THANKS BUT NO THANKS, FDLE. LET'S TRY THIS ANOTHER WAY, SHALL WE?

Suppose, just suppose, two members of the Florida Legislature hung
themselves in their offices within a six-week period. And while we're doing
all this supposing, suppose there had been at least nine other suicide
attempts among legislators since July 1997.

So, what do you think? Do you remotely suppose people would be falling all
over themselves to try to find an explanation for such a statistical
aberration? Or perhaps even at least asking the question of whether foul
play was involved?

Suppose the same fate befell military personnel killing themselves at
MacDill Air Force Base - or colleagues at your workplace?

We'd want answers. We'd want accountability. We'd demand a full
investigation by the most competent detectives available.

But at Jefferson Correctional Institution, two female prisoners, Florence
Krell and Christine Elmore, have been found hanging in their cells. And
aside from their death certificates, the two shared this in common: Each had
been at Jefferson only a short time before deciding to take her life.

Now, you would think that if you were in charge of the state prison system,
like Department of Corrections Secretary Harry Singletary, you might -
SOMEHOW!!! - stumble upon the conclusion that if you've had the first two
suicides of female inmates in the state's recorded history, within weeks of
each other at the same facility, well, you just might have a very deadly
problem on your hands.

And what has Singletary done to get to the bottom of the deaths of the
women? Apparently not much, and the secretary has even less to say about
that than what precious little he has learned.

Krell, 40, who would have been eligible for parole next spring, was serving
18 months for car theft. Elmore, 25, had a life sentence for first-degree
murder.

To be sure, prison isn't supposed to be nice. It's supposed to be a place
where a debt for violating society's norms and laws is paid. All that is
true. All that is fair. All that is as it should be.

But we no longer live in the midst of the Inquisition, or do we? Prison is
not supposed to be a place where inmates are subject to the disciplinary
whims of their guards.

When inmates like Krell are being stripped naked and left shackled and
bruised in solitary confinement for dubious offenses like possessing
``contraband'' in the form of a plastic cup and toilet paper, it doesn't
take Dick Tracy to figure out something is very, very wrong at Jefferson
Correctional.

And yet Singletary rejected an offer from the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement to conduct an independent investigation into the suspicious
deaths, arguing that his internal department investigators are doing a
simply bang-up job investigating their department.

You have to wonder whether Singletary's brain has been locked in solitary
confinement for him to believe an internal investigation of his own agency
will have any cachet of credibility - especially now that it's more suspect
by his rejection of the FDLE.

Days before his death last week, Gov. Lawton Chiles asked his chief
inspector general, Marvin Doyal, to look into the deaths.

Don't expect much. All Doyal said he intends to do is review Singletary's
own investigative files. Now we're getting somewhere.

During his brief term as governor, Buddy MacKay can't do much, but he could
establish a modest legacy by ordering a comprehensive FDLE investigation of
inmate abuse not only at Jefferson Correction, but throughout the state
prison system.

How could Gov.-elect Jeb Bush possibly object? After all, the new chief
executive prides himself on being tough on crime.

Why shouldn't that commitment also extend to be being tough on those who
oversee the criminals, too?

Checked-by: Don Beck