Florida Corrections says its job is care, custody and control – but there’s no care

by Harold Bradshaw

National-Occupy-Day-in-Support-of-Prisoners-022012-art-by-Kevin-Rashid-Johnson-web-300x232, Florida Corrections says its job is care, custody and control – but there’s no care, Abolition Now!
“National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners, Feb. 20, 2012” – Art: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo TX 79107

Life in Florida prison cells is so like it is in other states. The police write bogus disciplinary reports, abuse inmates, then their brothers at Disciplinary Camps help to cover it up.

I am a white inmate in the Florida Department of Corrections. I was recently housed at Mayo Correctional Institution where I got involved in the police trying to set up a Black inmate who I consider my brother in the struggle.

They attempted to set him up with a cell phone, when I stepped into the cell and told the sergeant it didn’t have to be that way. He stated that’s what he gets paid for.

He reached for my friend’s hands and my buddy said no and knocked the phone out of the sergeant’s hand toward the cell door, where the officer went for it, knocking me to the floor with my hand on the bed. My friend was laying on the floor with his hands out not resisting at all, and the sergeant starts spraying him in the back of the head – and then he sprays him twice right in the eye. I put my head down facing the floor and then I get sprayed.

Life in Florida prison cells is so like it is in other states. The police write bogus disciplinary reports, abuse inmates, then their brothers at Disciplinary Camps help to cover it up.

We are shipped that same night to where we are currently being held. Upon being loaded in the transport van, the camera gets turned off like they are fixing to leave, but then the door opens and a lieutenant and two sergeants are there and the lieutenant gets in the van and commences to beat my buddy.

When he gets done, then one of the sergeants comes back to where I am and commences to beat me in the head, calling me a f–king cracker. He gets done and then the other sergeant goes back at my friend.

When they are done, they take us to where we are currently being housed in a single man cell, locked down except for showers three times a week. We’ve been outside in a little 2-foot by about 8 to 10-foot-long cage once since July 21. [This letter is dated Sept. 29, 2016.]

I filed an abuse grievance that got approved here and sent it to the Inspector General’s Office to investigate. I have yet to be taken to medical; no one came and examined my injuries. All I get out of these people is “Fill out a sick call”; that way they can charge.

I haven’t heard anything from the inspector’s office. I was informed that the complaint was sent right back to Mayo C.I. to investigate the allegations. I know that all that is going to happen is that they are going to cover it up, but that is what happens all throughout Florida.

They are all in it together because they can’t admit that they have this going on in their prisons because then they open themselves up for lawsuits.

I know that all that is going to happen is that they are going to cover it up, but that is what happens all throughout Florida.

Florida’s Department of Corrections has been doing this for years, but people are scared to speak out against the corruption. They know they can’t win. Even when you are dead to right, they go free.

Frank Valdes is a perfect example. [Valdes, a very popular prison leader, had been convicted for killing a guard years before and sent to death row, where, on July 17, 1999, nine guards entered his cell with tasers and killed him.] No one has been held accountable for his death.

He is just one of many. They are good about saying, “Oh, he committed suicide.” The sad thing is these are the people you elect to office and trust to care for your loved ones while they are serving their time for crimes they may or may not have committed.

Florida’s Department of Corrections has been doing this for years, but people are scared to speak out against the corruption. They know they can’t win. Even when you are dead to right, they go free.

To have them just turn a blind eye to abuse and worse that is going on is inappropriate and a total violation of the community’s trust. What happened to care, custody and control? There is no care.

I hope that when this is read it may shed some light on the corruption that is in the Florida Department of Corrections from the top to the bottom. Look especially at the highest spots; that’s where it counts.

Stay strong in the fight and stay together in the struggle. Don’t let these people cause division amongst us because it is going to take the effort of all of us. It’s not easy, but a diamond isn’t made in a day.

For we have to get change. What has been is not working. We are hurting our children and children’s children.

Don’t feel alone; it is here in Florida too. There’s just no one to voice it.

I will sign off with, “It can start with one but it’s going to take us all.” We need help in the Florida Department of Corrections. I have yet to find a newspaper like the Bay View here in Florida.

Humbly,

Harold Bradshaw

Send our brother some love and light: Harold Bradshaw, V-14019, Florida State Prison Q-2203. P.O. Box 800. Raiford FL 32083.