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Romano: Real change for Florida's prisons require compassion

 
Published Feb. 10, 2015

Outrage has its limits. I get that.

There are only so many times you can be shocked, and only so many tears you can shed over the world's injustices.

So maybe you have glossed over the headlines of abuses, misdeeds, coverups and even deaths when it comes to the state's prison system.

Maybe you have had your fill of jailhouse sob stories, and maybe you secretly believe we only reap what we sow.

On a lot of days, I would probably agree.

But this story has grown too large. This abuse has become too ingrained.

We do not have a problem with a few rogue guards or a handful of mistreated prisoners. We have a problem with a system that is woefully under-funded and dangerously immune to oversight. We have leaders who do not just look the other way, but are actively working to suppress information and retaliate against whistle-blowers.

We have a system in need of overhaul.

If you take nothing else from the recent series of stories from the Miami Herald detailing a variety of scandals within Florida's Department of Corrections, then let it be that.

Because at this point, the system is too corrupted to be trusted. And the governor's office seems too disinterested to be counted on.

So what should be done?

A Senate committee is discussing the creation of an independent oversight board, and that idea has potential. The key is going to be how much authority the board will be given, and whether it will be staffed with a collection of DOC apologists.

But real change may take a full-scale investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice. The feds have already expressed a desire to look into a number of inexplicable deaths, and one can only imagine what type of institutionalized whitewashing they may discover.

Sadly, it would not be the first time Florida has been in the cross hairs of crusaders. A generation ago, the state's prison system was put under the watchful eye of judges due to "serious systemic deficiencies" in prison health care and overcrowding.

Prison hospitals have once again become an issue since our leaders decided a few years ago to outsource medical care to private companies that seem much more preoccupied with cutting costs than caring for the sick.

From a bottom-line perspective, it was a shrewd move. The state could save a chunk of money while cutting resources to people who neither vote nor elicit much sympathy.

The problem, not surprisingly, is that our elected officials went too far. Not only did they take shortcuts in health care, but they started to skimp in every other area. Supplies and manpower were cut. Prisons became more hazardous. Staff and inmates were on edge.

And so a situation as inherently dangerous as a building full of people with little to lose has been made even more precarious by politicians who couldn't care less.

Trust me, I understand the temptation to look the other way. To focus attention on children and the elderly. On more vulnerable, innocent and sympathetic victims. But these prison stories are no longer isolated incidents, and the fallout will undoubtedly have real-life repercussions.

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From George Washington to Fyodor Dostoevsky to Nelson Mandela, history has taught us that one of the secrets to knowing a society's heart is by viewing its treatment of prisoners.

In Florida, we are falling sadly short. In funding, in deeds, in ideas, in oversight and in compassion.

We should, and can, be better.