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| Budget Cuts Erode Fla. Prison Job Classes |
| By Palm Beach Post |
| Published: 07/30/2003 |
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Citing budget constraints, the Florida Department of Corrections dissolved 339 jail positions this month, including education and reintroduction instructors for inmates hoping to leave prison with job prospects. The action means that some classes, ranging from basic reading to computer technology, have been canceled. Meanwhile, the classes that remain will continue only with a bare-bones staff and larger-than-usual class sizes. The 339 officials who lost their jobs were offered open positions in the system, including some as prison officers, but it wasn't clear how many took the department up on its offer. The agency had to cut expenses after its budget was trimmed by $20.8 million for the budget year that began July 1, said Sterling Ivey, Department of Corrections spokesman. 'We've tried to minimize the impact on the programs as best we can, but we did know we would probably have to eliminate some,' Ivey said. The corrections system eliminated 33 academic teachers, many of whom led GED classes, and 40 vocational instructors, according to state records. About 52 positions also were dropped in the department's central office in Tallahassee. Among the programs eliminated as a result of eight lost positions at Homestead Correctional Institution and neighboring Dade Correctional Institution was an electronics course that Genevieve Hardwick was taking. Hardwick, serving eight years at Homestead for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and other charges, had taken GED classes and counted on the electronics course she was enrolled in to make a difference when she gets out in 2008. Hardwick said. 'A lot of people in here can't even read. I just needed insurance in my pocket for the day they let me out. Education was my insurance.' The legislature specifically cut a total of 58 transition specialist positions, and another 157 positions were eliminated by the time the state budget was passed, Ivey said. The remaining 124 positions were part of a $8 million cut supervised by Department of Corrections Secretary James V. Crosby Jr. Martin Correctional Institution near Indiantown lost four positions, which included a correctional services assistant consultant, clerk-typist specialist, placement and transition specialist and academic teacher, according to a department report. Glades Correctional Institution in Palm Beach County lost an assistant consultant, clerk-typist specialist and a chaplain. Neither Martin nor Glades had to cancel an educational course or vocational training, Ivey said. Bob Wignall, training and quality manager for PRIDE, an $80 million-a-year corporation that manages Florida's correctional work programs, said the money shortfall will leave inmates with fewer opportunities to learn new skills. |
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