• Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks;
• Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field;
• Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women;
• Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them.
"Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up."
Why did he wait until after leaving office to share these criminal activities with the world?
McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida's drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida's prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates. I am willing to bet that he was given the job because he could clean it up. Which means people in charge knew it was going on before he was appointed, so why weren’t the individuals involved brought up on charges by those in charge?
I know it is common practice to not comment on ongoing investigations, but there were 90 wardens, supervisors, colonels and majors fired for corruption or, at the very least, not to be trusted. 280 others were demoted. This is a major shakeup that went unnoticed.
Criminal charges were filed against more than 40 penal system employees, and most were convicted. Among those arrested were seven officers accused of beating inmates, including five accused of forcing a prisoner to drink toilet water. All have pleaded not guilty, of course. No matter how low a person sinks in his or her personal life, there is no good reason for another person to sink even lower in an attempt at punishment.
Tina Hayes, the director of the prison's department initiatives who has worked in the prison system for 28 years, said the atmosphere before McDonough arrived was "a little tense" with workers "always on edge." She said employees who didn't attend softball games or play on the teams were "isolated" and "pushed aside."
Again, why did we not learn of this massive corruption and resulting cleanup until after it all happened? It did not all happen last week.
There is probably more of this kind of tyranny going on right now behind closed doors and allowed to continue because of closed mouths. This is another form of terrorism. But this is the kind that we will only learn of after someone steps down from office or leaves the job and tells someone. Why not tell someone now? Why should it be allowed to continue? This cannot become acceptable human behavior. We are not immoral beings despite the animal like behavior of those involved in this criminal enterprise. They do not represent the rest of us.
Do we really live like this? I am not naïve enough to think this cannot happen, but I am always surprised when I learn of how long this has been going on. Are we so depraved of morals and integrity that we allow others to get away with this type of abuse of power and theft of public funds? Are we so far removed from caring that stealing taxpayers dollars is stealing from ourselves as well? Are we so devoid of compassion for others who are being subjugated for someone else’s pleasure that we allow it to continue? How can we turn the other cheek and continue to live with ourselves?
There are anonymous ways to contact the police, why isn’t this avenue taken more often? Not all policemen or people in a position of authority are corrupt.
What is happening to the moral character of our citizenry? Have we slipped so far that no one places any importance in doing what they know is right? This is a very sad commentary on the moral state of the American people and it is unjust. Let’s not prove it is true.
Please, if you know of illegal and or immoral activity taking place that results in theft of public funds, abuse of power, threat of bodily harm or death, find the conscience to say something. Notify somebody. Leave a comment here, anonymously, if that is all you feel you can do. Doing so just might give you the courage to report it to some authority who can act on behalf of the victims.
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