Florida prisons

As Florida Prison Poet Laureate, Christopher Malec serves as the voice from behind prison walls.

A top corrections official offered a stark picture of Florida’s prison system Wednesday, warning that lawmakers must boost salaries of corrections workers to avert a looming disaster as the system grapples with high turnover rates, dangerously low staffing levels and fatigued employees.

A new investigation finds alarming spread of COVID-19 in Florida correctional facilities. An update on the investigation into the assassination of Haiti's President. The NYT Daily podcast comes to WLRN and a trip down to Key West for Hemingway Days.

A catastrophe was averted at Piney Point, but what about all of our other estuaries and waterways? Thousands of prisoners in Florida are finally getting their vaccines. Plus, the isolation we’ve struggled with over the past year due to the pandemic could have long-term effects.

The state had anticipated a reduction in J&J allocations and is using the two-dose Moderna vaccine instead.

A bill in the Florida legislature would increase the age for a child to be tried in adult court. The measure would raise the allowable age from 14 to 15 years old.

Magistrate Judge Martin Fitzpatrick issued a 53-page order Monday that said testimony and evidence showed “actual overt retaliation by prison officials, as well as threats of retaliation.”

Four Democratic legislators called for the removal of some upper-level administrators and for mental-health evaluations of staff at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, which was the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and Florida federal prosecutors.

The analysts, in a report posted online Monday, said the prison system had 82,027 inmates at the end of October and that the number is projected to go as low as 80,792 at the end of November. The number of inmates is forecast to be at 82,116 in June, the end of the state’s fiscal year.

This post will be updated today, Monday, Nov. 23, and through the week with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.

Florida’s prison system has had a significant increase in recent days in inmates testing positive for COVID-19, with the overall total approaching 17...