IN DEFENSE OF THE SYSTEM

From: Higdon

Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 11:07 PM

Subject: Inmates getting the "Snot" beat out of them after the ACI incident

To whom it may concern,

I find it amusing that the majority of your web site attacks the professional men and women who protect you and the rest of the public from the criminal element of this state who are confined in the Florida Department of Corrections. As for the statement made concerning the inmates involved in the incident at ACI having the "Snot" beaten out of them in FSP's Q Wing, let me assure you, they are quite safe. To let you in on a little secret, they suffered not a moment of discomfort as they were processed under the watchful eye of our static and portable electronic camera systems.

I would hope that in your quest to assasinate the character of the Florida Department of Corrections, that you remember that these men and women who walk a path every shift which you are sheltered from are held to the highest standard. We, like many other state agencies, have our problems and deal with them when they arise. The Florida DOC is a proud organization with some of the finest people you will ever meet in your lifetime, willing to do a job which at any moment, could turn South and result in their serious injury or death. I would like to see you walk an hour in our boots.

These inmates that you lament over are treated according to how they act. We must maintain security and control not only for our safety, but also yours. We have strict rules and policy which dictate our response and we are watched by cameras which assist the department in proving that the inmate is not abused. So I hope you realize that your inmate population which you put up on a pedistal is well protected.

Next time an incident happens, instead of pointing your finger in the direction of the DOC and screaming "Fowl!", find out what the inmate did to facilitate our response. Your quest to smear the DOC in the name of Allen Clark is pathetic. If Mr. Clark is guilty of any crimes then he will be judged by the Florida legal system. I have come to the conclusion by viewing most of your web site that yourseld and Miss Valdez are on a quest to do just that.

And for Miss Valdez, inmate Frank Valdez murdered an officer in the line of duty in cold blood with no remorse. Where is your remorse for the slain officer? I thought so.

Sgt. W. Higdon, Florida State Prison

MY RESPONSE

Oh dear, Sgt Higdon. You misjudge me, misname my 'quest' and you've totally missed the basic concept of MTWT. I don't find any of this 'amusing'.

The inmates are not the motivation for this project. The prison workers and administrators are only indirect motivation. The goal is not to give an inmate a cushy spot nor to praise or criticize officers who do or don't deserve it.

The goal of MTWT is to provide real and lasting safety for the public in the form of the improved actions of the people who have spent time in prison. Therefore the focus is on everything that has an influence on the inmate from the time he arrives to the time he departs.

First, I'm not the one who writes all the items and articles on MTWT. I am simply the amplifier, a place to collect the reports so that the public can make up it's own mind if they are getting the best their money can buy. I've always invited both sides to present their case. Most don't.

Secondly, I never 'attack' professionals. As I state in many places, I have nothing but the utmost respect for people who do this admittedly difficult job in a professional manner. It's what the Gold Stars are about.

But I have no tolerance for those who use the job for personal gain or power trips or who fail to follow the rules of the institution, the statutes of the department, or state and federal laws.

I realize it is no one person's fault that the job of reforming individuals isn't being done properly. We've made too many laws that label too many people as 'criminal'. We push them through the system: Most are guilty of something, but cops lie, lawyers fail to do their jobs, clerks make mistakes, courts render bad decisions and everybody, deserving or not, ends up in the care and custody of departments that have had to lower their hiring standards just to get enough employees to take care of it all. Then the real mess begins.

When I first began, I really thought most officers were professional with just a few bad apples sprinkled here and there that we could easily get rid of. After all, a bad employee puts other workers at greater risk, so I figured we would all agree on what kind of people shouldn't be working in a prison. That's just not been the case. The wall of silence has been allowed to thrive and criminals in uniform are being protected by the entire system even as they make the job harder for every professional around them.

As the project progresses I sadly discover that a much larger number of prison workers are not professional and a great many of them are downright criminal. I still salute the professional, but then, your idea and my idea of 'professional' may not be the same.

As for the safety you afford us, that's too debatable to be a good post to lean on. What the system does nowadays is warehouse prisoners for a designated period of time, unproductively long in many cases, providing little to nothing in the way of education or rehabilitation. Seriously, with the recidivism rates above 65%, it is obvious the prisons of today are not doing the job they were intended to do. They really don't provide public safety, but merely postpone and in many cases, aggravate the danger.

It isn't right to claim more credit than is deserved. The prison system is NOT protecting the public. The department is not providing anything but a temporary illusion of 'safety', for which we pay dearly when people inside return more damaged than when they went in. I don't know if you've been keeping track, but prisoners are coming out with post trauma the most common problem, but also carrying TB and Hep C and MRSA and any number of other communicable diseases that spread to the community.

Before they went in, they knew they were the criminal element, but once they are exposed to unprofessional and unethical officers for years, they come away believing that the 'good guys' are just as bad as the bad guys. Do you really think that makes the family I love any safer? No, the failures of the system and the people who work it have put us all in greater danger.

I have remorse for all victims, and the people who turned them into victims should own their responsibility, even if they are prison workers! The law is still the law, and the law doesn't give guards the right to kill prisoners no matter what they've done. To think killers should be forgiven because their victims were killers is not an impressive argument for the Valdes murderers. If that argument were valid, why didn't Big Red, Little Jason Griffith and the rest of them just go into court with that defense?

Just to let you know. 99% of all the information about Allen "AC" Clark onsite was given to me by his staff. But I've noticed that everyone who talks about errant workers are called liars except errant workers.

Looking Forward,

Kay Lee

PS. When I put this onsite, do you prefer that I do or do not use your name and/or email? Without a response I will use your name but not your email address.

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