Better conditions at Leon County Jail
The current conditions at the Leon County Jail are inhumane and unacceptable. People inside the jail are members of our community: our children, parents, partners and friends. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. They deserve safety. After conversations with people currently incarcerated at the jail and their loved ones, TCAC is making the following demands of the Leon County Sheriff's Office:
1. Prioritize protecting incarcerated people from Covid-19. With a recent Covid-19 outbreak at the jail revealing that the Leon County Sheriff’s Office had completely stopped testing for Covid-19 (1), it is apparent that jail officials are not doing enough to keep people safe. People incarcerated in jails and prisons can not social distance and often lack adequate PPE to protect themselves. LCSO needs to immediately:
- Significantly reduce the jail population so that adequate public health measures can be put in place. LCSO worked with State Attorney Jack Campbell at the beginning of the pandemic to reduce the jail population by several hundred to allow for health measures like quarantine areas (2). The jail has since filled back up, and LCSO has released very little information about what measures are currently in place.
- Set up re-entry programs for all people who are released from LCDF to support their quarantine and safe return to the community.
- Provide clean, daily masks and adequate soap, sanitizer, disinfectant for all people incarcerated in and working at LCDF.
- Provide Covid-19 testing on demand as well as regular testing of staff.
- Release regular Covid-19 updates to the public and provide opportunities for the community to ask questions and share concerns.
2. Stop relying on 24/7 lockdowns and solitary confinement to contain the virus. We’re hearing from directly impacted people who are saying that since the latest outbreak, some pods are being kept in 24/7 lockdown with only a brief window to shower every few days. It is not uncommon for people to be put in solitary confinement for long stretches in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. This is having a detrimental effect on people’s mental health.
3. Stop charging for and restricting access to communications with family and loved ones. It is harmful to cut people off from their outside support systems. In-person visitation has been suspended since the beginning of the pandemic, leaving only expensive phone calls and low quality video calls as an alternative. This year, the jail stopped accepting physical letters from loved ones. Letters must now be mailed to Tampa to be scanned in by Securus, and incarcerated people only have access to letters when they are able to access the tablets. The tablets are often non-operational for days at a time leaving people completely unable to get in touch with their loved ones. What’s worse, it was recently reported that the jail will be permanently suspending in-person visitation in favor of these expensive video calls (3). This would have a devastating impact on the mental health of incarcerated people and their families.
4. Provide timely, regular and quality health care. Currently, people incarcerated at Leon County Jail are not able to access regular or adequate counseling services, which is an essential component of health care. 44% of people incarcerated in local jails have been diagnosed with a mental illness and 1 in 4 people will experience "serious psychological distress" in jails (4). Incarceration has long-lasting negative effects on mental health (5). Loved ones are saying that medical requests are going ignored. Corizon, the for-profit company responsible for health care at the jail, is not meeting the needs of those currently incarcerated at the Leon County Jail.
5. Quit the ban on books! People inside have not been allowed to receive books or any printed materials for the last two months while the policy is “under review.” Books sent to people there are being accepted by the jail and then not delivered. Incarcerated people should not have punitive or financial barriers to access to reading materials.
6. Fix broken lights. Some pods have been in the dark since before the pandemic started. The jail has since installed censors to conduct counts, but have still failed to fix the broken lights.
7. Provide better food. The food served in jails and prisons is notoriously low quality (6). People incarcerated at the Leon County Jail have been receiving nothing but cold, bagged meals while the kitchen is under renovation and are not receiving information about how long this will continue.
8. Stop exploiting incarcerated labor. People incarcerated at the Leon County jail should be paid fairly for their labor and treated with respect. In Florida, jobs related to the maintenance of the jail or prison are usually completely unpaid. A 2017 report found that, for paid jobs in facilities in Florida, the average wage an incarcerated person makes was a shockingly low $0.32 per hour (6); the highest monthly salary folks in Florida jails could make was $50 (7).
9. We’ve heard reports that another incarcerated person took their life recently, but this has not been announced by LCSO. Sheriff Walt McNeil must address this and provide more information.
Sources
(1). https://www.wctv.tv/2021/07/27/27-leon-county-inmates-test-positive-covid-19-jail-offers-vaccine-incentive/
(2). https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2020/03/20/coronavirus-lawmen-defer-arrests-some-cases-control-leon-county-jail-crowding/2872524001/
(3). https://www.wctv.tv/2021/07/16/leon-co-jail-transitioning-away-in-person-visits-families-upset-they-havent-seen-loved-ones/
(4). https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/imhprpji1112.pdf
(5). https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2021/05/13/mentalhealthimpacts/
(6). https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/12/prison-food-sickness-america/549179/
(7). https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/10/wages/
(8) https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/wage_policies.html
Letter Campaign by
_(2).png)
Tallahassee, Florida