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Reports of a troubled prison system rocked the state’s department of corrections and it looked like there would be legislative changes made this year. But as Matt Galka tells us, that didn’t end up happening, and just this week, there were more prison guard arrests.

Donald Sims was one of two Columbia Correctional guards arrested Tuesday after allegedly beating inmate Shurick Lewis at Columbia Correction Institution.

It’s another mark against the state’s troubled prison system. Corrections Secretary Julie Jones faced tough questions during legislative session after multiple reports of prisoner abuse and deaths.

Legislative action looking to correct the problems failed this year after session turned chaotic and ended early. Measures including forming an oversight commission and increasing penalties for guards failed to clear both chambers.  Barney Bishop with the Florida Smart Justice Alliance thinks the relatively new secretary needs some time.

“She’s only been here for about 4 months now, we need to give her a chance and we’ve always given every new secretary of every agency a chance,” he said.

The Senator who was leading the charge on prison reform says they won’t stop trying to fix the department.

“Look how far we’ve come with just actually the Senate’s criminal justice committee diving in and finding the things involved,” said Sen. Greg Evers (R-Pensacola) before session ended.

Prison reform advocate Allison Defoor says at the very least, people are aware of the problems now.

“Everybody is serious about Florida’s governance, understands that this thing’s broken. Now we’re just talking solutions and a year or two ago that wasn’t the case.” he said.

Defoor says it took a while for the system to dig a hole this big and it will take a while to get out of it.

The arrests this week come about a month after three other corrections employees were arrested in connection with a prison inmate murder plot. Those employees were also linked to the Ku Klux Klan and the alleged victim was an African-American male.