Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

According to Broward criminal lawyer William Moore, the corruption of prison guards has been a problem since modern prisons were developed (and probably before that -- it is not hard to imagine the keeper of the king’s prisoners accepting bribes in exchange for certain favors for the prisoner). Guards are individuals charged with difficult, stressful jobs who are paid relatively little for their services. They must maintain order in the prison among an unhappy group of people, most of whom have serious criminal history and many of whom may have affiliations with gangs, notes Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore.

Prison guards have access to the outside world and are the only people besides other prisoners that the inmates see and speak to on a daily basis. Some inmates have access to significant funds outside of the walls of the prison. Others have contacts -- other gang members, girlfriends or wives, friends, or others who have some motivation to help the detained person, says Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore. Sometimes, the inmates have a drug addiction they need to feed. Other times, they want drugs to numb the boredom and general experience of prison. Having outside contacts capable of introducing contraband into the prison may also bring with it a level of prestige within the inmate hierarchy.

Few prison guards ever accept money in exchange for bringing contraband -- drugs, cell phones, or other items -- into the prisons. However, a small number do. Last year, numerous former guards at Glade Correctional Institute were caught in a corruption probe directed by the FBI. Inmates had complained that the prison was corrupt and that it was possible to obtain anything with the assistance of guards. Six employees were charged by the state with conspiracy, introducing contraband into a prison, and bribery. Sixteen individuals, of whom 11 were prison guards, also pleaded guilty to federal cocaine charges related to a cocaine trafficking ring running from Miami to the Glades institution.

The Florida Department of Corrections is charged with managing the state’s penal system, says Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer William Moore. Statewide, there are 146 “prison facilities,” according to the DOC. Well over 80 percent are housed in the major institutions throughout the state. All together, there are 63 state prisons and over 100,000 inmates at any given time. Offenders who are awaiting trial or pre-trial release, or those who have been convicted and sentenced to less than one year in custody, are detained in local jails. The prison system only holds offenders who have been convicted and are sentenced to at least one year of confinement, says Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore.

Seven Florida prisons are operated by private companies who are contracted by the state. Interestingly, all of the private prisons are air-conditioned, while few of the others are. Of those who go to prison in Florida, about a third will return to a prison in this state within three years. Others may return at a later time, serve time in another state or in the federal system, only spend time in county jails, or they may steer clear of criminal troubles entirely, notes Broward criminal lawyer Moore.

Prisoners held in Florida do not have access to cable television. Most live in dorm-style housing, rather than in individual cells, and donated televisions serve approximately 75 inmates per TV. (Those held on death row generally have one 13 inch television per person.) The vast majority of inmates work in some capacity, whether it is on site in the kitchen or doing cleaning and laundry, or off site as part of a work crew. The work crews serve a variety of agencies, including the Departments of Transportation and Forestry, as well as non-profit organizations and local governments.

The most common criminal offenses for inmates are as follows:

1. Drug charges (sale/manufacture) -- 9.4%
2. Armed robbery -- 8.6%
3. Burglary of a dwelling -- 8.0%
4. Capital murder -- 6.5%
5. Trafficking in controlled substances -- 6.5
6. Lewd and lascivious behavior -- 4.4%
7. Second degree murder -- 4.4%
8. Robbery (no weapon) -- 3.7%
9. Aggravated battery -- 3.2%
10. Possession of drugs or other -- 3.0%

Just 7 percent of inmates in the state of Florida are women. Broward County sends the largest number of total inmates in the state at 8.4 percent, with Miami-Dade a close second at 8.2 percent.

Law enforcement officials arrested an area prison guard this week, charging him with bribery, conspiracy to introduce drugs into a correctional facility, and drug trafficking, Broward criminal lawyer William Moore has learned. Police say that 30-year-old prison guard Shamel Watson was apprehended during a sting in which he attempted to purchase or receive one pound of marijuana and four ounces of cocaine. They believe he intended to take the controlled substances to the Everglades Correctional Institute, which is located in western Miami-Dade County.

Watson is also believed to have planned to take two cell phones into the facility, which is also a crime. The spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections stated that, despite reports of prison guard misconduct, most contraband in the prison system is brought to inmates by visitors. Still, the Department has had its history of problems, says Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore. In May, 21 prison officials were fired, disciplined, or forced to resign after several children were stun gunned while visiting three corrections facilities on Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day.

Other problems have surfaced in the past few years, as well. James Crosby, the former head of the Department of Corrections, is now in prison after a 2005 conviction of his own for bribery. While he was in office, the Department suffered many arrests and firings for a variety of problems, including the misuse of inmate labor, drunken fights, theft, and a drug ring.

