As of August 30, 2011 has the Volusia County jail received it's annual jail inspection as is required by Florida Statutes and Florida Model Jail Standards?
If not, does this put VCDC and / or the Florida Model Jail Standards inspection process in a negative light?
Updated September 5, 2011
"Behavior which appears superficially correct but is intrinsically corrupt always irritates those who see below the surface." James Bryant Conant
In late 1996, Florida decided to allow the Florida Sheriff Association to take over the inspections of Florida jails. Prior to 1996, the Office of the State Prison Inspector had the responsibility to conduct the semi-annual inspections of all Florida jails.
VolusiaExposed.Com holds the opinion that allowing the Florida Sheriff Association to self inspect their own jails is a serious conflict of interest that has put public safety at risk. We detail concerns for pubic safety within the below web link - we invite you to review our concerns.
Recently, it has come to our attention that the Florida Sheriff Association has failed to even maintain FMJS standards by not inspecting at least one Florida jail on an annual basis (Volusia County) (note under the pre-1996 system jails were inspected semi-annually).
We requested from Marion County Sheriff's office (Lydia Hightower) the latest FMJS inspections for the Volusia, Dixie and Brevard County jails (special note - MCSO is the care taker of FMJS records).
Within Lydia Hightower's reply email to us, she notes that the Volusia and Brevard jails has not as of yet (August 29, 2011) received their 2011 inspection, therefore she sent us their 2010 inspections.
A review of the Volusia County 2010 inspection report indicates that it was last inspected on June 4, 2010. Therefore, it would appear that the Volusia County jail has not been inspected for nearly fifteen (15) months.
Doesn't Florida Model Jail Standard 2.04 require the jails be inspected "annually"?
(2.04) The Officer-in-Charge shall contract or arrange for a FMJS Certified
Inspector(s) for the purpose of inspecting all county and municipal detention
facilities. The FMJS Inspector(s) shall inspect for compliance with all applicable
Florida Model Jail Standards. At a minimum, one complete FMJS Facility
Inspection shall be conducted annually. The FMJS Facility Inspection process
shall consist of two separate components: (a) Correctional Operations, and (b)
Medical Compliance. The criteria for each type of inspection are listed below: Click here -- 2011 Edition of the Florida Model Jail Standards
VolusiaExposed.Com sought out some guidance on whether the Volusia County jail was indeed out of FMJS regulations by not having their jail re-inspected within the apparent 12 month requirement. Our email was forwarded to MCSO Lt. Owens. Lt. Owens has advised us that FMJS allows for an inspection every "calendar" year - therefore, the Volusia County jail would be in compliance with FMJS if it receives it's annual inspection prior to December 31, 2011 (18 months since it's last inspection of June 2010). Please see Lt. Owens email response.
Based on Lt. Owens response, we reviewed the 2011 edition of the FMJS and found only one usage of the term "calendar" (FMJS 11.02), which mandates fire evacuation drills once every calender quarter.
(11.02) Fire exit drills and emergency evacuation drills shall be held with
sufficient frequency to familiarize correctional personnel with proper
procedures. Such drills shall be conducted for each shift of personnel, each
calendar quarter. The actual movement of inmates to holding areas outside the
building is not required. The drills shall be recorded and records shall be
maintained in the facility.
Further, we noted - FMJS 19.03(c) that requires a bi-annual review of all FMJ standards.
(19.03) Committee Procedures:
(c) The Committee shall, at a minimum, conduct biannual reviews of all
existing standards.
We were left wondering if an annual inspection schedule can go over twelve (12) months - How far over schedule (six months) can a review of the FMJS standards go?
In theory, given Lt. Owens' qualifications of his understanding of FMJS, a jail could be inspected on January 1, 2012 and not be re-inspected again until December 31, 2013 (over 23 months later) and still be in compliance with the annual inspection requirements of FMJS 2.04.
Lt. Owens was kind enough to state that on the surface a twenty three month lapse between inspections was possible, but that he has never seen it.
Prior to the Florida Sheriff Association taking over jail inspection responsibilities (1996), each and every Florida jail was inspected on a bi-annual (6 month) basis (FAC 33.8 regulations). Under currently FMJS regulations, it is possible for a jail to go almost two (2) years between inspections.
Also of significance is the apparent failure of the FMJS to maintain a consistent inspection process. An example of this can be observed by compraring the Volusia County and Brevard County inspections. The Volusia County inspection is far more detailed and better supported with documentation. The Volusia County inspection was also conducted by a well staffed team of 8-10 members. While Brevard County inspection was conducted by a team of two members.
Both Volusia and Brevard have rather large jails - however, both counties were completely inspected in one day. Obviously, such could bring into question the quality and validity of the FMJS inspection process. How can two inspectors (Brevard) accomplish the same level of inspection in the same amount of time (one day) as ten inspectors accomplished inspecting Volusia County? The answer is very simple, they can not - and such is evidenced by the comparison quality of their inspection reports.
Any credible inspection process should have at a minimum - consistent standards and a well establish consistent inspection process. While FMJS appears to maintain consistent standards, these standards have seriously reduced the requirements of the pre-1996 inspection process. Couple that with the above comparison between the Volusia and Brevard inspections, it suggests that the FMJS jail inspection process is seriously lacking.
While VolusiaExposed.Com extends kudos to the Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Sarasota, St. Lucie, Volusia inspection team for their professional approach, we still believe that that current FMJS process will never overcome the conflict of interest stigma attached to the Florida Sheriff Association supervision of the FMJS process.
It is of interest that in all three jail inspections (Dixie, Volusia and Brevard) none of the jails were found to have "serious" violations and only Volusia had two minor notable violations that were immediately corrected.
The Jail Director for Volusia County (Dr. Marilyn C. Ford) was contacted for comments in the preparation of this article, as of this date (September 1, 2011) she has not responded to our request for comments.
UPDATE - September 5, 2011
Initially, jail administrators refused to answer our question regarding when was the last FMJS inspection completed on the Volusia County jail. However, after reminding them of the importance of transparency in the jail inspection process - Assistant Corrections Director Neel sent us the below email response.
VolusiaExposed.Com is left wondering why the FMJS / Florida Sheriff Association would advise us that Volusia County had not received it's 2011 inspection? Is this just another example of the poor record keeping of the Florida Sheriff Association regarding the FMJS inspection process?