Miami Herald - October 7, 2004
Luisa Yanez, lyanez@herald.com

Five senior officials of a Central Florida prison have quit or been fired because an HIV-positive suicidal woman inmate was kept naked in her cell, the Florida Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

"This kind of thing will not be tolerated," said Sterling Ivey, DOC spokesman in Tallahassee, reeling off that the warden, assistant warden, colonel and chief health officer had all resigned from the Zephyrhills Correctional Institution. A major was also demoted.

The institution's psychiatrist was fired for knowing about the woman's treatment and doing nothing about it, corrections officials said.

"It all centers on the staff's failure to follow rules and departmental procedures," Ivey said. "We had a female inmate who was on suicide watch and the staff failed to provide her with a shroud."

A new administrative staff was named Wednesday to run the Pasco County prison north of Tampa. The prison's population of 635 is made up predominantly of men with psychiatric problems.

The unidentified 26-year-old woman has been transferred back to a Broward County prison, where she had first threatened to kill herself, Ivey said. She is serving a one-year, 11-month sentence for having sex while being HIV-positive and battery on a law enforcement officer.

"There is no indication this was done for anyone's pleasure or that there was any inappropriate conduct," Ivey said. "We still don't know exactly why the female inmate was not given the proper clothing to wear in her cell."

The investigation continues and more prison staff could be reprimanded.

Ivey said the woman was kept naked in the cell "at least on two separate occasions for several days." Ivey said reports of the inmate's treatment reached Tallahassee on Sept. 30. An investigation was launched by the inspector general's office.

Once she was transferred to Zephyrhills for psychiatric reasons and placed on suicide watch, prison procedure called for her to be separated from the rest of the population and sent to a different wing, then given either a paper-type shroud or a restrictive sarong. "They did not give her either," Ivey said.

Instead, the woman was left naked in a separate cell with an iron door and a small plexiglass window. "Only guards making rounds who looked through the small window could see her," Ivey said.

Those who resigned: Warden Gary Thomas, 55, a 33-year veteran with the department; Assistant Warden Ray Mulally, 56, a 26-year employee with the DOC; Col. Donald Leigh, 51, a 29-year employee; and Chief Health Officer Stephen Shanklin, 61, who had been with the DOC since 1987.

Maj. Leonard Kuhns, 50, an employee since 1984, was demoted to correctional officer.

Psychiatrist Noah Jeanette, 47, who had been with the DOC since July, was fired.

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