Warden out after fatal escape try
Retirement comes as jail safety questioned
By ALISA LA POLT, The News-Press Tallahassee bureau
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TALLAHASSEE — The warden of the Charlotte Correctional Institution abruptly announced his resignation Thursday in the aftermath of a failed escape attempt at the facility June 11 that resulted in the deaths of a correctional officer and an inmate. Warren W. Cornell, 55, will be retiring, according to the Department of Corrections.
Department spokesman Sterling Ivey stressed that Cornell offered to retire and was not forced out. But Corrections Secretary James Crosby Jr. said Cornell’s departure involved “policy and performance,” as first reported Thursday afternoon at news-press.com.
According to the department’s written policy,
38-year-old officer Darla K. Lathrem never should have been left alone to supervise a five-man team on construction work detail inside the prison June 11.
“Policies were not followed,” Crosby said Thursday. “There should have been two officers there.”
Cornell, who worked for the DOC for 32 years and who served as Charlotte Correctional Institution’s warden since 1997, could not be reached for comment Thursday at his Punta Gorda home. Cornell will take annual leave beginning today through June 30, when his retirement becomes effective.
“This is a very high-pressure job, and the death of this officer has affected him personally,” Ivey said.
In his five-paragraph resignation letter to his supervisor, Cornell noted that it was an “appropriate time” to retire.
“The last few days have been trying times for those associated with the tragic murder of Officer Lathrem,” Cornell wrote to Marta Villacorta, regional director of institutions. “Please continue to provide support and comfort to the hurting staff,” he said, adding, “Best wishes and good luck as you continue to face the difficult tasks ahead.”
Attempts to contact James Baiardi, president of the State Correctional Officers Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, for comment on Cornell’s resignation were unsuccessful.
Crosby immediately named Don Gladish as Cornell’s replacement. Gladish started his career as a correctional officer at Florida State Prison in 1976 and has served as Marion Correctional Institution’s warden since September 2000.
Lathrem’s family had not been told the warden was stepping down.
“What you are telling me right now is complete news to me and to the family. The warden has been very gracious and accommodating since the incident,” Harvey Rollings, Lathrem’s brother-in-law and family spokesman, told The News-Press on Thursday.
“I am surprised (by the news), due to the relative short time from the incident. We don't know the facts behind it so we can’t comment,” he said.
The family also doesn’t want to say anything until the FDLE completes its investigation into the escape attempt and deaths.
“We have heard of some of these statements (of policies not being followed). The family has chosen to not comment on anything until after Florida Department of Law Enforcement finishes their report, at which time we will have all the facts, then we’ll be able to make a proper comment,” he said.
Few details
The department continues to look into other possible policy violations surrounding the death of Lathrem, the first correctional officer killed in 16 years and the first female correctional officer in Florida to die at the hands of an inmate.
No prison employees, including Lathrem’s immediate supervisors, have yet been reprimanded for assigning the 5-foot-9-inch officer to single-handedly oversee the five-man work crew that included convicted murderer Dwight Eaglin, 27, a former professional boxer.
There’s no indication the prison was short on workers that evening. The prison was staffed at an “appropriate level,” Crosby said.
Investigators remain tight-lipped on details such as where Lathrem’s body was discovered and how the escape attempt unfolded.
Most violent felons
Gov. Jeb Bush last week stated that Lathrem had been killed with a sledgehammer. It was among the tools being used by the inmates to repair a dormitory facing a building inspection the next day.
That inspection was to be a finishing touch in Charlotte Correctional Institution’s conversion from a 1,000-bed prison into a smaller “close-management” facility that would house the most violent inmates in the state prison system.
“It would allow us to provide mental health counseling to this very violent population, instead of having very violent inmates spread out across several prisons,” Ivey said.
A close-management facility is designed to “house inmates who commit acts that threaten the safety of others, threaten the security of the institution, or demonstrate an inability to live in the general population without abusing the rights and privileges of others,” according to the department’s Web site.
It’s not yet clear which of Lathrem’s crew members — if any — were to be assigned to close-management supervision, Ivey said. But DOC’s policies state two officers must be present when cell doors are opened for inmates assigned to work crews.
In the most severe cases, inmates must be in restraints, each escorted by a correctional officer, to and from work sites, the policy document states.
Timetable
About 10 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, a correctional officer spotted Eaglin, the former boxer, between two 15-foot security fences with a makeshift ladder cobbled from smaller ladders.
Sensors and motion detectors alerted prison security of the escapee, Ivey said.
Another two inmates were found in a nearby dormitory, but corrections officials refuse to release their names until FDLE concludes its investigation.
Still two more injured inmates were transferred to Lee Memorial Hospital for treatment.
One unofficially has been identified as John Beaston, 37, incarcerated after he tried to break out a friend’s son from a Miami-area state prison by running a semi-trailer cab through four security fences on April 11, 1998.
Another inmate, Charles Fuston, died after being taken off life support. Investigators initially said he might have tried to help defend Lathrem in the attack.
It’s not clear yet what time Lathrem took her work crew on assignment. Ivey said it’s not unusual for inmate crews to work on buildings, in the kitchen and laundry, and at other locations on the prison compound during night hours.
Past problems
It’s not the first time that Charlotte Correctional Institution has been criticized for lax supervision of work crews.
In 1997, under Cornell’s administration, a correctional officer was removed from his job as a supervisor after letting inmates on a work crew eat at a Burger King.
Before Cornell’s administration, two wardens were removed from their post at the facility.
Don Dean was demoted in October 1990 for spending too much money on his living quarters. In 1993, Roderick James was demoted amid allegations of altered time cards.
— The News-Press staff writers Sarah Lundy and Adam Kovac contributed to this report.
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