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Review Commission Tours Orient Road Jail

Tribune photo by JIM REED

The independent review commission tours Orient Roda Jail.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2008

Updated: 03/10/2008 06:29 pm

TAMPA — Al McCray said he finally felt closure while touring through Orient Road Jail's booking area today during an independent review commission's meeting there about Hillsborough County's jail system.

Sheriff David Gee created the commission after a surveillance video showed a quadriplegic man being dumped from a wheelchair by a detention deputy in the jail's booking area. Several other reports of jail abuse appeared in the media spotlight soon after video showed Brian Sterner being dropped from the chair.

McCray was arrested in 2001 for violating probation and sat in booking, carefully reading a medical form. Detention deputies felt he was reading too slowly, so he was placed in a holding cell and taunted, he said. Deputies ultimately investigated the incident thoroughly after he filed a complaint, he said.

The Tampa businessman, who writes columns for The Tampa Tribune, was the only person who spoke to the commission today about a reported incident of abuse. Only a handful of members of the public showed up today to the commission's first-ever meeting.

Today's meeting allowed people to walk throughout the jail and learn about the system's inner workings, including its policies and procedures.

Gee told the 11-member committee, 10 of whom were in attendance, it is necessary to have a committee because the public's confidence in the jail system is essential.

Some inmates, he said, arrive drunk and some come in under the influence of drugs.

"Nevertheless, they are entitled to fair and decent treatment," he said.

Instead of focusing on reported instances of abuse, the commission should focus on possible changes to patterns, practices or policies, he said.

The commission will file an initial report by May 9 and a final report within six months. The commission's set its next meeting for 10 a.m. March 21.

Col. David Parrish, who runs the jail, said the system routinely gets complaints from inmates and that most complaints come from Orient Road Jail's booking area. It makes sense that more would come from there, he said, because many people come to jail agitated or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Though sheriff's officials have described the wheelchair incident as inexcusable, they have denied wrongdoing in several other reported incidents.

Maj. Jim Previtera, who leads the agency's training division, said he was disgusted when he watched the wheelchair incident but that he can't point to a single failure in training. He said the sheriff's office has made drastic improvements in recent years in training.

James Sewell, who heads the commission, said the first meeting was designed to get people up to speed on the jail system and that he was not surprised by what he heard. The former assistant commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said he hasn't formed an opinion and that it's too soon to make any decisions on changes.

Near the end of the meeting, McCray told the committee his recollections of his jail experience. He said he was traumatized for seven years by what happened to him but that touring the jail today helped. He said he saw tremendous positive changes in the jail's booking area.

Deputies assured McCray they would follow up, and they did so after the 2001 incident, Maj. Curtis Flowers said. The medical area of jail intake was improved since the incident, though much of that was driven by an increase in people being booked into the jail.

One commissioner asked McCray whether he thought recent reported problems are part of a bigger issue within the system.

"I think you have a few stormtrooper deputies here," McCray said. "It's the tree, not the forest."

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