South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Prisoners’ loved ones banned from wearing #visitsmatter shirts
When Ann Beal Salamone went to visit her son in prison last week she wore a white T-shirt with “MY VISITS Matter” written in the center of a big red heart.
On her way out, another visiting mother noticed the T-shirt and asked where she could get one as well. The two women began to chat and were joined by a correctional officer. “We were all there, I could tell you, thinking about how important it is for our loved ones to have family and friends that care and love them,” she said.
As positive of an experience it was for Salamone, it won’t happen again under a new directive imposed by the Florida Department of Corrections.
An Aug. 5 email obtained by the Orlando Sentinel from FDC’s assistant deputy secretary of institutions, Hope Gartman, alerted employees that messages like the one on Salamone’s T-shirt are “a potential threat to security.”
The email singles out T-shirts created by Florida Cares, a nonprofit organization that advocates for people in prison and their loved ones.
Denise Rock, the executive director of Florida Cares, said the T-shirts first became available to the public shortly after FDC proposed a set of modifications to its visiting procedures that could reduce visitation hours to every other weekend at some institutions and limit those who can visit prisoners, among other changes.
“Our intention in creating them was to inform people,” she said.
Rock has spoken with FDC officials on the matter several times and hopes to keep conversations happening to try to create what she calls “an amicable solution for everyone.”
The email from Gartman reads: “The messages displayed on these shirts are considered inflammatory and a potential threat to security.”
“As visitation is intended to provide a calm environment in support of an agency priority for family reunification, this is not an appropriate venue to communicate grievances with pending rule changes. For this weekend only, visitors who arrive wearing one of these shirts should be allowed their visit, but provided with a warning that future visits will not allow this attire.”
According to FDC policy, any article of clothing with a picture or language that presents “a potential threat to the security or order of the institution” is prohibited. The department does not allow any clothing in the secure area of the correctional institution that “could cause a disturbance or potentially insight a protest.”
Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, an organization that advocates for those incarcerated, said the language in the policy gives the department the ability to ban any article of clothing it wants to.
“It doesn’t even have to present a threat to security, just a ‘potential’ threat,” she said. “I can imagine any T-shirt meeting that criteria as long as the department can come up with a reason.”
Examples of prohibited shirts mentioned in the email say “stand up for visitation!,” “I love my visits” and “#visitsmatter.”
An FDC spokesperson did not answer questions from the Orlando Sentinel about why the shirts pose a security risk. On Tuesday, Molly Best, deputy communications director at FDC, said the ban has not presented an issue or prevented any visits from occurring.
“[The T-shirt ban] is no different than them saying they’re not allowed to wear camo. We’re not allowed to wear hats. You can’t bring this. You can’t bring that. But the fact that they don’t want them worn in because they don’t want the incarcerated population to know that this is happening. That’s another issue,” Tracy Zuluaga, said. “They don’t want a conversation.”
Zuluaga, executive director for the Post-Conviction & Returning Citizens Alliance, said she spends every Saturday and Sunday at the Avon Park Correctional Institution visiting her boyfriend.
“They have email addresses of every single person that’s a registered visitor. Why would they not send [the proposed rules] to us? That’s within their ability. It doesn’t cost them anything,” she said. “They want to cut visits by 50%. Right now we only have about 25% of their year to begin with, so now we’re going to go down to 12%.”
Michelle Glady, communications director for the department, said a notice of rule development was posted in common areas to notify prisoners.
Standard practice in Florida prisons allows for weekly visitation hours between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on each Saturday and Sunday, as well as on major holidays. About 4,000 prisoners across the state are visited on an average weekend, according to the department.
If the proposed modified rules pass as they are written, a rotation schedule for prisoners may be enacted that could limit visitation days to every other weekend in correctional institutions deemed necessary by the department. Family members could potentially lose three out of the six, three-day weekends that happen annually and the previously incarcerated would lose the ability to visit friends who are not family members in prison.
The proposed rule change also limits when a prisoner could remove people from visiting lists to once a year other than twice a year and defines the 15 visitors who are allowed to apply as 10 family members and five non-family members.
In order to determine whether a standard or modified visitation schedule designation would be put into practice at state prisons, FDC said a list of criteria must be met in full, including insufficient staffing levels, the number of visitor cancellations, and the number of reported disturbances and incidents, among other factors.
Both regional and statewide administrators will then review all considerations for modified visitation.
The possible rules are similar to a controversial proposal in 2018 that was withdrawn after the Joint Administrative Procedure Committee questioned if restrictions complied with the department’s commitment to encouraging family reunification. The 2018 proposal also drew the ire
of loved ones and family members of people in prison.
In a statement, FDC press secretary Paul Walker said the new rules being proposed are meant to modernize and define visitation procedures.
“FDC recognizes the vital importance of visitation during an inmate’s incarceration,” the statement read. “Maintaining community and family ties is also an essential component for an inmate to successfully re-enter into society.”
Visitation hours were expanded at several state incentivized prisons, he added.
FDC’s proposed visitation policies are the first step in the rulemaking process. Next steps require JAPC to discuss and determine whether the proposed rules, or certain portions of, adhere to the authority of the agency.
So far, FDC has only
posted its initial notice and JAPC has not met to review the proposed rules.
“They’re making it about the T-shirts, but it’s not about the T-shirts, it’s about the visits,” Cherie Smith, a wife of a prisoner, said.
She went to visit her husband at the Taylor C.I. in northern Florida this past weekend, where she said she saw a sign with big letters saying the T-shirts are banned and that visitors would be refused entry if they were wearing one.
“It seems to me, anytime the loved ones [of prisoners] on the outside try to band together to have a voice [FDC] does everything in their power to keep us from talking even though they tell us they’re doing everything they can to keep our loved ones safe,” she said. “I’m still going to get my shirt. I just won’t wear it to visit.”