|
"Building more prisons to address crime is like building more graveyards to address a fatal disease." Robert Gangi |
As preposterous as it may seem at the moment, imagine yourself being convicted of a sex crime and sentenced by a judge to a particular term of imprisonment according to the Law. Then, just when your sentence is about to expire, instead of experiencing the euphoric sense of freedom, you are escorted out the gate in handcuffs and shackles by armed Department of Corrections officers to yet another sort of prison. Only this one is much more barbaric. Because not only is the detainment based on the crime you just served your sentence for, but there is no projected release date to look forward to this time. Furthermore, this so-called Civil Detainment translates to mean a potential life sentence. This is a reality that would make our Founding Fathers, who so carefully drafted our Constitutional Protections, roll over in their graves and has Civil Rights activists appalled that our Government continues to trample upon our collective Civil Rights unchecked.
As a victim of this new controversial Law, known as Florida Statute 394.910-394.930 and commonly called the "Jimmy Ryce Act", I would like to take this opportunity to enlighten you with the myths and facts about this whole Involuntary Civil Commitment farce. Even more importantly, make you aware of how you, the tax payer, have become victimized yourself by the very politicians who so cleverly convinced you that they have made your communities safer in passing this senseless law. A law that does nothing more than feed itself on millions of dollars of tax monies and permits private corporations outside the State of Florida to continue to make millions of dollars more for themselves. This is not only a white-collar crime, but it is also organized crime at it's best.
The Florida Legislators select wording in Special Sessions made it absolutely clear that it's intent was to target the "small but extremely dangerous number of sex offenders" who would be released from our state prison system. Ones who would fall under the criteria established to meet the unique distinction of being deemed violent sexual predators are more specifically, the few who would continue to pose a threat to the community. The legislators gave this mission to Florida's controversial Department of Children and Families and they have exploited the law’s objectives by subjecting anyone convicted of a sexual related crime. In truth, this Law has targeted any male offender convicted of any type of sex crime. Isn’t it interesting to note that there are no Civil Commitment facilities for any female offenders! Ironically, history has an uncanny way of repeating itself, or even reversing itself, for that matter. I personally cannot help but compare this to the New England Witch-Hunts in the 1600's.
There's no question that the public has been hoodwinked to believe that the Florida Civil Commitment Center is a Mental Health Facility which detains only the worst of the worst violent sexual predators for long term care and treatment and not a prison. In fact, the Florida Civil Commitment Center is the former Desoto Correctional work camp located in Arcadia, Florida, adjacent to the Desoto Correctional Institution. Detainees are confined more than they would be in the very prisons that they were released from. Another unbelievable fact is that there is a noticeable percentage of the 350 detainees warehoused here who have not been convicted of violent sexual offenses in this state. For example, let's say that John Doe was convicted of a sex crime in the State of New York in 1976. But, in 1997, he was arrested and convicted of a burglary in the State of Florida. The sex offense in New York would appear on his record and he would be subjected to Florida's Violent Sexual Predator scheme. There are also detainees who have been charged with crimes that were not sexually related. Yet the State alleges that their crime was sexually motivated. That is enough to snare a detainee in the net.
Now the Department of Children and Families sends two of their contracted psychologists to conduct a battery of tests and interviews with the subject with the specific intent of diagnosing them with some type of personality disorder or mental abnormality. It is all based on the laws of probability because, by administering various tests, they are merely predicting the probability of the subject re-offending sometime in the future. Forget about the actual sex offense now. Your past criminal behaviors, perhaps even the way you chose to answer the outrageous questions they ask, is enough for them to recommend to the State Attorney's office (that your criminal conviction originated out of, no less!) to file a Petition for your Involuntary Civil Commitment. At this point in the scheme, this is merely probable cause to hold you under the Jimmy Ryce Act. Because of the fact that most defense attorneys realize that you only get one bite at this apple, they always encourage their clients to waive the thirty-day speedy trial demand. What most of these clients do not realize, however, is the fact that these Civil Trials are delayed in most cases up to three years. Those who do finally go to trial and have the misfortune of their jury returning a verdict finding that they are violent sexual predators that pose a threat to the community are committed to long-term care in the Florida Civil Commitment Center or to a worst fate - a secure facility.
With over 350 detainees being held under the false pretenses of long-term care and treatment, the Department of Children and Families only provides treatment for 140 of those detainees at any one time. Even more newsworthy is the fact that there is no completion stage of this treatment plan. Additionally, the Clinical team staff are not qualified sexual therapists but are only vocational instructors, drug /alcohol counselors and social workers. In recent legal proceedings against the Florida Civil Commitment Center, Executive Director Dr. Robert Briody, Chief Clinical Director, Dr. Lipscomb, and Clinical Specialist, Dr. Coley, all admitted under oath in the Desoto County Circuit Court that they were not even licensed to practice in the State of Florida.
