On April 22, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office received a report from a Palm Coast resident regarding suspicious activity by what she believed were City of Palm Coast employees conducting maintenance near her backyard, which borders a city-maintained drainage swale.
According to the victim, she received notifications from motion-activated security cameras while away from her residence. Upon returning, she reviewed the footage, which revealed two suspicious incidents involving males wearing high visibility safety vests.
In the first video, the victim saw a male, later identified as state prison inmate Gino Carnesi, walk up to her screened patio. Carnesi briefly looked into the patio but did not enter, then turned around and made a motion with his hands.
In the second video, approximately an hour later, the victim saw another male, later identified as state prison inmate Jay Working, 33, approach the patio. Working then entered the patio and quickly ran out less than a minute later. The victim later noticed that a pack of cigarettes and lighter had been stolen from the patio.
During the investigation, detectives determined that Carnesi and Working were both inmates from the Putnam Correctional Institution, assigned to a prison inmate work crew contracted by the City of Palm Coast. Both had previously been convicted on burglary- and theft-related charges and sentenced by a court to state prison.
On April 30, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Working for Burglary of an Unoccupied Dwelling and Petit Theft from a Dwelling (with Prior Conviction) and placed a detainer on him at Putnam Correctional Institution. Working will be transferred to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility upon his release from state prison, presently set for May 31.
Working is currently serving his sentence for a June 2023 arrest in Levy County for Possession of Methamphetamine and Fleeing and Eluding Law Enforcement with Wanton Disregard. His extensive criminal history includes prior convictions in Dixie County for charges including Burglary of an Occupied Dwelling; Burglary of an Unoccupied Structure; Criminal Mischief; Grand Theft; Possession of a Weapon by a Convicted Felon; and Possession of Methamphetamine with intent to Sell, Manufacture, or Deliver.
“I understand that information about this incident circulated on Facebook among some concerned citizens, so it is important to address and correct some of the speculation, rumors, and inaccuracies that we have seen posted,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “These men were not work crew inmates from our detention facility and were not under the supervision of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. We also took this incident seriously from the beginning and conducted a thorough investigation. Obviously, neither of them learned their lesson while in state prison. We are working with the City of Palm Coast and the Florida Department of Corrections to ensure that state inmates assigned to the City’s work crews and supervised by the City are more closely watched so that something like this will not happen again.”
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, both inmates were relocated to disciplinary confinement and will no longer be permitted to participate in a state inmate work crew.
R.S. says
Goodness gracious! A pack of cigarettes? And a lighter? I wouldn’t even have reported that transgression; instead, I might have offered him another pack–if he insisted on ruining his health with that stuff. Rabbi Maimonides already makes exceptions for the theft of small portions that one can consume in one sitting. David ate the temple bread and shared it with his partners although only priests should have consumed it. Thence, Maimonides’ exceptions to theft. Perhaps jailers need to open up to the needs of confined citizens a bit more–considering that jailers already are stealing their labor by enslaving confined citizens.
celia pugliese says
R.S I agree with you regarding the pack of cigarrettes and lighter. taken. But I also see the lack of supervision for our city assigned monitor to keep a close watch on them. That is the most concerning issue here. If we are goinf to use the free work of inmates the individual from the city monitoring them need to do its work.
Mary Fusco says
I consider my home my safe place. If a thief enters, that is take from me. This home owner’s home was violated. It does not matter what was taken. As for whining about the needs of confined citizens, who cares. They violated another’s rights resulting in incarceration.
R.S. says
It does matter what was taken, Ms. Fusco. Having been a smoker eons ago, I know how desperate one feels when deprived of nicotine. If the home’s owner leaves something in plain sight, s/he shares in the responsibility for the theft. The statistics show that many a thief would not have become a thief, had the owner not left the gun on the seat of the unlocked car, or had the owner not left the car unlocked with the keys in it, etc. Some cultures and sub-cultures have different senses of border; your home may be sacred space to you, but that’s not everyone’s understanding. Leaving my address for everyone to help themselves to whatever strikes their fancy is also not the answer; I am not wealthy enough to provide to everyone whatever s/he might need. In fact, it shows insufficient understanding of the problems here to invoke damage to another person’s property. What inmates are learning from the low-skill slave labor is not sufficient to place them on a path to a successful reintegration into society. They make zero money on this work; the city pays merely for the supervisory function of guards. I have seen the contract. Upon release, the returning citizens has no capital to begin a business, no marketable skill, and no employment potential because of background checks. Pure punishment for misdeeds may make you feel good, but it doesn’t do one bit for an improved society. Note that we have a 70 percent rate of recidivism; Norway has a 20 percent rate of recidivism. Let’s lean on our governmental authorities to learn!
