" I've done this long enough to know adult males never want to talk to an outsider in a group setting."

When the inmates at Columbia Correctional Institution started shouting at him during one of his surprise prison inspections, Rep. David Richardson knew something was amiss.

"I've done this long enough to know adult males never want to talk to an outsider in a group setting," said the Miami Beach Democrat.

The fear of retaliation and being singled out by gangs wasn't enough to silence their need to complain about the problems they faced at the prison: toilets that won't flush, no hot water, a majority of showers that didn't work, broken heating system, cell windows jammed shut, head-splitting noise from an exhaust fan.

"The conditions were horrific — unfit for human habitation," Richardson told the Times/Herald.