The Miami Herald has filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections, alleging that the agency has violated the state’s open record laws by withholding information about suspicious deaths and possible sexual and physical assaults of inmates at the hands of corrections officers in the state prison system.
For more than a year, the Herald has been examining cases of physical, mental and sexual abuse of inmates, as well as a series of inmate deaths that have happened in state prisons that have had a history of violence. In some cases, the prison system failed to contact outside law enforcement agencies, allowing its own staff to conduct the investigations. In some cases, both inmates and DOC investigators have alleged the agency systemically covers up corruption and wrongdoing.
The Herald has requested copies of the agency’s investigations [Read More]