PRISON VIOLENCE ON RISE INMATES REACT TO VALDES DEATH

TALLAHASSEE - Inmates at Florida prisons have become increasingly
violent toward guards since inmate Frank Valdes died at Florida State
Prison in July, Corrections Secretary Michael Moore said yesterday.

Inmates violently assaulted guards on seven occasions in the roughly
two months after the July 17 death of Valdes, whose death has been
ruled a homicide and is under investigation by a grand jury in
Gainesville. In a similar time period prior to Valdes' death, inmates
seriously assaulted guards only once, Moore said.

Moore, who spoke before a state House committee yesterday, attributed
the increase in assaults to a perception among inmates that the
resolve of the corrections system has been weakened by the Valdes incident.

''Inmates are opportunists,'' Moore said after the hearing held by the
House Corrections Committee. ''They think, 'This is our chance . . .
we'll slide by, we can do this or that.' ''

According to Moore, the violence since Valdes' death included a July
25 inmate attack on a guard at South Bay Correctional Institute in
which the inmate jammed his finger in a guard's eye socket, and a
Sept. 11 brawl at Union Correctional Institute in which 25 inmates
attacked guards, injuring 11. In a Sept. 20 incident at Gainesville
Correctional Institute an inmate injured four guards, including one
who suffered a broken jaw.

Moore's 90-minute appearance before the House committee yesterday was
far less tense than a similar appearance before the Senate Criminal
Justice Committee last month, where Moore was questioned at length. At
yesterday's hearing, one lawmaker called on the public, press and
Legislature to stop condemning the corrections department.

''We in the Legislature and the people in the state of Florida have to
remember that those people in there [state prisons] are the bad
people, and those people working there are the good people,'' said
Rep. Jerry Melvin, R-Fort Walton Beach.

Meanwhile yesterday, Moore announced that the name of the X-Wing where
Valdes was killed has been changed to the Q-Wing, as it was formerly
known. Moore said he changed the name of the high-security, punitive
wing because he ''didn't like the connotation'' of the name XWing.