ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 28, 1996 TAG: 9612300082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
FLORIDA'S GOVERNOR LOSES AN ATTEMPT to make prisoners serve more of their sentences.
The Supreme Court refused to interfere in a Florida court's ruling that restores time off for good behavior for nearly a third of that state's 64,000 prisoners.
Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth had tried to rescind time off for many prisoners in response to the outcry over the scheduled release of a convicted child-killer who subsequently was slain in a prison yard.
In a poll of the justices, the high court on Friday for the time being left intact a Florida Supreme Court decision handed down Oct. 10. The Florida court overturned Butterworth's order rescinding good-behavior credits.
Because of overcrowded prisons, Florida in the 1980s started giving inmates a 33 percent reduction in sentence plus 20 days time off each month for following prison rules.
Changing those rules after prisoners had already received their punishments violated their constitutional rights, the Florida court said.
The Florida court's action and the Supreme Court's refusal to intervene will restore good-behavior privileges to about 22,000 Florida prisoners whose crimes were committed before Oct. 1, 1995.
Under a law that took effect on that date, Florida prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.
Charles Wells, sheriff of Manatee County, Fla., and head of a citizens group, Stop Turning Out Prisoners, said Friday's action meant Florida would see more violence and more victims. ``That's reality,'' he said. ``That's going to happen.''
The Florida case was brought by an attorney for Richard Gwong of Clearwater. He was sentenced to 22 years for killing another man while trying to collect on a drug deal. Butterworth's action would have stretched his prison time by three years.
Butterworth had sought to rescind the time-off practice when it appeared that Donald McDougall would otherwise go free next spring. McDougall was serving a 34-year sentence for the 1982 torture-slaying of his girlfriend's 5-year-old daughter.
McDougall himself was beaten to death in a prison yard Oct. 1, a week after a caller to a radio talk show put a $1,000 bounty on his head. The show marked the 14th anniversary of the death of Ursula Sunshine Assaid.
McDougall, 40, spent a week in protective custody after the bounty was offered. He then asked to rejoin other prisoners. Eight hours after doing so, he was attacked in a compound filled with about 200 prisoners at Avon Park Correctional Institution.
``All we wanted to do was keep this guy in prison,'' talk show host Russ Rollins of WTKS in Orlando said at the time. ``We didn't want to have him killed. But we're not upset that he's dead.''
Prison witnesses said Arba Earl Barr, 33, hit McDougall in the head with a steel bar, then hit him several more times after he fell. Barr, serving a 114-year term for robbery and battery, was charged with murder.
Ursula Assaid died after more than two months of abuse. She was deprived of food and water, fed soap, denied sleep and forced to stand naked for hours and recite the alphabet.
Her body was found months later in a weighted duffel bag in a pond, but her ashes lay unclaimed until 1988, when a children's advocate arranged for their burial.
McDougall was convicted of murder and aggravated child abuse. Ursula's mother, Susan Assaid, was convicted of manslaughter and served nearly five years.
McDougall was scheduled to be released on New Year's Eve 1992, but after protests, Butterworth ruled that child sex offenders weren't eligible for early release. Later, Butterworth changed the rules to deny killers, kidnappers and sex offenders credit for good behavior.
Reacting to protests over the early release of prisoners, the Florida legislature eliminated the practice.
Gwong's lawyer, Baya Harrison, decried Butterworth's ruling, calling it ``the `I'm running for governor''' opinion. A Butterworth spokesman denied it was politically motivated.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB