TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN)

Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That’s what Florida’s former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation’s largest prison systems two years ago.

In fact, on his first day on the job, James McDonough says he walked into his office — the same one his predecessor used — and there was crime scene tape preventing anyone from entering.


Party house where prison officials held orgies.

McDonough revealed a startling list of alleged abuses and crimes going on inside Florida’s prisons:

  • Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks
  • Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field
  • Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women
  • Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them

“Corruption had gone to an extreme,” McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. “They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren’t taking money and beating each other up.”
[…]
“I cannot explain how big an obsession softball had become,” he said. “People were promoted on the spot after a softball game at the drunken party to high positions in the department because they were able to hit a softball out of the park a couple times.”
[…]
McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida’s drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida’s prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates.

He left his post last Thursday as secretary of Florida’s Department of Corrections because, he says, he feels he has cleaned up the corruption. It’s time, he said, “to turn this over to law and order people that have made this their life’s goal.”

Video here.

Cripes! I’m speechless. Unbelievable!




  1. eyeofthetiger says:

    Geeze, who knew softball had such a pull in the private prison industry???

  2. GigG says:

    Softball is a more legit method for promotions than most other Florida government uses.

    And your headline was wrong. He said they were drunk half the time and had orgies the other half. That means no drunken orgies. Those were cold sober orgies.

    [Har! – ed.]

  3. circuitsmith says:

    To hear G. Gordon Liddy describe prison guards and officials, none of this should be surprising.

  4. AdmFubar says:

    florida huh??? why does this not suprise me…..

  5. Uncle Patso says:

    There has GOT to be something in the water in Florida! (I wonder if they could export it?)… It’s got to be better than “The Blood of a Wig” (story by Terry Southern, author of “The Magic Christian.)

  6. Angel H. Wong says:

    Orgies in an all male prison… Now that sounds like decadent fun.

    Not surprising since Florida is run by middleaged Republican men.

  7. Sean O'Hara says:

    So all that’s changed since Robert Aldrich made The Longest Yard is that they play softball instead of football?

  8. tchamp2 says:

    Dear Prison Guards — I am highly interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    Ah, tax dollars at work.

  9. Mister Catshit says:

    I’m surprised and very pleased that someone has admitted to a serious corrupt system and taken steps to clean it up. And kept their job for the time it took.

    Good for him and I wish the Colonel similar success in his next job.

  10. TheGlobalWarmingNemesis says:

    What’s surprising. Prisons are a gov’t bureaucracy and we all know how those work. Expect health care to operate the same way if Hillarycare ever goes into effect.


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