According to The Miami Herald, the riot came before a nationwide strike that is planned for Friday to protest what inmates say is violent and barbaric treatment in prisons.
For over a year, Florida’s prison system, which is the third largest system in the country, has been understaffed, which has resulted in several inmate takeovers in recent weeks as inmates express frustration about their forced confinement.
Apparently, the system is so understaffed that inmates are only allowed out when it is time to eat, because there are not enough staff members to guard them for recreation periods.
Phillip A. Ruiz, an organizer for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, told The Herald that the national protests would be nonviolent.
“They are participating in work stoppages, hunger strikes and sit-ins in protest of long-term isolation, inadequate healthcare, overcrowding, violent attacks and slave labor,” he explained.
Today happens to be the 45th anniversary of the
Attica Prison riot in New York, which left dozens of employees and inmates dead as prisoners protested living conditions. Ruiz says prison conditions haven’t changed much since then.