Family members furious after Florida prison staff leaks private visitor information to inmates

A “Level 5” maximum security prison in Florida has leaked the personal contact information of every person who has visited an inmate incarcerated at the prison, causing panic and anger among family members who say they are now targets for extortion.

The leak took place at the Everglades Correctional Institution (ECI) in Miami-Dade County on Thursday, July 24th, according to an initial report by the local nonprofit news site Florida Phoenix based in Tallahassee.

Apparently, a staff member at a high-security prison shared the visitors’ personal contact information via email “with every inmate at that facility,” the news outlet said.

Inmates at the prison have access to email “through both interactive kiosks as well as secure tablets,” the outlet said.

The leaked information is said to include names, home addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers – making those compromised visitors ripe for extortion, bribery, and harassment by other prisoners.

Speaking with five different individuals in the days after the leak, the Florida Phoenix reported that women in particular have raised concerns for their safety.

“What if there’s some inmate that doesn’t like another inmate? And he tells his family, ‘Okay, here’s his wife’s phone number. Call her and tell her if she doesn’t pay and put $500 on my book, I’m going to have her husband stabbed and killed.’ What’s stopping them from doing that?” one inmate visitor told the outlet.

Located on the outskirts of Miami, the Everglades Correctional Institution is the third-largest state prison system in the US, with over 89,000 male inmates.

Listed as a Level 5 maximum security prison, the inmate population is made up of highly violent offenders, including sex offenders and death row inmates, who require extreme levels of direct supervision and live in individual cells, some up to 23 hours per day in solitary confinement.

Among the most violent in the nation, these high-security prisons typically have multiple reinforced fences or an actual wall surrounding them with gun watch towers, according to a report by the Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C. criminal defense firm.

It's unclear the number of visitors whose personal information may have been exposed, or what prison officials plan to do about the leak. According to the Florida Phoenix, the prison has not publicly commented on the leak or sent out breach notifications to any inmate visitors.

Cybernews has reached out to the prison press office for comment, as well as Prison Warden Herman Rogers, and the Florida Department of Corrections, but has not heard back at the time of this report.

Prison advocates have urged the Everglades facilityto discontinue its post-pandemic visitation process, calling it cumbersome, duplicative, and the reason behind the breach.

Initially put in place to monitor social distancing, it requires already pre-approved visitors to register their private information with the prison each time they visit the facility.

“When the Florida Department of Corrections put the sign-up process in place permanently, we had many concerns. The limitations and restrictions it placed on the families were burdensome, but this breach of privacy leads to safety concerns for the families — further highlighting why this practice should be discontinued immediately,” said Denise Rock, the executive director of the Florida Cares advocacy group.

“If it happened this time, which is one too many times, it can surely happen again,” she said.