Lawmakers have again sidestepped a proposal to bring additional accountability to a Florida women's prison where a federal investigation revealed "notorious acts of sexual abuse, including rape, against prisoners."
Twin bills (SB 108, HB 391) that would have required guards to wear body cameras while on duty at Lowell Correctional Institute in Ocala died without a hearing during the 2024 Legislative Session.
It marked the second time the GOP-controlled Legislature ignored legislation that would have allowed for better monitoring of the prison. In 2021, after U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators released a damning report about the facility, Gainesville Democratic Rep. Yvonne Hinson and former Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo of Miami filed measures to address the issues.
This year, Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones joined Hinson in the cause.
The DOJ probe from 2018-2020 found Lowell repeatedly failed to prevent the rape and violent mistreatment of inmates, who remained at "substantial risk of serious harm because existing systems discourage prisoners from reporting, (detecting and effectively deterring) sexual abuse."
Those findings came five years after a Miami Herald investigation called attention to problems at Lowell, Florida's oldest and largest women's penitentiary. It made mention of a 2019 incident in which a lieutenant at the prison "accused repeatedly of sexually abusing multiple prisoners" allegedly slammed inmate Cheryl Weimar to the concrete floor and kicked her, leaving her paralyzed with a broken neck.
"In August 2020, (the Florida Department of Corrections) settled a lawsuit related to the prisoner's paralysis for $4.65 million," the report said.
"As part of that case, a former prisoner who recently had been released from Lowell testified under oath that this lieutenant threatened 'to put you under investigation and take your gain time' if you did not 'take care of him,' which the prisoner understood to mean 'oral or regular sex.'"
DOJ personnel wrote 22 times about how "inadequate" camera surveillance enabled the abusive guards and staff.
"We must be clear," Hinson said in a statement at the time. "These women had their constitutional rights violated. My office will continue to apply pressure and ensure that these women are protected and are treated with dignity."
Hinson and Jones' bills would have created a three-year pilot program under which Lowell correctional officers would have to wear body cams. The Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) would have had to establish policies and procedures for the cameras' "proper use, maintenance, and storage," including the storage of recordings.
A report from the DOC would have been due June 30, 2025.
"With the rise in incidents in our jails," Jones told Florida Politics in November, "it is only right that levels of accountability are put in place for the safety of those incarcerated and our correctional officers."
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