Florida prisoners launch month-long work strike
Florida Sex Offender News
On Monday, prisoners across Florida launched “Operation Push” a month-long work stoppage intended to be a peaceful protest to conditions at Florida prisons.
Among their issues is the fact that Florida is one of only five states which don’t pay their inmates for prison labor. Florida uses it’s prisoners, essentially, as slaves. Having them clean roads and clear storm debris after the recent hurricanes. If the state can incarcerate more people and use them for free labor, where’s the incentive to taper mass incarceration or rehabilitate them?
Speaking of mass incarceration; Florida has the third-largest prison population in the US, with 97,000 inmates, according to DOC data.
Another issue is the prices inmates need to pay for necessities purchased at the canteen. With no wages, they are dependent on outside family to support them. The Florida Department of Corrections has been price gouging its inmates for decades. Prisoners say that they have to pay $17 for a case of soup that would cost $4 on the outside.
The Florida DOC and Department of Juvenile Justice was also recently featured in a Miami-Herald series called “fight club” which exposed the atrocities taking place in Florida institutions, where juvenile inmates are forced to fight each other for the guard’s amusement and where sexual abuse of inmates by corrections officers is rampant.
If the high number of recent deaths in Florida facilities wasn’t enough for Florida politicians to take notice. Hopefully this protest will hit them in the pocketbooks and then they will care!
You can rest assured that there will be a lot of guys going to confinement and likely getting beaten up by the guards. I saw it myself while at Gulf C.I. I urge all family and friends of any prisoner who is taking part to carefully monitor their guy’s place and status and give hell to wardens, state legislators, and Gov Scott’s office if you find your guys in confinement. Pass all information on to the press and demand they look into this ongoing abuse.
Oh yes, the bullying tactics will be abundant if this protest actually goes live and the inmates actually do it. There were quite a few attempts at a “protest” when I was in there. Once DOC catches wind of it, it seems like we “miraculously” were given fried chicken, or fried fish, with french fries or some other off the wall good meal to “appease” us. And then, if the protest actually followed through, then the bullying tactics come in. You wake up one morning and before you know it, 75+ officers are barging in your dorm shouting at you to get up and go in the dayroom while they go through and just literally ransack your locker and throw all of your stuff around the dorm. And then when they leave, you have to walk around the dorm with 85 other people trying to locate all your belongings. Otherwise known as a “shakedown.” This is absolutely the worst state to live in and especially to be locked up in should you be so unfortunate. The saying in there was always “Welcome to Florida, where you come on vacation, and leave on probation.” So many of us who have been release have so many stories to tell. We just need someone to tell them to who can publish them and give us some exposure. I would GLADLY bring as much negative attention to FLDOC as I could if someone would just let me.
My son spent 8 years in the Florida prison system, it will be followed by 15 years probation. With unconstitutional requirements. Florida is surviving on its population who make a mistake in life. Someone is padding their pockets.
Sadly, this work strike will not happen for so-called sex offenders who only have three jobs in prison: cutting grass and picking up trash inside the confines of the prison aka “inside grounds,” cleaning up their own cells and “barracks” aka “housemen,” which is the best of the three by the way, and feeding each other aka “food service.”
The Hole (confinement) isn’t big enough for everyone. At Graceville ( where I was warehoused and is run by people who couldn’t get jobs at the local Wal-Mart) the tactic will be lock everyone down because then they don’t have to work at all. They can sit in the saliport and watch football in peace
Update
https://injusticetoday.com/florida-prisoners-are-on-strike-to-protest-price-gouging-and-their-current-slave-arrangement-e14bcaabf45