Reviewed on: April 29,2016

How can we handle a situation where our inmate is being mistreated by staff?

My Son has been at Tomoka just over four years now, he's never received any DR's or reprimands, he has a clean record. He wanted to move over to the work camp but in order to do so he had to quit his job working in Transfer and Receiving otherwise they would never have moved him. A few months ago he was transferred and was anxiously awaiting a dog from the Pups-N-Pals program. Well he received his dog named Shuggy and our sons entire demeanor changed, you could tell he was giving and receiving unconditional love! There are pictures on FB, you can see that our son is attentive, happy, and loves his new friend. Well about a week ago he called home extremely upset, he took Shuggy out for a walk and happened to stop and talk to someone we later found out had a bad reputation, well our son was only in the program a few weeks. The Officer immediately accused him of smoking, our son thought he was referring to cigarette smoke, son said no, I don't smoke. Then later our son was asked to sign a form for smoking K-2. Our son refused, he said it would be a lie and he wasn't going to. That same day they tested him for four different types of drugs and they all came back clean. So the next day he had been playing handball for several hours, clothes wet from sweating, an officer shows up and tells our son that he saw him throw a piece of paper on the ground (completely dry) our son said it wasn't his and that he did not throw paper on the ground. The report stated that there was .2 enough to be resign on a piece of paper. our son again would not sign anything. Later that day the woman in charge of the program wrote him up for not properly taking care of his dog, needless to say our son was shocked, he loves animals and was taking extra good care of Shuggy. He was told that he would have to go to an administrative hearing, an LT told him to plead guilty and he would only receive 30 days, other inmates told him that he would most likely get 60 days. Not knowing what to do as a parent, my husband and I told him the only thing you have in this world is you word, and if that's no good than you can't be trusted so tell the truth no matter what! My Heart is aching now and I don't know what to do other than reach out to you for some answers. Our Son must have gone to the hearing today because we received a notice from VINE stating that he was transferred to the custody of Reception and Medical Center-Main Unit. He had mentioned that he could not handle CO's lying and he certainly wasn't going to lie and if he had to he would go Phsyc. I don't know what exactly what he did but the other night a Sgt let him call home and our son asked me to read JOB in the Bible, I'm terrified for him. should we call to speak with the warden or someone else, What can we do to help our son out of this situation...Please Help!!

Asked: April 29,2016
Ask the inmate answer
1
Our advice would be to speak with the chaplain first. Get a feel for the situation there, although the chaplain is an employee they usually have a level of empathy. If you find that the chaplain is helpful, then their advice should be followed. If you feel that the chaplain is not really listening, then you should take it to the next level and ask to speak to the warden. It is our experience that unless there is a mountain of negative reports on this particular Corrections Officer, they will do nothing. This isn't unusual, but it is hard to handle from the outside, not being able to help when you think something is not right. Also, when speaking with them, keep you voice at a humble level, be respectful and ask politely. If you come off as aggressive or accusatory - they will do nothing because they really do not have to.
Accepted Answer Date Created: April 30,2016

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