RESPONSE
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LIEUTENANT'S WIFE TO DEAD PRISONER'S WIFE
"I'm so sorry - but not surprised!"
Friday, March 15, 2002 6:13 AM
Wanda, [ wandavaldes@webtv.net]I am not surprised at the State's position on another trial of the Officers.
I agree that it would be a miracle for any type of conviction in this matter. Miracles happen every day though. I can't say how I feel about this one way or another. I will say that I am very sorry that this is so devastating for you and your family.
The attitudes in this county and even surrounding counties about Frank are very mixed. However, people just don't believe that conditions inside Florida's prisons are that bad. Taking the testimony from convicted felons is very hard for the public to do. It makes people feel uneasy about how they feel on crime and punishment.
Innocent people inside prisons is a very real fact. Some are convicted of crimes at a much higher level than the crime that was actually committed.
The drug war IS an excuse for the prison population booming. Where I work, most are incarcerated on small drug charges which got them a year and a day inside prison. I over hear their stories as they talk among themselves. I sometimes wonder what the hell is going on.
I don't see it getting any better. This is my opinion, but until some of these people who are dead set for stiff punishment for anything are affected by this personally, it does not matter to them who is sent into our prison system.
Florida State Prison. I have visited it once. I know a lot of officers who work there. All the way from CO 's to the Colonel. Can't say that I dislike any of these people or think they are stupid in any way. However, I do not work there and therefore, I do not know what type of work ethics they possess.
Mostly, I "hang" with Union Correctional, New River and Lawtey personnel. Don't see much bad come from there either. Inmates sometimes do need to be gassed. I cannot say whether or not it is true that Officers just gas inmates for the hell of it. I've never been in that position. My husband has come home with gas all over him.
I just hate that.We do not discuss the prison much in our home. I have my work and he has his. The difference in rank also makes our jobs very different. Being a Lieutenant is a whole different world than being a CO I.
I worked at UCI for several years. It is a creepy place. I did not enjoy working there. Not because of any misconduct from staff to inmates, but because it is so huge and it houses the worst of the worst. I am the type of person who needs to see these guys E.O.S. and get on with their lives. At least I see positive things at Lawtey.
In my opinion, it is not as depressing.Just as your people dislike Jeb Bush and Michael "God" Moore, so do the majority of Correctional Officers. We agree on this issue. He (they) have done a real bad job all around for this state. Don't know if we'll be able to get rid of him, but much effort is going to be put into the cause.
Sorry things are not going too well for you. I hate car problems. Your right, as hard as it is to think positive about our lives, it may be the only thing that we can use to go on living and believing that things will get better. Money is always an issue at our house. Although I don't have the problems you have, I still have money issues to deal with. GOD sure can test us.
I will continue to pray for you and your feelings. I just want you to know that whatever happens about these other officers, I hope you will be able to continue to fight and make something positive happen. Not quite sure what that could be, but I am sure GOD knows. Until later, good luck and keep the faith.
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RESPONSE
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Saturday, March 16, 2002 5:59 PM
Your letter to Ms Valdes was placed on the net, with a request that someone respond to your note. I am taking that opportunity.
Perhaps because I am not from Florida, I have a jaundiced view, having visited FSP and UCI once each to see a condemned prisoner.
I have visited Angola, several prisons in North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, both as on a defense team and prosecution team (as medical examiner). I offer these personal comments, purely subjective based on my own observations, and interviews with prisoners.
1. Different prisons in the same state and in different states have different stress levels. All have "bad" inmates or trouble makers, but most inmates want to do their own time. Most inmates are compliant to reasonable rules, and not so reasonable rules.
2. Regardless of outward appearances, there is always a security problem, but it is handled differently and with different success in each jurisdiction. Cell extractions and gassing is used with different frequency in different states, more common in Florida than in North Carolina. I remember walking through the yard with the Warden at Central Prison Raleigh several years ago, without a guard, and with an air of complete calm, although many prisoners were walking freely about. At that time discipline was not a major problem, as it seems to be in Florida Prisons.
3. There is no doubt in my mind that some guards are too quick to use physical force or pepper spray on prisoners, often to settle personal grudges. The physical evidence cannot be hidden, and if too many inmates are gassed or beaten by certain guards, it is time to wonder.
4. What happened to Frank Valdes was taking this physical force thing to an extreme. Frank was murdered, pure and simple. This is physical reality. Whether seven, five or nine guards were involved makes no difference under a felony murder rule. That those involved are so cavalier about murder indicates to me and others that the beatings gassings and other abuse is not an isolated incident, and as a correctional officer working with guards willing and able to kill so casually puts you at risk.
The type of injuries inflicted on Frank Valdes cannot be self inflicted, and the lame cover-up was successful only because of venue. This will continue until those responsible are held accountable.
5. Some correction officers have had enough and have resigned in frustration, telling all about some sadistic CO in their midst.
The conditions described by the inmates, even if exaggerated, as some are no doubt, speak of barbaric conditions and undeserved punishments, far out of proportion to the same in other states.
It is claimed that in a three year period, there were over 1000 incidences of the use of pepper spray in Florida, compared to 3 in Georgia! If this statement is accurate, what does that mean -- that Georgia COs are pansies, that Florida inmates are harder to control, that the COs are meaner in Florida, or any other reason imaginable? Does it not make you wonder?
6. Corrections are set up to punish the offender. That does not mean that some head honcho wakes up every morning thinking "how can I make life more miserable today for my convicts than yesterday?" Not only would that be counterproductive. but would prompt the convict to think the same way.
7. Frank Valdes was a condemned prisoner, convicted in complicity in the murder of a deputy sheriff with kin in Starke and Raiford. His fall partner, William Van Polk, also sentenced to death, was spirited out of state, and is now safely housed on Virginia's death row. No matter what you feel about the death penalty, those on death row are in state custody until such time as the state chooses to execute their sentence. In order for the death penalty to pretend to be effective, the condemned must be put to death by the state according to the law, which at the time of Frank's conviction was by electrocution, not by being stomped by a gaggle of guards. His appeals had not yet run out, and there was a possibility -- however slim -- that his conviction, like about 7 out of 10 in Florida would be reversed.
That is now moot, but if it was, it would make his murder that more heinous.
No, there are skeletons lurking in the Florida Prison System, and even a well meaning guard has to be aware. Then it becomes a question of personal conscience.
G M Larkin MD
[mailto:nc15960@pol.net]