In this case, law enforcement officials had been tapping phones prior to the arrest. County officials set up a sting operation when he came to collect the drugs. Police apparently learned the details of the plan when an inmate described them in detail on a prison phone call, which was monitored by police. Watson was fired from his position immediately following the arrest.

Continue reading "Miramar Prison Guard Arrested for Drug Operation" »

The Florida Sun Sentinel recently followed a former Palm Beach County jail inmate on his first morning after being released. Gerry Lanz is originally from Venezuela, but is now a lawful permanent resident who calls south Florida home. He was released before 6:00 a.m. on October 9 with a few belongings, including a diamond earring and papers from his criminal lawyer. Lanz did not have transportation, since the guards ran out of the bus passes they distribute to departing inmates. Lanz had served five months in jail for stealing a motorcycle; it was his third conviction with jail time in a year and a half. Lanz has five kids, and says he is close to three of them, but has never met the other two. He went to school until he was 16, then dropped out of his local Palm Beach County high school. Since then, he has been in and out of the criminal justice system.

After getting out, Lanz walked to a friend’s house. To his bitter disappointment, the personal items he left with his friend – his cell phone, gold grill, clothing, and cash – were apparently stolen during the time Lanz was incarcerated. Frustrated and angry, Lanz moved on to his next friend’s home.

Lanz met up with Alyssa Fezatte, a long-time family friend. She was thrilled to see Lanz and he had a shot of vodka before she fixed him French toast for breakfast. Fezatte smoked with Lanz and asked if he planned to keep out of prison. Lanz indicated that, this time, he was serious about staying out and never returning. Lanz said he hoped to move to Galveston, Texas, in order to find work with a friend. Despite his family ties, Lanz believed remaining in the West Palm Beach area while unemployed and with a suspended driver’s license would lead him back on the path to crime.

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Two months later, the newspaper checked in with Lanz again. While he has not yet made it to Texas, he has found work as a mechanic. He lives with his friends near Lake Worth. After his string of 12 arrests in Palm Beach County in as many years, he is still trying to stay out of trouble. Palm Beach County jail records indicate that close to eighty percent of current inmates have served time in that jail previously. Lanz was arrested in the past for crimes relating to drug use, fleeing police, and driving offenses.

Continue reading "Broward Criminal Attorney: The Morning of Release From the Palm Beach County Jail" »

Police in Titusville, Florida arrested Dramoski S. Perkins, 26, around 1 am on Saturday morning. According to FloridaTorday.com, he man was walking down the middle of the road at Orange Street and Deleon Avenue when police officers patrolling the area on bicycles found him.

He did stop for the police but tried to run when they discovered crack cocaine on him. Officers chased him down, and he initially gave them another name. When the police checked with authorities in Georgia, they discovered that Perkins had a warrant from Doughtery County, Ga. and was released from a Georgia jail by mistake.

Perkins had been living on Grannis Avenue in Titusville but is now in the Brevard County Jail facing charges of murder, armed robbery, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Man Mistakenly Freed From Jail Arrested, Local6.com, August 10, 2008

Continue reading "Man Jailed in Florida After Being Mistakenly Freed " »

As of March, 2007, there were 90,679 inmates in the Florida prison system. 81.9% of those inmates are assigned some type of work or in a substance abuse program. The work can vary from working on farms, maintaining the prison grounds, recycling programs or in many different work programs provided by the State. Having the inmates perform different tasks has saved the Florida taxpayers more than $44.5 million through inmate labor.

In the State of Florida, there are no correctional facilities with cable television. The 33 prisons in Florida do have satellite dishes for the employees that work there so that they can view training programs simultaneously. It is interesting to note, that state law now prohibits the purchasing of televisions for inmate recreational purposes.

Over the last couple of years programs have been funded for Florida jails to provide playing cards to their inmates. These poker style playing cards are particularly interesting because each card depicts information on an individual cold case file. The brain child of Special Agent Tommy Ray out of Polk County, Florida, it was hoped that gossip about the cold cases on each card would lead to potential arrests. Early on into the pilot program, jailhouse talk from the playing cards resulted in a tip whereby two men were charged with a 2004 murder which had gone cold. As of today, Florida inmates have had access to two separate decks of cards which have information on them from 104 cold cases. While arrests have been made and cold cases reopened since the cards implementation sociologists are quick to criticize the program.

The cost of false leads could be staggering and may even lead to false convictions. Jack Levin, a Northeastern University sociologist and criminologist warns that in order to determine if the program is working law enforcement is going to have to put some fake cases in the decks to see how inmates respond to those.

For comments or questions about this article, contact the criminal defense attorneys in Fort Lauderdale at William Moore, P.A.