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Another former state agency head has gone public with heavy criticism about Florida’s Governor and his staff.  As Matt Galka tells us, the former Secretary of the state’s prison system painted a bleak picture.

Florida’s ailing prison system has taken another hit…and this time from its former chief.  Mike Crews – who stepped down in November – has publicly accused Governor Rick Scott and his office of ignoring multiple problems within the system.

Crews told the Miami Herald that the Governor’s office asked him to fire Corrections workers against Crews wishes, and tried to distract from the dangerous prison conditions that led to inmate abuse and deaths.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee chairman Greg Evers says he’s taking the allegations seriously.

“I’ve got a lot of concerns about the allegations that secretary Crews came up with. I’ve seen that there’s a lot of truth, underlying truth in everything he said, because those are the things I’m actually picking up in the investigations I’m running,” he said.

Governor Rick Scott addressed Crews’ comments Monday in Jacksonville.

“What I can tell you is that we’re at a 43 ½ year low on our crime rate, we’ll continue to increase funding, we have a true reformer running this department, and I absolutely believe in accountability and transparency,” he said.

Lawmakers have already come up with a 29 page bill to fix the prison problems but say more changes could be coming.

Following the comments and his own personal, unannounced visits to three correctional institutions, Evers says lawmakers need to get their fixes right.

“We’ll be moving back at a snails pace instead of a sprint, we’ll be going back to a snail’s pace to actually win the race and really find out what’s going on,” said Evers.

The state spends more than $2 billion dollars on prisons. The Governor’s latest budget would fill 300 vacant staff positions – which Evers says still isn’t enough.

The Governor’s proposed budget would add more than $50 million dollars to the prison system, which includes money to fix run down facilities. It does not call for employee raises – which corrections employees haven’t seen in seven years.