From behind bars: Inmates weigh in on National Guard's presence amid understaffing crisis

With Florida hit by a critical labor shortage in its prisons, Gov. Ron DeSantis temporarily directed hundreds from the Florida National Guard last year to fill the breach. Inmates gave the program mixed reviews but said it had a good start — and it's been extended.

“I really enjoy the National Guard,” wrote Jason Adams, an inmate at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution since 2021. “They are professional and nicer than the correctional officers.”

Guard members started working Oct. 18, 2022, almost two months after DeSantis signed the original executive order authorizing the Guard to work in nine selected institutions.

On June 2, DeSantis renewed the executive order for another six months stating an extension was “necessary because ongoing staffing shortages, although much improved, continue to threaten the safety of officers, inmates and the public.”

But as time on the extension runs out, the Florida Department of Corrections is asking for another six months of help. The department submitted a request to the Joint Legislative Budget Commission this month asking for the National Guard to continue working in the prisons until June 30, 2024 and allocating $23.5 million for their salaries.

Currently the state is spending $30 million for the 300 National Guard members that are already working, the DOC said.

The DeSantis administration is also proposing to assign 100 more guard members to Florida prisons, according to a report by the News Service of Florida.

Since the National Guard has entered the picture, physical conditions haven't improved in the aging prison system, wrote the 34-year-old Adams, who was sentenced to 17 years for lewd or lascivious exhibition in the presence of a child. But interactions he’s had with the National Guard have been positive.

“I don’t think much has changed as far as how we’re treated,” Adams wrote. “If anything, I think we are treated better.”

The USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida randomly selected a handful of inmates currently held in Santa Rosa, Union, Mayo and Hamilton Correctional Institutions from the institutions' list of inmates. Inmates corresponded through JPay, an electronic messaging system that services the country’s prison system.

A glimpse into prison life

Conditions are generally grim inside the prison walls, inmates say, and recent reports about problems plaguing Florida's aging prison system have captured national headlines.

An inspection of FCI Tallahassee by the Federal Bureau of Prisons revealed inmates were being served moldy or rotten food and living with "black substances" on walls and ceilings. State lawmakers were informed that 75% of all housing units in the state's corrections system do not have air-conditioning.

But there is hope institutions will feel some relief, at least on the staffing side, as a ripple effect from DeSantis’ National Guard initiative.

At least 300 national guard members were asked to voluntarily work in the prisons to help alleviate current staffing shortages that have forced correctional department workers to work extensive over-time hours. The order initially deployed them for up to nine months or until the Department of Corrections decides they are no longer needed, said FDC Chief Financial Officer Mark Tallent during a Sept. 2022 joint legislative budget commission.

One inmate hopes the guards will be enough to turn the institutional conditions around. Raynard Wilson, a Santa Rosa inmate since 2003, wrote that inmates feel the effects of understaffing firsthand.

“I’ve witnessed the department of corrections change in ways that I never thought possible,” Wilson, who was sentenced to 30 years for attempted second-degree murder, wrote. “The shortage of officers created a tense and hostile environment.”

The inmates are very familiar with the staff, said James Baiardi, the Florida Police Benevolent Association’s vice president of services. They know when familiar faces are not working on a given day, Baiardi said, and they pay attention to who and how many are present.

Wilson, 40, wrote that the shortages have left the prisoners without a voice because they have lost the officers who would speak on their behalf. The FDC had agencies and staff, he wrote, who would advocate for their rights and fair treatment.

The staffing shortage has also decreased recreation and opportunities for education, he wrote. Time in general education classes has been cut in half, or the classes are often canceled altogether.

Most inmates feel like victims of circumstance, Wilson wrote.

“[Whether] it’s the low wages the state is offering their employees or distasteful job description, it’s totally out of an inmate’s control,” he wrote. “We should not be subjected to the consequences of the state’s insufficient business management.”

However, Richard Elbert, an inmate at Union since 2014, argues that the understaffing issue sometimes helps keep inmates in a better state of mind. With less staff, there are less random searches of their belongings, Elbert, who was sentenced to 34 years for burglary of a dwelling, wrote.

“That is upsetting to have someone go through our belongings,” Elbert, 59, wrote. “I can see if it was drugs or weapons, but no, they take our families photos and stuff we rely upon to ease our minds.”

Hope on the horizon: Vacancy rates start to fall

At the time of last fall's budget commission, the state prison system had a 24.1% vacancy rate, but the Corrections department's CFO Tallent said they were seeing “positive gains” in employee numbers after DeSantis raised correctional officers’ salaries. The new pay increase began in January 2022, and over a four-month period, almost 700 correctional officers were hired.

Based on the latest vacancy report, the vacancy rate is down to 15.6%, leaving less than 2,600 positions open, said Kayla McLaughlin, the communications director at the FDC. Right now, she said there are more than 1,200 individuals undergoing training in the academy, with nearly 860 candidates waiting to enroll.

Base salaries in 2022 were initially raised to $38,750, a 16% increase, with sizable hiring bonuses included, according to a press release from DeSantis’ press office. Salaries have now been increased to $48,620, roughly a 25% increase from the first pay raise.

“These officers deserve to make a fair living,” the PBA's Baiardi said. “They’re risking their lives, they’re working a bunch of hours, and they deserve to be treated and have pay parity with other law enforcement.”

Until this pay discrepancy is addressed, Baiardi said he thinks the staffing issues will persist.

“Right now, it’s full steam ahead with recruitment,” Tallent said.

'Stressful' and 'dangerous'

Working in the prisons is hard and it hurts family life and one’s mental health, Baiardi said. Correctional officers are having to sacrifice more of their personal lives to work overtime because of the staffing shortages.

He remembers having to miss his daughter’s first play and other important moments in his kids’ lives because he was stuck working overtime.

“There’s a reason why there’s not a line of people that want to go work in the prisons, because it’s stressful and it’s dangerous, and only certain people can do it,” Baiardi said. “And then you add the forced use of extra hours of work.”

Baiardi believes the extra hands will be a relief to everyone employed, and he said he has no doubt that the guardsmen can do the job because their military training has prepared them for crisis situations and for handling all types of emergencies.

“In a perfect world, having a prison full of correction officers is better,” he said. “But this isn’t a perfect world, and we had to do something before these officers really break down.”

Northwest Florida Reception Center, Reception and Medical Center, and Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Mayo, Santa Rosa and Union Correctional Institutions were selected to receive the extra help, according to prison officials.

The guardsmen are assigned to security posts at the institution, and don’t directly supervise inmates, Tallent said. The department decides their duties that are monitored by the correctional officers. Some responsibilities include completing activity logs, issuing supplies to inmates from the secure officer stations and monitoring inmate movement.

Antonio Jones, an inmate at Santa Rosa since 2009, wrote confirming the guard members spend their time in the annex or in the main office. However, he had no idea they would be stepping in until the new help did a walk-through, he wrote.

“No one tells us anything, really,” the inmate, who was sentenced to 28 years for robbery with a deadly weapon, wrote.

Jones, 34, has not had any direct interaction with the National Guard members, but he wrote he is praying they will bring change within the institution.

“The prison system is getting worse as the days pass,” Jones wrote. “It’s supposed to help us, correct our flaws and mold us into righteous citizens… but it only makes things worse. They are actually raising the recidivism.”

Correctional officers “wear their hearts on their shoulders,” and when they are tired and aggravated, Jones said, they take it out on the inmates.

Fenkari Lopez, 27, an inmate at Santa Rosa since 2016, wrote in an email he was informed about the National Guard’s arrival, but nothing has changed.

“Do I feel as prison is improving?” Lopez, who was sentenced to 15 years for attempted first-degree murder and robbery with a gun or deadly weapon, wrote. “No because we’re still getting treated as if we are not human.”

Others, like Benjamin Allen, 29, an inmate at Mayo since 2019 who was sentenced to life for second-degree murder, think the guard members are helpful but should be able to do more.

Alexander Curry, an inmate at Hamilton since 2013, wrote in an email that he personally has seen two of the guard members. One was notably quieter and more respectful when addressing the inmates, Curry, 36, wrote.

“The normal [correctional officers] are trained to be nasty and some are especially good at their job,” Curry, who was sentenced to life for robbery with a deadly weapon, wrote.

Curry feels that issues like inhumane living conditions are persisting alongside the understaffing issues. Additionally, the guard members do not appear to be making a dent in correctional officers’ workloads, Charles Jones, 51, an inmate at Hamilton since 2014, wrote in an email.

There are still shortages for personnel to run recreation, Jones, who was sentenced to 20 years for burglary, wrote. “I personally have witnessed ZERO improvement thus far,” he wrote.

The Corrections department anticipates correctional officers will experience reduced stress and overtime hours with the extra help. Officers will also be moved from security posts into the compounds where they have direct contact with the inmates, and there will be more time to train new hires, Tallent said.

“With the ongoing support of Florida’s National Guard, the Florida Department of Corrections will continue to recruit and train correctional officers to fill vacant positions while upholding our mission of public safety,” the FDC said.

Under DeSantis’ administration, the PBA's Baiardi is pleased with the strides that have been made to try and better the circumstances for officers in the prisons and feels he has seen the governor follow through with what he has said he’d do. They asked for help and got it, he said.

“I think this is the administration that is going to end it for all,” he said, referring to the prisons’ chronic staffing shortages. “I think this [administration] is more committed and they’re trying.”

Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on Twitter @elenabarreraaa.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Inmates share mixed reviews on Florida National Guard's prison mission