North Florida prisons to close amid staff shortages

Several prisons in North Florida are slated to close in the next few weeks amid a serious staff shortage, the Miami Herald reported.

The newspaper spoke with Jim Baiardi, president of the Corrections Chapter of the Police Benevolent Association, who talked with Corrections Secretary Mark Inch about the development on Thursday. Baiardi told the Miami Herald that the Florida Department of Corrections was closing several prisons to grapple with the shortages.

“He [Inch] is going to be closing some prisons that are close to the other, temporarily, so he can redirect the staff and inmates to places where they can safely run the institutions for now,” the union representative told the publication.

Among the prisons slated to close include New River Correctional Institution and Baker Correctional Institution while Cross City Correctional Institution, which was already shuttered, would remain closed for an uncertain length of time.

It is not clear when the closed prisons would reopen again.

The state is dealing with a mixture of fewer inmates since the coronavirus pandemic began in addition to roughly 5,000 correctional officer vacancies, the Miami Herald reported. Baiardi explained that up to 1,200 officers from four closed prisons could be moved to other facilities. 

Florida state Senator and Vice Chair for the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice Jeff Brandes (R) said the that the move was done out of “desperation to move staff,” according to the Miami Herald.

Baiardi was also critical of the move, telling the newspaper that “this is a temporary band-aid.” 

“This is not the solution to the crisis. This is a temporary band-aid. The number of officers moving is not going to solve the vacancy problem,” he said.

The Florida Department of Corrections told The Hill that it is working to address prison staffing, including by reducing shift hours and offering monetary incentives to people who work at a facility with a staff vacancy rate of 10 percent or higher or are returning certified staff.

Updated 8:48 p.m.