• Honduras jail fire recalls horrific Florida prison blaze where 38 died amid lingering questions - A scene of racial fights, the Florida road prison in Jay exploded into fire in 1967, leaving truth yet to be fully told. ...
• Waterhouse goes to death proclaiming innocence - Convicted murderer Robert Waterhouse, 65, died by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Starke, with unsettling words....
• Florida Senate kisses an emotional goodbye to prison privatization - Public prisons get a valentine as senate proposal fails in a 19-21 vote; meanwhile, execution slated today...
• Group alleges more financial links to privatization; vote could be today - A watchdog group alleges that privatization backers have financial links the effort ...
• Florida A&M Rattlers have played in 25 of the 46 Super Bowls - Dallas star Bob Hayes won a Super Bowl ring and an Olympic gold medal. ...
• Freedom rider rabbi remembers his arrest in Tallahassee airport 50 years ago - Ministers eventually served sentence, worked as road crew before release from jail ...
• Second Harvest signature soups will help fight child hunger on Wednesday at Capitol - One in six people locally struggle for enough to eat ...
• Cancer patient slips away from hospital to give stranded bus riders a last Christmas gift - In his battle with cancer, he relied on city buses . . . and now he had a plan to help people who didn't know the buses were down for the day. ...
• Madison girl is eight years old, loses leg but not awesome fight against cancer - Catherine has inspired all those around her in her brave fight against osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. ...
• Harriet Adderley went to bat 48 years ago in civil rights protest that resulted in landmark case - Braving an angry crowd, Florida A&M students marched to the jail, and were told to disperse. The rest is history. ...
• Miracle Theatre: the last picture show - A small crowd gathered to pledge support for independent film in Tallahassee and to memorialize the end of an era at a movie theatre. ...
• Trial of the century? not Casey Anthony: Details of prison life of killers of Florida judge and wife - Many people recall the sensational trial in the murder of Judge Chillingworth and his wife in Palm Beach County. Here are some details that perhaps no one knows about, from reporter Jack Strickland....
• Energetic principal nurtures, grows high school from ‘D’ to ‘A’ - Here is a day in the life of Dr. Michelle Gayle, who enhanced respect and trust among all at Rickards High School in Tallahassee. ...
• He saves rare woodpecker - Saving the endangered red cockaded woodpecker requires tough and tender skills in the national forest. ...
• Local legend King Love invented ‘secret weapon’ - The legendary King Love of Tallahassee was an outsider but this bristly visage and royal pretender carried a degree as a medical doctor......
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Barracks were similar; Paul Newman in movie.
Honduras jail fire recalls horrific Florida prison blaze where 38 died amid lingering questions
February 21, 2012By: Jack Strickland
Last week’s horrific prison fire in Honduras shocked the world. More than 300 prisoners, locked in their cells, burned to death.
It is a reminder of a similar tragedy in Jay, an obscure town in the Panhandle, where more than 50 years ago 38 Florida prisoners died in a road prison fire.
New Information on the tragedy at Jay has recently come to light as statements from prisoners who survived the fire were made public. Witnesses who were at the fire, and officials who investigated it, have also disputed the official version of causes and events put forward by the Florida Department of Corrections in 1967.
At the time, the Florida Department of Corrections claimed that the prisoners deliberately started the fire in an apparent attempt to be transferred back to the State’s main prison at Raiford. The DOC press release said two prisoners, one black and one white, started the fire by lighting newspapers at both ends of the building housing the prisoners. The report said gas from a smashed fluorescent light bulb ignited and caused the fire to blaze out of control.
The DOC director acknowledged a series of fights among prisoners at Jay in the days immediately before the fire. He said he didn’t know why there was conflict or why prisoners were unhappy.
The medical examiner’s report seemed to confirm the facts as reported by the Department of Corrections. The examiner listed the cause of death of 38 prisoners as homicide by arson. The… (Read More)
Waterhouse goes to death proclaiming innocence
February 16, 2012By: Michael Abrams
Robert Waterhouse, convicted twice of murder, has been put to death at the Florida State Prison in Starke after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal.
The 65-year-old… (Read More)
Florida Senate kisses an emotional goodbye to prison privatization
February 14, 2012By: Michael Abrams
Backers of efforts to privatize Florida prisons found love fleeting on St. Valentine’s Day as Florida’s Senate brushed aside efforts to hand 28 state-run jails and work camps to private… (Read More)
By Roosevelt Wilson
As Florida A&M University’s board of trustees puts together a panel to look into hazing there must be a couple of things that should be part of the ground rules as the panel prepares to do its… (Read More)
By Jack Strickland
The Florida Senate voted down expanding privatized prisons in Florida, this week. A bitterly divided Senate defeated the proposal on a 21-19 vote. It was widely reported that the issue is now dead.
Don’t be too… (Read More)