Hurricane Helene left a trail of disaster across six states after making landfall in Florida on September 26, 2024. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton reached Florida’s Gulf Coast on October 9, 2024, causing more destruction across the state. Close to three million Floridians had lost power as of October 10, 2024, making communication difficult at many prisons and jails there. Before both storms, thousands of residents evacuated under mandatory orders, but many of those incarcerated in vulnerable lockups remained trapped.

Helene spewed damaging wind and flooding as it cartwheeled 500 miles from Florida to Virginia. Prisons and jails in Florida and North Carolina were most affected.Several North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (DAC) lockups were left without water or power. On October 1, 2024, the first wave of evacuations began from three prisons in the northwestern part of the state: 841 prisoners from Avery-­Mitchell Correctional Institution (AMCI), plus 400 prisoners each from two women’s lockups, Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center and Western Correctional Center for Women.

DAC deployed generators and bottled water in prisons without utility services. But phone and tablet communications were also disrupted. Visitation was suspended “until further notice.” The storm exposed serious shortcomings in DAC’s disaster preparedness, particularly at Mountain View Correctional Institution (MVCI), which was not evacuated until after nearby AMCI, even though the latter was arguably less affected. Both lost running water. But AMCI had working generators. Meanwhile, MVCI prisoners spent nearly a week in single cells whose overflowing toilets forced them to defecate in plastic bags. Family members faced an agonizing information blackout, criticizing DAC updates as insufficient.

MVCI guards reportedly retaliated against prisoners with pepper spray and beatings for filling too many waste bags with bowel movements. DAC eventually evacuated over 2,000 prisoners. The agency also disputed claims of food and water shortages, insisting that prisoners got three meals and bottled water. On October 3, 2024, DAC relocated another 800 prisoners due to the lack of power and running water, bringing the total displaced to over 2,800.

Florida State Prisoners Were Relocated, Jail Detainees Were Not

Ahead of Hurricane Helene, the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) relocated over 4,000 prisoners to “hardened” lockups—those designed to cage high-­risk prisoners. Roof damage forced evacuations from Calhoun Correctional Institution in the panhandle east of Tallahassee, but most state prisons reported no significant damage.

Prisoners evacuated from Jefferson Correctional Institution (JCI) near Monticello complained that they were sent to lockup with unsanitary conditions, including brown water and limited supplies. One JCI prisoner’s mother said that he called before being evacuated but didn’t know where he was being taken and was not allowed to bring anything with him. Later, he reported arriving in an “absolutely filthy” prison, where no bottled water or medications had been provided. “I feel like they treat our loved ones as cattle that they just herd from one place to the other, and they do it until they die,” the upset mom said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) authorized forced labor of state prisoners for hurricane cleanup at their lockups, blithely remarking that “[t]hey do prison labor anyways.” DeSantis was quick to point out the cost savings to taxpayers of using free prison labor instead of private contractors. The governor also suggested using prisoners in Pinellas County to clear private property and “lift people’s spirits up.”

Many county jails reported effective hurricane preparedness plans and minimal disruptions. But despite mandatory evacuation orders, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office decided not to evacuate detainees from its overcrowded jail, which holds 3,104 detainees in a space with beds for 2,915. Jailers planned to move detainees to upper floors, which fortunately proved unnecessary.

BOP Reported Evacuation and Damage in South Carolina
After Helene

On September 29, 2024, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) reported that prisoners and staff in affected South Carolina areas were fine, despite extensive damage to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Estill. The storm took out running water and electricity, prompting temporary prisoner relocations to the satellite camp at FCI-­Talladega in Alabama. BOP also said that FCI-­Edgefield sustained significant damage when roof failure resulted in flooding. There were no reported injuries though.

South Carolina state prisoners had visitation canceled on Sunday, September 29, 2024. After the storm passed, both state DOC prisoners and staffers were deployed to clear roads near the South Carolina/Georgia border. DOC’s website did not mention Hurricane Helene nor the agency’s emergency plans, though it updated the order of execution for death row prisoner Richard Bernard Moore, who is now scheduled to die on November 1, 2024.

Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia Deploy Prison Labor for Clean Up

After Helene, the Georgia DOC reported that some prisons suffered temporary outages of phone, internet, and power, but generators maintained operations where necessary. No prisons were flooded or evacuated, but a few with water issues received potable and non-­potable water supplies. Taking a sanguine view, the agency said its lockups fared no worse than the communities where they are located.

County jails were also largely unaffected in both Georgia and Tennessee; in the latter, the state DOC also reported no issues or evacuations. BOP reported that some facilities went on lockdown, also bringing on extra employees to keep shifts fully staffed.

In Virginia, state prisoners reportedly cleared hundreds of miles of roadways in Independence, Damascus, and High Knob, providing thousands of emergency meals and assisting with distributing generators and bottled water.

Thousands of Florida Prisoners Evacuated for Second Hurricane

When Hurricane Milton came ashore near Sarasota, Florida, over 28,000 people were incarcerated in counties under mandatory evacuation orders, and an estimated 18,000 were in flood-­prone areas. Despite those risks, several coastal counties, including Manatee, Lee and Pinellas, refused to evacuate their jails. In Manatee County, where storm surges were forecast as high as 15 feet, jail officials insisted their hurricane-­rated facility was safe. Pinellas County officials also chose again not to evacuate their jail, located close to the coastline.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported that detainees at its Orient Road Jail in Tampa were in a mandatory evacuation zone, so they were transferred to another lockup in a lower-­risk zone. That was the exception though. Other sheriffs on Florida’s west coast generally declined to discuss specific plans instead emphasizing that they had sufficient supplies and backup power for extended emergencies.

West of Orlando, detainees in the Lake County Detention Center in Tavares were pressed into service filling sandbags for residents. Others helped at parks and an athletic complex while forced to wear their distinctive black-­and-­white striped jail garb.

Over 5,600 Florida Prisoners Relocated

By the time Milton hit, Florida’s DOC had relocated even more prisoners than were moved for Helene—over 5,600, an historic number for an agency often left flatfooted in times of emergency. State prisons in Hernando, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties did not evacuate. Responding to criticism of its operations during Helene, DOC also promised to update its website with prisoner relocation information within 24 hours. Visitation was canceled through October 13, 2024.

Once again, jails in counties under mandatory evacuation orders remained open. The state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) also did not confirm evacuations for lockups in evacuation zones—just preparations that included extra fuel and supplies, plus generator testing. BOP reported no power or water outages at FCI-­Coleman in Sumter County, near the hurricane’s path but declined to provide specifics on prisoner transfers.  

Sources:  The Appeal, BBC, Charlotte Observer, The Conversation, Florida Politics, Fort Myers News-Press, KXLY, My Daily Record, New York Times, Tampa Bay Times, WAGM, WPBF, WTSP, WXII

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