Liberty Behavioral Health Care Corporation runs the Florida Civil Commitment Center as a subcontractor for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Liberty Health Care is based in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A recent records check with the Florida Bureau of Medical Health Administration (AHCA) revealed an interesting fact that needs to be investigated. According to Jeffrey N. Gregg, Chief Facility Regulation Department, Liberty Behavioral Health Care Corporation is not even licensed in the State of Florida to operate any mental health or treatment facility. Yet, Mr. Gregg went further to state that a more thorough records check with the Department of State Division of Corporate filings revealed Liberty Behavioral Health Care Corporation did not have a corporate license in the State of Florida and that their application for the license was rejected. Therefore, the sentiment that the Florida Civil Commitment Center is a safe and secure treatment facility that is operated as a professional Mental Health Facility could not be further from the truth.
In the same recent court proceedings mentioned earlier, Chief Judge Vincent Hall of the Desoto County Court ruled in favor of the detainee plaintiffs concerning conditions at the facility. Justice Hall's scathing memorandum of Law concluded that there are no existing administrative rules that have been implemented for operating a safe, secure treatment center. Despite that judgment, the administration continues to ignore that ruling and goes on to subject its detainees to deplorable conditions. Especially the ones in the secure management unit that is reserved for those residents who have been deemed disruptive to the operation of the facility. Detainees are held there without any due process whatsoever. The lack of existing rules has allowed the following practices to go unchecked:
-
Frequent searches of detainees’ personal property with disregard to the same. These searches have no remedial purpose other than to harass individuals and invade their privacy. Property confiscated is routinely lost and unaccounted for.
Security staff, most of whom need not even have a high school diploma to be hired, have a history of using excessive force with impunity, especially when a detainee is handcuffed and his feet are shackled. There have also been cases where, to cover up such attacks, residents have been charged criminally with assaulting a staff member instead. A case worth mentioning involves this writer, detainee James Pesci. For additional facts and information, please see State of Florida Vs. James Pesci, Desoto County Courthouse, Clerk's case number 142002CF000521. Agency # C02-07-0630.
On several occasions, security staff have electronically opened other detainees' doors for other rogue detainees to burglarize rooms not belonging to them. Proper investigations are not conducted and staff members responsible are not held accountable or dealt with.
Detainees who have
outside family and/or friends visit them are cruelly treated by staff. There
have been cases where family members of a detainee have come from out of State
to visit with a detainee, only to be refused entry because the family member
did not realize that they had to be on an approved visitation list. Sometimes
staff talk disrespectfully to outside visitors. If the visitor or detainee
complains about these incidents, they are subjected to having their visit
refused or terminated.
Facility staff will pit detainees against one another. For example, they will search detainees living area and tell the targeted detainee that another detainee provided information to justify the search for contraband. Thus, creating a potentially explosive situation that endangers the lives of other residents.
The Facility has frequently delayed, opened and copied detainees’ personal correspondence, including certified mail and confidential attorney/client communications, without the consent or knowledge of the detainee.
Meals served to detainees do not meet nutritional health standards. Portions are less than those provided in other State Correctional Facilities. There are broken lights in the dining areas, which are unsanitary and infested with insects.
The inadequacy and lack of proper health care is alarmingly high. In the last six months, three detainees died from lack of proper medical attention and delayed treatment. Nurses are known to accidentally provide a detainee with the wrong or someone else's medications. When medical emergencies arise, the response time in some cases is delayed anywhere from a half-hour to forty-five minutes. Furthermore, when detainees are transported to outside specialists, the prescriptions and treatment recommendations of these specialists are ignored or modified.
Telephone use is restricted to collect calls at an incredibly stiff rate. The Florida Civil Commitment Center does not attempt to negotiate better pricing for the collect calls because they receive a kickback from current telephone suppliers. Both the detainee and those he calls feel victimized by this policy. It has been documented that Florida Civil Commitment Center received twenty-three thousand dollars this year alone through this kickback program.
The secure management unit is so barbaric that a local judge hearing Emergency Habeas Corpus Petitions of the detainees ruled that the lack of due process and conditions violated their Constitutional Rights. A supervisor can order any detainee placed in a secure management cell for the smallest of infractions. These cells are filthy and never cleaned and the staff rarely does the required fifteen-minute security checks once a detainee is place in one of these cells. One detainee, who attempted suicide in one of these cells, splattered his HIV infected blood over the walls and it remains there to this day. Despite this harsh ruling by the local judge in question, conditions remain unchanged.
Despite the above ruling, newer Habeas Corpus Petitions filed by other residents in this same secure confinement wing have been rejected by the same court because "Petitioners have not exhausted their administrative remedies." However, another judge in the same court found that no administrative rules or remedies currently exist. Thus, these detainees have no procedure to follow to find a remedy for their complaints inside the facility nor a the judicial system that will listen to their complaints outside the facility.
Although the Clinical Teams are supposed to be fully functional in this so-called therapeutic community, the security staff dominates and controls the events that take place at the Florida Civil Commitment Center. It feels more like a corrections facility than a Mental Health Facility. This atmosphere breeds tensions that remain high and continue to escalate, creating a hostile living environment.
Since sex offenders are generally considered the lowest lot of criminals in the system and the average citizen has been told that their detainment in the Florida Civil Commitment Center is necessary, the Sexual Predator Law is perfectly acceptable and the abuses of the system are easily ignored. I believe that those who harbor these sentiments should then demand that sex offenders be given much longer prison terms, not indeterminate stays in the Florida Civil Commitment Center. There is no dispute in my mind that the Jimmy Ryce Act has become a hate crime aimed at sex offenders who have already served the sentences mandated by the current laws. It is interesting to note some comments made by some of our more respected Supreme Court Justices in their dissenting opinions on this issue. Justice Pariente said it best in disagreeing with such a law in a recent Supreme Court decision when she stated, in part:
|
"Let there be no mistake, I deplore the criminal acts committed, however, no matter how reprehensible an individual's past criminal behavior has been, this country prides itself on placing Constitutional restrictions on the government before that individual's Liberty may be completely restrained." |
Even more interestingly and to the point, Chief Justice Zlaket pondered the very same question and made his intellectually charged dissent when he addressed the Sexual Predator Law on the books in Florida:
|
"I cannot help but wonder where this novel approach to crime, punishment and public safety will lead us. How can we be sure the legislature will continue to view only sexual offenders as a special unique class of criminals? If prosecutors are able to find mental health professionals willing to testify that people who commit repetitious assaults of a non-sexual nature have a mental abnormality predisposing them to such violent behavior, will the legislature pass laws to keep them incarcerated beyond their criminal sentence by device of civil commitment? What are the limits of this "end run" around the normal criminal justice process?" |
Even the Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court Quince States:
"The most significant problem is the fact that persons have paid their debts to society by completion of the sentences imposed for their criminal activity now face "indefinite" detentions for those same crimes, all in the guise of helping society by giving the defendants treatment for their sexual deviant behavior. If our true goal is to change the behavior of the defendants so that they can be safely returned to our communities, then we should begin this process in a more timely fashion.... Some of these defendants are incarcerated for years. It would therefore seem more appropriate and of greater value, even increasing the chances of treatment, to make the determination of a defendant's status as a sexual predator at a time soon after defendant's incarceration begins. If, in fact, treatment is available, that treatment should begin while defendants are serving their sentences instead of waiting until defendants complete the punishment that we have imposed. Such a scheme as this would go a long way in eliminating Due Process problems that are inherent in the present Jimmy Ryce Act"
Regretfully, our Supreme Court Justices cannot change the current laws, only interpret them under existing legislation. Granted, the phrase "Violent Sexual Predator" is enough to instill fear in our hearts and hope that not a single one lurks in our neighborhoods. However, let us look at the reality and not the illusion that has been created. More importantly, now that you have a more accurate understanding about the Jimmy Ryce Act and what's really happening inside the Florida Civil Commitment Center, I vehemently implore you to take the appropriate action or at least investigate these facts even further. In summary, the Florida Civil Commitment Center is simply a waste of tax dollars. You do the math. Calculate the millions of dollars it costs to operate Florida Civil Commitment Center. Then compare it to the millions of dollars that have been slashed from programs such as children's education, senior citizens health care and even law enforcement - not to mention the many other programs suffering from the lack of funding in the State of Florida.
Unlike the limited authority of Supreme Court Justices, it's citizens like you together with the family and friends of those victimized by the Jimmy Ryce Act, who can make the difference. In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this article. I would also like to encourage you to contact Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida State Senators demanding the attention it requires.
I have not reported details that are of a much more sensitive nature, such as the rapid turnover rate of employees; the large portion of female employees who have filed sexual harassment charges against high-ranking Florida Civil Commitment Center officials. Nor have I reported on the lapse of security taking place every day, staff corruption and drug dealing, residents having sexual relationships with staff members (both male and female!), official cover-ups, sexual and physical assaults upon residents that are ignored or, in some cases, condoned. The list of abuses continues monthly.
