Jail Evacuation Plan

[Cookiely]

Can anyone tell me the average error rate on predicting a storms landfall four days out? It sounds like a good plan but having to make the decision to evacuate four days before landfall could mean a lot of unnecessary evacuations, but I suppose better safe than sorry.
State Fine-Tunes Jail Evacuation Plan

By NEIL JOHNSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 19, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE - All of Florida's sheriffs and the state have an agreement about what to do if a hurricane forces one or more counties to evacuate prisoners from jail.

The agreement, worked out last year but still being fine-tuned, calls for the Florida Sheriffs Association and Department of Corrections to provide transportation, security, food and a prison to house the evacuated inmates.

"It's still being refined, but we are in a lot better shape now than two years ago," said Wayne Hemphill, correctional services administrator for the department, said in a workshop Friday at the Governor's Hurricane Conference.

The plan is ambitious if a sheriff decides a jail must be evacuated.

The Department of Corrections will move inmates from one of its prisons outside the area likely to be hit and make room for up to 1,000 prisoners. The agency also will provide food.

The department has 30 buses to transport prisoners stationed in Lake Butler, Orlando and Miami. Plus, prisons have up to 15 smaller vans that can securely move prisoners.

At the same time, sheriffs away from the path of a storm will provide deputies and help with moving the evacuated county's inmates. They also will provide security at the Department of Corrections' evacuated prison.

This means the affected county can keep all its deputies to help with the storm, said Broward Sheriff's Lt. Col. Rick Frey, director of the county's jail operations.

After the storm, the assisting sheriff's offices will move the prisoners back if the jail is not damaged.

If the jail is damaged, the state and sheriff's association are working on a plan to put the inmates in temporary quarters near the evacuated county, possibly on a state prison's grounds or nearby.

Having the prisoners close while the jail is being repaired allows attorneys and judges to continue the inmates' cases, Frey said.

Even with this plan in place, there are some concerns, he said.

First is the time it would take to move the inmates safely.

"Transporting 300 or 400 inmates across the state is a logistical nightmare," Frey said.

Also, help in the form of transportation and extra deputies would have to come from distant parts of the state likely to be safe from the storm.

That all takes time and means a sheriff probably would have to start the process and order an evacuation days before the hurricane's forecast landfall and with little certainty the storm will do as predicted.

The state will need at least 48 hours to clear its prison and free it for the evacuated inmates.

With the problems and time to assemble the resources, a sheriff may have to order an evacuation four days before the hurricane hits, Frey said.

"To make the decision four days in advance is going to be a tough decision to make and a tough decision to sell," he said.

Frey also discussed how Broward County handles sexual offenders who come to emergency shelters.

Unlike Collier County, where the school board won't allow registered sex offenders on school property where most shelters are located, and Highlands County, where commissioners have banned offenders from shelters, Broward will allow them to stay.

But at each shelter, a deputy checks every evacuee against the state database for sexual offenders. If one is found, the person is segregated from the rest of the shelter population and guarded by a deputy.

Few sexual offenders have shown up at public shelters in Broward, Frey said.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (352) 544-5214 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.