The Florida Department of Corrections has not commented publicly about the incident since it occurred last week.
That data breach has frightened and infuriated some of the women who had their names, email addresses, and telephone numbers released to those incarcerated at the prison located near the Florida Everglades.
Inmates received that information via an email sent out by a staff member of the facility on Thursday. Florida inmates have access to emails through both interactive kiosks as well as secure tablets.
“It’s kind of disturbing when you think about it,” said Madeline Donate, who regularly visits her husband at the prison. “The privacy aspect of this is concerning. This is how other inmates get information and can sometimes extort family members and things like that. It’s concerning.”
Jan Thompson said she fears extortion.
“What if there’s some inmate that doesn’t like another inmate?” she said. “And he tells his family, ‘Okay, here’s his wife’s phone number. Call her and tell her if she doesn’t pay and put $500 on my book, I’m going to have her husband stabbed and killed.’ What’s stopping them from doing that?”
(Inmates can receive funds for deposit into their “inmate trust accounts” from individuals already identified on the inmate’s automated visiting record).
“I’m very worried. This is not okay,” added a woman who wanted to be identified only as Dakota, her middle name. “Someone needs to be held accountable for this. They need to take the necessary precautions to ensure that this does not happen. And what about this information that’s out there? There’s what, 1,600 [inmates] there? They all have information. God knows what they could do with it.”
Visit protocol
Individuals who intend to visit an inmate in one of Florida’s prisons must fill out an application form every time they intend to make such a visit — a policy introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Previously, once an individual was approved by the FDC, they could just show up during visitation hours.
Visitors who spoke to the Phoenix said that policy made sense during the pandemic, as the department needed to control the number of visitors consistent with social distancing protocols. However, those protocols have long since been discarded.
Patrice Kelley was furious when her incarcerated husband informed her Friday that her personal contact information had been released to every other inmate at ECI. Kelley had removed most of her digital footprint from the internet after having a problem with a stalker in her immediate past. “Unfortunately, people in Florida that are at that institution now have my information,” she said.
“I don’t live in Florida anymore, so that’s a good thing,” she said, adding that “it only takes somebody saying, ‘This is where this person lives.’”
Individuals who had their personal contact information exposed were unhappy that, as of Monday morning, no one from the Florida Department of Corrections had acknowledged the data breach to them personally.
“They have yet to notify me that my personal information has been exposed to 1,600 inmates. That is unbelievable,” Thompson said, adding that she doubted that would be the situation had the contact information of staff members inadvertently been sent to prisoners.
Denise Rock, executive director of the prisoner advocacy group Florida Cares, said her organization’s main concern is not with the institution but the visitation process, which she said is duplicative and led to the data breach.
“We urge the department to discontinue requiring already-approved visitors to register and release their private information each time they do so,” she said in a text message.
“When the Florida Department of Corrections put the sign-up process in place permanently, we had many concerns. The limitations and restrictions it placed on the families were burdensome, but this breach of privacy leads to safety concerns for the families — further highlighting why this practice should be discontinued immediately. If it happened this time, which is one too many times, it can surely happen again.”
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2025.