Oct
18
Official will halt transportation fees forced on inmates
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By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The state’s top prison official said Friday he would stop a practice that forced Florida inmates to pay up to $55 a week for transportation many did not want or need.
Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy Crosby promised immediate changes in response to a Palm Beach Post investigation that found the head of the private transportation company had been convicted of grand theft, used an alias on a state contract and listed several addresses for his headquarters.
John Michael Stefanski and his New Port Richey van company won exclusive rights to transport Florida’s 2,100 work release inmates to their jobs this fall. DOC officials said they did not know that Stefanski went to prison for stealing $77,465 from the Lake County RV park he managed in 1995.
State officials said that in a rush to line up transportation, they did not require formal bids for the contract. Stefanski charged between $45 and $55 per week, depending on mileage. He stood to take in millions.
On Friday, after calls from The Post, Stefanski called the DOC to admit his criminal history.
“We’ve got a meeting Monday to discuss whether we are going to continue (with Stefanski),” Crosby said. “I can tell you it’s not likely.”
Crosby acknowledged Friday that his department made a series of mistakes as it scrambled to end more than two decades of state-financed transportation. The state spent $5 million last year to maintain the vans, which were driven by inmates. A new law that states inmates may not drive state vehicles went into effect Oct. 1, and the DOC had to act quickly to find rides for everyone, Crosby said.
Many inmates didn’t want the service, but Sunshine Transportation wouldn’t take the job unless it could be would be guaranteed a minimum number of passengers. So officials in Tallahassee sent out letters about the program encouraging work release centers in suburban West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and 22 other sites to sign the agreement with Sunshine Transportation.
Local leaders at the work release programs misinterpreted the strong suggestion as rigid policy, Crosby said. They told the inmates that they were no longer allowed to walk, carpool or take public transportation to work as allowed by law.
“That absolutely should not have occurred,” Crosby said.
FORCED FEES UPSET LAW’S SPONSOR
An inmate at the work release center in suburban West Palm Beach, who asked not to be identified because he feared retribution, said he told officials he could not afford the rates. He and other employees wanted to go to their jobs at Publix with $35 monthly passes on PalmTran buses, he said. He said corrections officers told him to pay $200 a month to use the vans or go back to the maximum-security prison in Belle Glade.
The news of forced fees upset State Sen. Alex Villalobos, a powerful Republican who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee. He sponsored the law after hearing about a Miami-Dade inmate who did not have a driver license when he was pulled over for speeding in a state van.
The new law clearly states that inmates are required to find their own rides, not pay hefty fees to a private company, Villalobos said.
“The intent was never to outsource anything. The intent was to put an end to taxpayers paying for chauffeurs for these guys,” he said.
DOC officials “must have been hallucinating while that discussion was going on,” Villalobos said.
Inmates at work release programs are allowed to go to work up to 12 months before they are released. Many work in construction, fast food or grocery stores.
The program, designed to smooth the transition from prison to productive employment, allows the inmates to live in minimum-security dorms. In turn, they contribute 45 percent of their income to state housing costs and 10 percent to a personal savings account. Many also owe restitution to their victims.
The additional transportation costs were automatically deducted from whatever wages they had left.
As of Monday, Crosby said, inmates will be told they may take whatever transportation they want.
There will be no more pressure to pay private companies. And the DOC will investigate everything that went wrong, Crosby said.
DOC talked informally with three companies about the plan to charge inmates for transportation, said spokeswoman Debbie Buchanan.
The state did not need bids, Buchanan said, because inmates, not taxes, pay the bill. The state also skipped normally required background checks on company owners.
Sunshine Transportation was chosen because it was the only company that agreed to provide a van service statewide. The company already was providing rides to work release inmates in Tarpon Springs, Kissimmee and Orlando.
Stefanski deceived the Department of Corrections on several counts as he made his pitch for the contract.
Around the time he began doing business with the state, he changed the Division of Corporations registry from his name to his wife, June Parr.
He told DOC his address was on Ridge Road in Port Richey. But the address on his business listing – and state driver license – is 6650 Rowan Road, New Port Richey. The Pasco County property appraiser listed that property as a vacant lot.
Stefanski also used an alias, John Michaels, in his dealings with the state.
When first reached for comment Friday, company spokesman Dan Steele said he was not allowed to disclose much information about the deal.
Steele said DOC picked Stefanski’s company for the job because it “wanted someone to be accountable about the inmates.”
Court records show Stefanski stole from the Southern Palms RV Resort by taking rent checks from residents and recording payments in two separate ledgers. He went on a spending spree that included a vacation to a Central American rain forest and thousand-dollar rims for his car, said prosecutor Mark Simpson.
Stefanski was released from the Hardee Work Camp on June 7, 1999, according to DOC.
Prosecutors trying to secure restitution lost track of him for several years, Simpson said. They thought he might be in Washington state. Then they picked up a rumor that he was running some kind of transportation business.
“That was the last I heard of him,” Simpson said.
FEE A BURDEN FOR SOME INMATES
Many said the state simply did not understand the burden Sunshine Transportation’s fees put on the inmates.
Yotonyia Pernell’s husband, Monty, hoped to save up enough money to get a place for their three children as he finished a three-year sentence for robbery.
Pernell said she works at a school cafeteria during the day, and at a turnpike toll plaza at night. But she still can’t afford her own apartment. She shares a house with 16 other people in Fort Lauderdale.
Monty Pernell arrived at the West Palm Beach work center this fall and still is looking for a job. He planned to accept a minimum wage position in fast food, Pernell said.
“Now he’s got to figure out how he’s going to be able to take care of his family. Fifty dollars a week – that’s $200 a month. That’s very big to us,” Pernell said.
Staff researchers Melanie Mena and Madeline Miller contributed to this report.
Copyright 2003 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 18, 2003 Saturday
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