On Julie Jones’ ridiculous statement to the Miami Herald

After a story in Sunday’s Miami Herald detailed instances of corruption, coerced sex and trading of sex for contraband, Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones issued a written statement saying reforms implemented under her leadership have made Lowell Correctional Institution a safer place, but added she plans to “thoroughly review the disturbing allegations brought forward by the Miami Herald to ensure that the appropriate action is taken against any individual bearing responsibility for misconduct.”

No surprise there. Startle a turtle and it retreats into its shell.

What Jones said that is surprising is her criticism of the Herald, saying the newspaper should have submitted its findings to authorities rather than assemble them into an investigative series that took months to produce.

“This is not the course of action the newspaper chose to take,” she said.

Say what?

Am I missing the part where reporter Julie Brown was hired by the DOC’s Inspector General’s office? Does the Miami Herald suddenly work for the state of Florida?  Is a newspaper no longer suppose to produce, you know, a newspaper?

Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, executive editor of the Miami Herald, told Kate Irby of Bradenton.com: “Our role as journalists is to investigate and report on critical issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. We did that for this series, using hundreds of records obtained from the Department of Corrections, as well as scores of interviews. Had a representative from corrections agreed to our many requests for an interview before publication, they would have learned about the issues raised by our reporting.”

Irby reports Jones had been asked to comment on the Herald’s findings, but her spokesman said she could not because of an illness in her family. The department rejected requests to make her top deputy, Ricky Dixon, available for an interview.

In other words, even if the Herald – for some reason alien to the tenets of journalism – had decided to “submit its findings to authorities rather than assemble them into an investigative series,” no one at DOC was even around to take the newspaper’s call.

Jones need to stop blaming editors and reporters for doing their job and focus on fixing the problems at Lowell.