Skibum says
I can’t blame our uninformed, untrained residents for the mistaken impression that what this prison work crew inmate did was, in some people’s opinion, a minor transgression rather than a felony crime. They are not supposed to be trained in the law and what elements are needed to prove a person committed burglary instead of a simple theft. Had this inmate simply swiped a pack of cigarettes and lighter from a picnic table at a public park, that would be theft. But when a person enters someone’s dwelling WITH THE INTENT to steal or commit another crime, that becomes a felony offense – Burglary. It makes no difference whether this inmate stole cigarettes and a lighter, a garden tool or a knife or other dangerous weapon from someone’s home. The screened in enclosure had a door which he entered illegally, with the intent to steal that homeowner’s property. Simple – he was arrested and properly charged for another felony crime, and depending on what the homeowners’ security camera shows, the other inmate might also be charged with a crime as well.
The bigger issue for me is the necessity for the state corrections department to be providing an officer for every work crew and not just relying on civilian employees to supervise state prison inmate work crews here in our city and other communities. Neither the sheriff’s news release or this article stated whether a state corrections officer was also with this work crew. City employees are great for supervising what work needs to be completed, but for security issues, as this incident so aptly shows, a trained officer should also be with each and every prison work crew. If the state is not doing that then the public is at an increased risk from being victimized by felons walking around our homes while assigned to these work crews because the vast majority of criminals do not think 5 minutes ahead of actually doing something stupid or criminal, they don’t usually even consider potential consequences of their actions, and are only remorseful when caught and sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs on their way to the pokey. The need for competent oversight while out in public should be a very high priority for the City of Palm Coast as well as the State Dept. of Corrections!
R.S. says
Skibum, people act from a moral sense, not from memorized lawbooks. Your assessment is simply unrealistic. You are bound into your cultural assumptions and really would benefit from getting out of that box just a little bit.
Crystal Lang says
My question is why are they bringing inmates from another county and state prison to work in Palm Coast???? I was under the impression that inmates from county jails would work in their county. I agree 100% with inmate work from OUR county and besides with all the arrests we have here we don’t have enough to work? I had a family member who spent less than a year in county (not in Florida) he gave me a little insight on how that works and he also said that the inmates in county look forward to their work hours no matter if it’s in the kitchen or inside or anywhere outside. Now my concerned question is why was an inmate with an extensive criminal history allowed to be on the work team in the first place. My second concerned question is why do homeowners leave doors unlocked???????
Skibum says
R.S., my comments above are not, as you believe, “cultural assumptions”. Not by a long shot. They are facts as I learned them, both from my personal experience dealing with arrestees and convicted criminals as well as the multitude of conversations I had with many of those charged with crimes over my nearly 30 year career in law enforcement. There is a lot to be said for experience, and that which must be learned on the streets regarding the norms of the criminal mindset. I hesitate to have to say this, but much of what is written about crime and recidivism by those who have no first hand knowledge or experience dealing with criminals on a daily basis but only write about it because they have college degrees in psychology or sociology has to be taken with a grain of salt because it is not always accurate.
R.S. says
Your facts, Skibum, are framed in a cultural context. I assume that you are monolingually inclined to reading US-based legislations. Your law enforcement occurred in a US-based context, no? You are not trained in human psychology nor are you a student of any wider circle of cultures or lingistic environments. Read up, e.g., on law enforcement in a Himba of Namibia context; or for law enforcement and incarceration in a Scandinavian context. Not having done so, you are culturally confined and cannot think outside of that box. Quod erat demonstrandum!
Skibum says
R.S. okay, I took your cue and looked up “Himba of Namibia” and learned that it is a very small population of people who live in Angola who are known for putting a distinctive red paint on their bodies and have deep rooted cultural traditions and beliefs. Just what significance or correlation you are suggesting that tiny sample of humanity on the other side of the world has with American criminal justice and the psychology of the criminal mind in OUR society, I have absolutely no idea. That aside, I would like your indulgence for a minute while I relate a little snippet of information that you might find interesting about the history of prison philosophy that the U.S. and other western nations have tried over the course of about 1 ½ centuries in an effort to reduce recidivism.
My career experience began in Southern CA where I was a cop for going on 10 years, both as a police officer and then as a deputy sheriff. I got tired of getting shot at, so I moved up to WA State where I worked for another 20 years in law enforcement positions both on the street and inside the state prison system where I advanced through the ranks, ultimately managing other correctional staff and ultimately traveling around the state handling internal investigations. I retired at the end of 2012 with the rank of lieutenant.
Since most of my career experience is from WA State, I will use that as an example of what I bring for your consideration. In the late 1800s the general philosophy in our country and others to try to keep criminals from reoffending was punishment and penitence. The prisons of that time period were usually named with that in mind. The Washington State Penitentiary, that state’s first prison, opened in Walla Walla, WA in 1886. During that period, it was common philosophy there and in many other penitentiary prison facilities throughout the U.S. for very strict adherence to rules with severe punishment meted out for even minor violations. Prisoners were prohibited from talking, there was no recreation or entertainment, and they were to remain quiet in their assigned cells, presumably to contemplate on their misdeeds in the hope that they reflected on what they could do better if and when they ever made it out of prison. Criminals STILL reoffended!
