[Name of inmate has been left out for fear of retaliation]

On September 28th, Lee County was among several counties devastated by Hurricane Ian as it made landfall ‘just shy’ of a Category 5. Meteorologists stressed for days that the biggest threat of this storm was storm surge and flooding, despite the danger of sustained winds reaching up to 155 mph. Surrounding counties heeded the warning that storm surge could reach up to 18 ft. in areas closest to the water, and destructive flooding was likely anywhere in Hurricane Ian’s path. Several jails and corrections facilities across Florida evacuated approximately 2500 inmates ahead of the storm. Lee county was absent from the list published by the Florida Department of Corrections in a Hurricane Ian press release, despite the growing concern the storm would make landfall in SWFL.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Department chose not to evacuate the Downtown Fort Myers Jail, despite being located in an ordered mandatory evacuation zone. The Downtown Fort Myers Jail is located on the corner of Monroe St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. which sits a couple of blocks from the Caloosahatchee River. Rumors began circling on social media sites days after the flooding receded that inmates had drowned, because no one could verify that any one in the jail was actually safe. The sheriff addressed these rumors on social media, stating that no one died in their care and they moved them to the upper floor in an “abundance of caution.”

An “abundance of caution” implies that there was no imminent need to to move them. This unfortunately was not the case, as downtown saw storm surges and flooding that completely submerged businesses a block away. The phrase “an abundance of caution” shouldn’t be used to describe keeping inmates trapped in a mandatory evacuation zone, and only moving them to a higher floor once it starts flooding inside.

Two weeks passed before I received an update from a friend who was serving a short sentence in the Downtown Fort Myers Jail. This was a longtime childhood friend that I had continuous correspondence with, that usually messaged me immediately, the same day I sent the message. I sent several messages to them the days following landfall, each message increasingly more desperate. After several unanswered messages and calls to the jail that would ring without answer for two weeks, I was finally able to speak to a secretary that seemed like she was just hired. She explained that there was no reason inmates shouldn’t be able to send messages, and that they now had power at the jail on Ortez. I asked where my friend was located, and she was finally able to confirm they were moved after the hurricane. I asked if they had access to the messaging system at this jail, she said “they should, and I could always come visit if I was that worried.”

I was that worried.

“Come Visit?” I said, “Do I need to fill any forms out?”

She stated “Well the inmate would have to fill out a form so that you could visit them”

I replied, “Do they know that? Could you look up if they have any approved visitors?”

She told me “Not usually, and that my friend did not have any listed at this jail, but that I could always message them, and tell them to ask for the proper form to fill out to add me to their list.”

I replied, “Oh, right I could always message them to tell them to fill out a form so that I can visit to verify that they’re okay, which I don’t know because they haven’t responded to my messages.”

The line fell silent, and I thanked her because I knew she must have been flustered, it can’t be easy to have to explain the poor decisions of her superiors to the inmates’ loved ones all day.

I decided to draft one more message on my lunch break, this time I pleaded to my friend through smartjailmail.com (where our previous conversations took place) to let me know they’re okay. I was trying to be rational and not fear the worst, but the inmates well-being was left up to the imagination for weeks. The LCSO Tik-Tok posted videos dispelling rumors, and declaring that inmates were ‘safe’, sent me further into a fearful spiral, because my definition of safe does not include refusing to evacuate a government building during a mandatory evacuation.

Curiously enough, less than 24 hours later after my only routed conversation with a jail secretary, I received a message from my friend. This time though, the message was short and quick and unlike our usual sentimental ramblings. They informed me that they were alive, but the message further confirmed the statements in the Miami New Times article about a women’s mom who was being held in the Downtown Jail and the insufferable conditions she experienced there.

My friend explained that they were not evacuated prior to the storm, and that the Downtown Fort Myers Jail did indeed flood. They were moved upstairs to a higher floor, once it started flooding. They were then held there at the Downtown Jail without water for a few days, and had to “piss and shit in BUCKETS” because of the damage caused from the flooding causing a water main break. They told me they were held at that jail without running water for a week, before they were transferred to the larger jail on Ortiz, next to the Juvenile Facility. They explained to me they were only provided an 8 oz cup of water twice a day.

Reading this, I was already outraged – the jail should have been evacuated. These are people who were told they needed to leave, but had no choice but to be locked up and forced to stay. They did not evacuate the inmates, until a week after the storm and placed inmates with low-level offenses or still waiting on their first appearance with dangerous felons serving longer sentences.

My friend explained that at Ortiz, they are only able to leave their cell for 45 minutes, twice a week, and that is the only time they have to respond to messages, make a call, or wait in line and shower. I can’t help but wonder, if they are making it difficult for inmates to contact their loved ones to delay information of their conditions from making its way out. Both inmates and their loved ones were left in the dark about each others safety for several days to weeks.

This could have been easily avoided if they were evacuated in the first place, considering the inmates here were not all convicted of a crime. No one under the county’s care should be “pissing and shitting in BUCKETS” while locked in a cage. They had the responsibility to locate them to a safer facility when the mandatory evacuation was ordered. The most concerning aspect of this situation is how many people believed the possibility that the Lee County’s Sheriff’s Office left the inmates to drown. Two weeks prior to Hurricane Ian, LCSO conducted a press release as the 12th inmate died in their care in 2022 alone.

Limiting the access of communications to the inmates to check on their loved ones, seems unnecessarily cruel. We still do not know for sure if an inmate died in their care as a result of the hurricane, but we do know they were without water for days, defecating in buckets, and held in the flooded out jail for a week before being moved to a facility.

What is particularly interesting is the edit history debunking the “rumors” about the lee county jail. In their original post they stated “-No children or adults died in our custody at the Lee County Jail.” to “-No children or adults died in our custody at the Lee County Jail as a result of the hurricane”

This is particularly intriguing seeing as the sheriff announced they were recategorizing deaths that would be counted “as a result of the hurricane.” As this story continues to evolve, there is one fact that remains crucial, and that is the Downtown Lee County Jail was not evacuated, even though the county had the responsibility to make sure people that were in their care were evacuated if they we held in a zone that was ordered to be evacuated.