Pubdate: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 Source: Florida Times-Union (FL) Copyright: The Florida Times-Union 1999 Contact: http://www.times-union.com/ Forum: http://cafe.jacksonville.com/cafesociety.html Author: Thomas B. Pfankuch, Times-Union staff writer PRISON VIOLENCE ON RISE INMATES REACT TO VALDES DEATH TALLAHASSEE - Inmates at Florida prisons have become increasingly violent toward guards since inmate Frank Valdes died at Florida State Prison in July, Corrections Secretary Michael Moore said yesterday. Inmates violently assaulted guards on seven occasions in the roughly two months after the July 17 death of Valdes, whose death has been ruled a homicide and is under investigation by a grand jury in Gainesville. In a similar time period prior to Valdes' death, inmates seriously assaulted guards only once, Moore said. Moore, who spoke before a state House committee yesterday, attributed the increase in assaults to a perception among inmates that the resolve of the corrections system has been weakened by the Valdes incident. ''Inmates are opportunists,'' Moore said after the hearing held by the House Corrections Committee. ''They think, 'This is our chance . . . we'll slide by, we can do this or that.' '' According to Moore, the violence since Valdes' death included a July 25 inmate attack on a guard at South Bay Correctional Institute in which the inmate jammed his finger in a guard's eye socket, and a Sept. 11 brawl at Union Correctional Institute in which 25 inmates attacked guards, injuring 11. In a Sept. 20 incident at Gainesville Correctional Institute an inmate injured four guards, including one who suffered a broken jaw. Moore's 90-minute appearance before the House committee yesterday was far less tense than a similar appearance before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee last month, where Moore was questioned at length. At yesterday's hearing, one lawmaker called on the public, press and Legislature to stop condemning the corrections department. ''We in the Legislature and the people in the state of Florida have to remember that those people in there [state prisons] are the bad people, and those people working there are the good people,'' said Rep. Jerry Melvin, R-Fort Walton Beach. Meanwhile yesterday, Moore announced that the name of the X-Wing where Valdes was killed has been changed to the Q-Wing, as it was formerly known. Moore said he changed the name of the high-security, punitive wing because he ''didn't like the connotation'' of the name XWing. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea