Inspector general blew whistle on prison violence. So Florida corrections chief pushed him out | Editorial

Heaven help a Florida inspector general who actually needs the paycheck. You might have to sell your soul.

Lester Fernandez was comfortably retired following 30 years of public service in federal inspector generals’ offices when he signed on in 2016 as inspector general for Florida’s medieval and inaptly named Department of Corrections (DOC).

Inspectors general are the in-house investigative reporters of government. We pay them to comfort the afflicted among agency clients and to afflict wrongdoers on agency payrolls. Nowhere is that job more important than in Florida’s prisons, which have earned a national reputation for corruption, cruelty and a complete inability to correct anything.

System dysfunctional

Generations of Miami Herald readers are well acquainted with the DOC’s vicious cycle of underfunding, incompetence and cover-ups. But sometimes, an experienced professional like Fernandez can make a difference for a prisoner on the receiving end of abuse at the hands of sadistic guards.

A good inspector general can be a godsend for honest corrections officers who make do on their disgracefully paltry salaries and want to blow the whistle on higher-ups who supplement their income by peddling cellphones, cigarettes and drugs to inmates.

Fernandez was that kind of professional.

“When you’re doing a good job, oftentimes you’re providing bad news,” Fernandez said in an interview with Herald reporter Samantha Gross.

Fernandez provided plenty of bad news to DOC Secretary Mark Inch and his predecessor, Julie Jones. Inch’s response was to ooch his way over to Gov. DeSantis’ office for an audience with the state’s chief inspector general.

Inch retaliates

There, he whined about Fernandez sending letters on department stationery “without permission,” as if an inspector general is a 10th grader who needs Daddy to check his homework and, perhaps, peek inside his book bag.

Inch’s machinations triggered an investigation that Inch plainly hoped would end in Fernandez’s firing, but by then the man who didn’t need Florida’s money gave his notice and went back to being retired. Smart man, he.

The Governor’s IG report, when it was finally published, tells an all-too-familiar story: Taxpayers were getting their money’s worth from Fernandez, while Inch is in an office that’s miles over his head.

This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 6:00 AM.