Statewide prison lockdown lifted, visitations allowed again

The statewide prison lockdown enacted last week was lifted Monday, the Florida Department of Corrections announced Monday afternoon.

Visitation had been cancelled. Corrections officers, summoned to their facilities whether scheduled to work or not, seized cell phones and weapons in comprehensive searches of dorms and cells.

The Department of Corrections never made completely clear what sparked the first statewide lockdown in decades other than claiming “credible intelligence” that groups of inmates were planning “disruptions.”

Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones said in a statement, “We made a planned, strategic decision to take proactive action to uphold our mission to protect public safety and keep our staff and inmates safe. I am confident the measures taken were not only necessary but effective.”

Herald staff writer Julie Brown contributed this report.

This story was originally published August 21, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Statewide prison lockdown lifted, visitations allowed again."