prison funerals

 

July 7, 2022

A friend recently asked me how prisoners who died while incarcerated were handled; the following was my reply, which Libby thought was worthy of posting, as others may be interested:

A brief treatise on prison funerals.

The Florida Administrative Code, Chapter 33 Rules, FDC, regulate procedures concerning inmate deaths, notifications, and funerals. I haven't read the updated rules, since they don't particularly pertain to me, yet. Check the FDC website for corroboration.

From 1980--83 I lived in Bldg 7, C Area, of the Southwest Unit, 13 bldgs, air conditioned, your own key to your two-man cell door. Best living conditions in Florida prisons at the time. My cell window looked south, past the gun tower and the triple fences, across a large cow pasture, up a hill where the prison cemetery rested. Some people called it Boot Hill, after the movie Westerns. Others called it Gopher Ridge. Having never been there, I couldn't confirm the presence or absence of gophers.

My friend Roy died in a botched escape attempt. The chaplain notified his next-of-kin, his wife, in Tampa, asking if she wanted his body. She replied, "What am I supposed to do with it?"

The Starke Funeral Home had the state contract for prison deaths. Roy was taken there. They embalmed him, put him in a cheap pine box, and took him to Gopher Ridge. Several inmates with minimum custody on the outside grounds squad dug the grave. A chapel orderly, Nat Grimes, read some words from the Bible. The state auto tag plant made an aluminum tag with Roy's prison number only. No name. The tag was attached to a white cross. That was it.

Years later a new rule was posted, stating that unclaimed bodies could be cremated, saving the state money.

I suppose Gopher Ridge is still there.

Charlie Norman