenant
But
what I found was that Lieutenant Berry and Captain Flowers -- now Major Flowers
-- they were very thorough. They were
extremely thorough. I can't tell you how
how that restored my faith. I also met
Major Flowers at that time and I also had to deal with Major Lucas here over the years. These folk -- I met some wonderful
people. Whatever misconception I had,
whatever lack of faith I had was was restored. I mean, there was no -- whitewash. I was I was satisfied with the results but I
was not happy with the results, 'cause the deputies were never fired. As a matter of fact, they couldn't remember
the incident. Now, maybe they did so
many people they got mixed up. I don't
know. (Audible beeping) But since then I have maintained a cordial relationship
with the sheriff department. This tour
to me, again, is --
Is
that me?
Chairman Sewell: Yep.
Alvin McCray: Time. This tour to me, really is -- two more minutes.
Chairman Sewell: One more minute.
Alvin McCray: One minute. This
tour to me is really closure. I've seen
a tremendous change in Central Booking now. As a matter of fact, when you go in
Booking now, you can see every steps you go through. Okay?
The atmosphere is seems to be different. I think the sheriff should be commended for
all the changes he's made. And I've
waited seven years for this confirmation.
And I'll be available any time you need to see me or have any ideas.
Chairman Sewell: Very good.
Alvin McCray: Thank you.
Chairman Sewell: Any questions for Mr. McCray? Mr. McCray, thank you very much.
Chairman Sewell: Any..
Comm: McKee: Mr. McCray? From
what you're saying, do you think that these
incidents
we've been reading about are just isolated incidents that do not reflect the
attitude and mentality or philosophy of the staff of the Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Office?
Alvin McCray: I think you have a few Stormtrooper-mentality deputies
here. Maybe from the last regime or
whatever. I think as a whole is not the
system. It's a few individuals in the
system. It's the tree, not the
forest. I think more sensitivity
training will be very helpful. Realize that you go to jail as punishment and
not to be punished in jail. Just more
sensitivity training of deputies with the issue. And more respect. I'm not saying they say, "Thank you, Mr.
McCray, for being here," but certainly, I do have a first name. I do have a last name. I do work.
And I do pay taxes. And my
payment make it possible for you to have a job.
Chairman Sewell: Thank you very much. Any further public comments? With that, thank you all for coming today,
and we'll stand adjourned.
(CONCLUSION OF HEARING)
Transcribed by: slw/lms
Transcript edited by T. Sweat (HCSO)