TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) has announced cancellation of weekend visitation at five institutions:

Cross City Correctional Institution – Work Camp (Cross City)

Gulf Correctional Institution – Main Unit (Wewahitchka)

Hamilton Correctional Institution – Work Camp (Jasper)

Lawtey Correctional Institution – Main Unit (Lawtey)

Suwannee Correctional Institution – Work Camp (Live Oak)

Madison Correctional Institution – Work Camp (Madison)

In response to significant contraband recoveries at the above listed institutions, and an incident involving inmates at Gulf C.I., that resulted in staff injury, FDC will cancel weekend visitation to ensure the continued safe operation of facilities statewide.

Michelle Glady, FDC Communications Director: “The secure operation of our correctional institutions is our chief priority. We have zero tolerance for inmate misconduct or the introduction of contraband into our secure facilities. We are taking proactive measures to ensure these institutions can continue normal operations and that the safety of staff and inmates can be upheld. We look forward to resuming normal visitation as quickly as possible.”

POLICY:

The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) has zero tolerance for contraband of any kind, and visitors attempting to introduce contraband are subject to immediate termination of their visitation privileges.

Whenever contraband is recovered on a visitor, local law enforcement is always contacted as well and they determine whether to make an arrest.

This past weekend, institutional staff stopped two visitors from introducing contraband into FDC’s secure facilities:

Columbia Correctional Institution: On March 25, institutional staff located tobacco in a visitor’s jacket during a search. Her visitation privileges were terminated.

Holmes Correctional Institution: On March 25, the institution’s K-9 Interdiction Team detected illegal drugs inside a visitor’s vehicle. The woman consented to a vehicle search, and institutional staff discovered illegal drugs. Her visitation privileges were terminated.

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As Florida's largest state agency, the Department of Corrections employs 24,000 members statewide, incarcerates approximately 97,000 inmates and supervises nearly 167,000 offenders in the community.

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