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| Florida County Jail More Than Full, Sheriff Says |
| By Vero Beach Press-Journal |
| Published: 10/14/2002 |
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Crowding at the St. Lucie County jail has reached new proportions, and it's not likely the inmate population will taper off anytime soon, officials say. Since April, the facility on Rock Road has housed an average of more than 900 inmates a day well above its 768 capacity. Inmates are piled into already crowded cells, cots are arranged wherever there's space and employees are overburdened. The jail has the highest per capita rate of HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis in the state, Sheriff Ken Mascara has reported yet four jail nursing jobs have remained vacant for months. Prison Health Services, the company that provides inmate medical care, simply can't fill the jobs, said Naty Canales, health services administrator. Nurses at the jail start at $18 an hour, but they can make closer to $22 an hour in the private sector, salary surveys show. 'It's basically because they don't want to work for the money we offer them,' Canales said. 'Not only are the conditions tougher to work in at a jail, but they can make more money working somewhere outside.' Each shift, the two nurses on duty at the jail have to distribute medication to about 400 inmates. Because the jail's population has consistently topped 900, Prison Health Services based in Brentwood, Tenn. has raised its contract price by $230,000 for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The increase would include a pay raise for the jail's medical staff. Mascara last month asked the county to find the $230,000 in its budget, and the citizens' budget committee plans to consider the item at its Nov. 8 meeting. 'We didn't foresee that the jail population would sustain itself over 900 for such a long time,' Mascara told the budget committee at an Oct. 4 meeting. The jail is funded by money from the county's fine and forfeiture fund, which is made mostly of taxpayer dollars. County residents pay $4.62 per $1,000 of taxable property value for the fund, which also pays for the court system and other law-enforcement functions. Mascara said he recognized county residents himself included might be reluctant to have their tax money spent on the jail. 'I'm a taxpayer, and I'm a little resentful that my taxpayer dollars go to housing inmates, but it's a fact of life. We have to spend on public safety,' Mascara said. 'I wish I was an elected official that talked about parks and schools and recreation for everybody,' he said. 'But as a sheriff, I have to talk about keeping bad people in jail and keeping everyone safe.' Crowding at the jail has been a strain on health-care workers and law-enforcement officers and, ultimately, Mascara said the jail needs more space. 'It's a tough environment for the inmates. It's a tough environment for the people that work here,' Mascara said. He and Capt. Patricia Walsh, acting director of detention, have appealed to the county for two new pods clusters of jail cells to house about 240 more inmates. |
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