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| Despite appeals, House advances modest prison reforms |
| By bradenton.com- Mary Ellen Klas |
| Published: 04/08/2015 |
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TALLAHASSEE -- Gemma Pena traveled from Hialeah to Tallahassee to plead with a House committee Tuesday to establish a prison system that is “less lethal to our mentally ill” and “holds prisons more accountable.” Her son, Kristopher Rodriguez, had been treated for mental illness for years when he was convicted of shooting someone during a drug deal. Now, housed in confinement at Lake Correctional Institution, he is “being allowed to make his own health decisions” and refuses to take his medications, his mother told the House Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee Tuesday. She said he is kept isolated, without a cellmate. Rather than rehabilitate him, she said sobbing, the prison has made him “gravely ill.” She urged the committee to abandon HB 7131, and embrace a more robust Senate proposal that imposes oversight over medical care of sick inmates and allows families like hers to conduct an independent assessment of an inmate’s health. Read More. |
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