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2020 was the deadliest year for correctional officers, advocacy group says
On Location: May 14, 2021
Replay Video UP NEXT Last year was the deadliest on record for correctional officers, according to the nonprofit group One Voice, which tracks correctional officers deaths. According to the group, 219 officers and 41 staff died of COVID-19, since March 2020. In a typical year, about 11 officers lose their lives, One Voice said. Friday night, One Voice will honor those fallen in a virtual candlelight vigil. We mourn the 219 correctional officers and 41 non-custody employees who died while reporting for duty during the pandemic as well as the thousands of incarcerated individuals who have died across the country, said Andy Potter, retired correctional officer and founder of One Voice United.
Timothy Lee Whistler avoided a possible death sentence for beating a psychic to death with a Champagne bottle in Cassadaga a quarter century ago.
Whistler pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder in Volusia County Circuit Court, served about 20 years in state prison and was released in 2016. He then moved to Missouri to live with his wife and began serving his 20 years of probation.
But in February, he was arrested in Missouri on a charge of driving while intoxicated, a violation of his probation.
The 49-year-old Whistler was extradited back to the Volusia County Branch Jail and that’s when COVID-19 became a death sentence he could not avoid.
CDC Survey: Distrust Likely To Keep Majority Of Florida Prisoners From Getting COVID-19 Vaccine
By Alex DeLuca
May 3, 2021
When Jose Valentin learned he’d have the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, he wrestled over whether or not to get it.
Valentin, who is incarcerated at Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach, said he feels lucky to be offered the potentially life-saving shot; he knows many people across the world still lack access to it. But after weighing the decision, he ultimately refused it.
“They don’t want us in society,” Valentin, 46, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery, wrote in an email, “so why do you want us healthy in here?”