Florida prisons have a long history of covering up scandals
Long before corrections officers broke the neck of Craig Ridley — leaving him to starve and die — Florida’s Department of Corrections has had a history of burying abuses.
In one of its most notable cases, several of the department’s own investigators filed a whistleblower complaint against their boss, the then-inspector general.
In 2014, investigator Aubrey Land accused the department of covering up the 2010 death of Randall Jordan-Aparo, 27, an inmate at Franklin Correctional Institution. Jordan-Aparo, who had a documented blood disorder and was having trouble breathing, was repeatedly doused with noxious chemicals in violation of procedures until he died on the floor of his cell.
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Land had been dispatched to the prison to investigate another case. In the course of that, he came to believe that the investigation of Jordan-Aparo’s death had been a whitewash. When he alerted his boss, he faced recriminations, he said.
The state had to pay $800,000 to settle a retaliation lawsuit brought by Land and two other whistleblowers.
Other investigators testified under oath that the department had tried to impede their cases.
Several of the investigators left the department to start their own consulting firm, saying their goal was to help shed light on the abuses they believe are commonplace in Florida prisons.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 7:00 AM.