Hernando County Detention Center Passes Annual Inspection
On 08-6-15, the Hernando County Detention Center again successfully passed its annual Florida Model Jail Standards Inspection, drawing high praise from inspectors from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. This is the fifth such inspection that the facility has passed while being operated by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
The Florida Model Jail Standards (FMJS) are the statutorily mandated minimum standards that jails across Florida must meet to ensure the constitutional rights of those incarcerated are upheld. Prior to 1996, the Florida Department of Corrections was responsible for the standards and inspection process for Local County jails through the Office of the Inspector General.
Legislation was passed in 1996 that gave the authority of inspections to the local level. This change required the Florida Sheriffs Association and Florida Association of Counties to appoint individuals to serve on a Committee that would govern standards that local jails must comply with.
Taken over by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office in August of 2010, this annual inspection of both detention and medical operations ensures that the Hernando County Detention Center and Sheriff’s Office staff meet or exceed the minimum performance standards to operate a constitutional jail in the state of Florida.
The Inspection Team, led by outside law enforcement agencies, scrutinized both the conditions and policies of the Detention Center, continually praising the operation during the day, and found all to be well above minimum standards.
Twenty different areas are inspected to include housing, kitchen, medical, programs and sanitation. Inmate disciplinary actions and reports are also examined. Both inmates and staff were interviewed at length for an independent view of daily operations.
It is with great pride that the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office exceeds these 228 detention and 44 medical minimum standards.
“The FMJS inspection is a true and real inspection by your peers in the business,” said Hernando County Detention Center Medical Director Kristine DeKany. “Having no serious or notable violations noted shows that we are doing the right things and this makes me very proud of what we have accomplished here at the Hernando County Detention Center.”
