Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones says she’s working to move past the alleged KKK murder plot involving two of her former correctional employees last week.
During her latest Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Jones was questioned about the incident. Investigators say the three men—two current employees at the time—had plotted to kill a black inmate upon his release from prison. Concerns were raised about the department’s hiring policies, but Jones says these men did not raise any red flags.
“When we hire people, we can’t ask what your political affiliations are,” said Jones. “We look for patterns of behavior relative to the job performance. And, to answer your question, for those two individuals, their job performance did not indicate that they had that particular mindset.”
Jones was also questioned about the process of filing inmate and correctional officers’ grievances. She told a Senate panel last week that she’s looking into making the inmate grievance process electronic. And, as she was in that committee, the Senate Criminal Justice committee agreed unanimously to confirm Jones Tuesday.
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