Satta Sarmah
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 17, 2009
Channel-surfing behind bars is about to get more expensive.
Florida is poised to spend about $100,000 in tax money to upgrade 1,500 prison televisions so they'll work Feb. 17, when the nation switches from analog to digital broadcasts.
The expenditure -- a fraction of the Florida Department of Corrections' nearly $2.3 billion budget -- comes as education, social and health programs are being squeezed because of Florida's budget woes.
But corrections officials said the six-figure upgrade is justifiable because TV keeps inmates busy and helps ensure the safety of officers and guards.
"The department has so few tools available at their disposal to control inmates. Our inmate populations are bulging at the seams. With the cuts in personnel, the ratios are high," said state Sen. Victor Crist, R- Tampa, chairman of the committee that oversees prison budgets.
But others say Florida can't afford digital TV for inmates when it faces a $4 billion budget shortfall.
"Get rid of the 1,500 televisions. Give them a book," said Curtis Holmes, president of Taxpayers Association Inc., in Largo. "This is budget-cutting time. They cut hundreds of millions on education, but they want to put money in the prison system so that the prisoners get televisions."
The government is helping families with the cost of the switch to digital by providing $40 coupons for converter boxes. But jails and prisons can't get them.
Robert Weissert, director of communications for Florida TaxWatch, said the federal government should empty its pockets, not Florida taxpayers.
"It's an example of another unfunded mandate from the federal government that puts pressures on the taxpayers in the state of Florida," Weissert said.
The Department of Corrections will have to purchase converters, priced at $40 to $70 each, for the upgrade.
It estimates that it will cost less than $1 per inmate to provide digital television to more than 100,000 inmates throughout the state, said Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a DOC spokeswoman.
The state plans to pay for the upgrade by using money from the same budget used to pay for schools, roads and hospitals. That budget gets revenue from inmate commissary sales, so prisoners are indirectly footing the bill for the upgrade, officials said when justifying the $100,000 expenditure.
The Orange County Jail will use money from its commissary -- which relies on sales of recreational and food items to 4,100 inmates -- to upgrade 127 televisions, jail spokesman Allen Moore said.
The bill for the upgrade is nearly $9,500, but inmates won't be tuning in to shows on ESPN, MTV or Bravo. The local jails and the state prisons don't have cable access, so inmates aren't spending their days flipping channels, Moore said.
"The TVs are controlled by each housing area's correctional officer," he said. "It is a privilege that can be taken away or granted."
The hassle of converting to digital is minimal for other local jails.
The Lake County Jail is using money from its commissary to buy one converter, which it will connect to a rooftop antenna for access to its 22 televisions, said Maj. David Mass, the jail's administrator.
The Osceola County Jail isn't converting to digital -- its 1,120 inmates already have satellite television with limited channels.
The Seminole County Jail isn't spending a dime for the conversion. That's because the jail doesn't have any televisions. Lt. James Clark, a spokesman for the Seminole County Jail, said it got rid of televisions in 1995 because inmates argued about which channels to watch.
"We don't want jail to be a fun place to be. We certainly don't want them to kick their feet up," Clark said.
Rackleff said the televisions in the state's prisons aren't used for recreational purposes.
"It's necessary for the department to purchase these converters to keep the televisions in working order and to further the goals of security, orderly institutional operation and inmate rehabilitation," Rackleff said. "Eighty-eight percent of these inmates will be returning to society, and it is important for them to stay in touch with the outside world."
Satta Sarmah can be reached at ssarmah@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5359.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
The Innocence Project of Florida's website only shows a small part of Florida's problem with wrongful convictions. Three have walked free from Brevard County alone, Juan Ramos in '87, Wilton Dedge in '04 and Bill Dillon in '08. All were convicted using the same crime scene dog handler's testimony -- the handler's crendentials were invented, and his wild claims of being able to follow months old trails and find submerged evidence wer discredited by Geraldo Rivera on ABC's "20/20" in 1984. The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that the dog handler testified in at least 60 (sixty) Brevard felony cases. The very least we can do is buy digital converters so those scores of innocents can continue to have hope that someday they'll be the one on the six o'clock news, finally out from under the dog handler and the prosecutors and officers that fed him information to lie on the stand.
What is the state trying to do? Make it harder to "live" w/in the prison system. How does the commissary get away with GOUGING the prices of the food that the inmates get to purchase from the money their family sends them.
Sounds like there is decention among the ranks and the commissary is being run ONCE AGAIN by shifty personnel...Where's Crist in all of this? Does he care what is going on within his state or is he still playing newly wed while the state of his state's affairs goes to the dogs? Let's see if this goes unanswered!!
An irate parent
Post a Comment