Over time, prison philosophy in the U.S. and other western countries was replaced with the “new” philosophy of reform. WA State built and opened the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, WA in 1910. Prisoners were put to hard labor because the overriding philosophy to effect criminal behavior and minimize recidivism during that period was through hard work… presumably so they wouldn’t want to ever come back to prison due to the really bad experience doing hard labor. Criminals STILL reoffended!
Again, over time, the overriding philosophy to change criminal behavior and minimize recidivism evolved to correction. It was thought by many of those with college degrees in philosophy, psychology and other studies of human behavior that penitence had not been the answer, reform ended up not being the answer either, but… aha! We need to “correct” their behavior by offering criminals education and other programs to enhance and change their lives, giving them a chance at a better life when they got out of prison. In WA State, the first “correction” facility, Washington Corrections Center opened in Shelton, WA in 1964. To date, most of the other prison facilities in WA State that have been built since are “corrections centers” with various programs job training and education opportunities for inmates so they have opportunities to leave prison with real life job skills, GED certificates, even college degrees. There are plentiful and varied recreation opportunities, all kinds of musical instruments available for the musical inclined, art classes, lectures and seminars, etc. etc. And STILL, criminals reoffend and come back to prison.
I have no idea what the next new criminal behavior philosophy will be or when it will suddenly be popular in societies all over western nations. But the U.S. definitely does take ideas from other nations like Norway and elsewhere to learn what is working in other nations to see if the same philosophy and behavior modification models will work here. And just so you know, many other countries routinely bring their prison and criminal justice system leaders here to America to study a lot of the innovative and new things we are doing as well. I know personally that those working in the U.K. and some of the Scandinavian countries have come to study what is working here, so there is and has been a lot of cooperation and learning going on… but STILL, criminals continue to reoffend at significant levels.
I have to fall back on my extensive and varied experience that I have and say that there is still a significant percentage of recidivism in our country because far too many of those who commit crimes have decided that is the way they intend to live and do not want to change or better their lives because they see the benefits of crime outweigh the downside. I could be wrong, but that is my learned perspective on why people continue to recycle back into the jails and prison systems despite all that we do to prevent that from happening. For me, it boils down to: “you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. And finally, having seen your Latin phrase, which I did look up, I’ll leave you with one that I learned during my career when I was going through training to become a state certified law enforcement firearms instructor many years ago. Docendo discimus!
R.S. says
Skibum, we should really meet up somewhen and somewhere. What fascinated me about the Himba is that they conceive of a birth song that the mother thinks of in seclusion. When the song is clear to her, she elects the partner for the child and proceeds. This birth song is an important milestone in the life of the child. The–yes! they’re not numerous.–community sings that birth song to the child when it gains life. If a member of the community fails the standards of living with the others, the community sings the birth song to him at a collective event of all. In other words, the message is something like, “You are loved; we all care for you; please adjust to us all.” What I learn from that singing is that adjustments to a communcal standards may be made in sundry ways. We all are human; we all may respond to different ways of living comfortably together. The Himba can teach us; the Scandinavians can teach us; and–Yes! You are right!–teaching, we learn. Actually, in just about all classrooms I’ve been in, the teacher learns indeed most from teaching.
I am also aware of the roots of our prison system to have been in the monastic order. One assumes self-flagellations, raging against oneself, and pain inflictions by one’s own hand to somehow bring benefits. And so the guards assist in that process where the person him-/herself seems less enthusiastic. [You know about Unit 12 in a neighboring county’s jail, right? That’s where guards are not hindered by surveillance cameras to dole out plenty of such help to the prisoners.]
I am also aware of training programs in prisons. These programs used to be well funded in the sixties. That funding dried up; the programs stopped–except for the religious attempts. So, it’s not a choice when people recidivate. As long as we have background checks that will funnel out anyone who’s ever seen the inside of a jail at any job search, people must fall back on whatever worked for them before. Our sheriff is doing an excellent job of offering useful training in the local jail; but what’s the point if any background check will filter them out?
The Himba show us that kindness can work; perhaps we need to work at the system at large to make it kinder when so many people fail to live up to the whip of the profit motive and the flagellation of failure in the system. Perhaps we forgot that the system is there for people and that the people are not to be enslaved to the system.
Skibum says
R.S. thank you for clarifying, as I was at a total loss trying to figure out the correlation for your reference to the Himba, and I have a much better understanding now. No, I have never heard anything about a Unit 12 or what their jail issues are. But you bring up a good point. I have always advocated for transparency… if law enforcement officers are doing nothing wrong and adhering to their agency’s polices they should have no issues with purchasing body worn cameras for each and every one of their officers, dash cams inside the patrol cars, and there is no excuse for having any unit within a jail that has cameras for there to be one specific unit where someone can be taken to have “punishment” without having any record of what happened there. If that is the case, then someone with firsthand experience or knowledge should seek out a competent attorney and initiate a lawsuit to prevent that kind of abuse from happening.
While funding has been cut back in local, state and federal prison systems, I believe the consequences pale in comparison to the hugely negative societal consequences of eliminating funding for mental institutions and mental health treatment programs, and the complete closing of those needed facilities back when Reagan was president. Over the years and decades since that happened when I was still a wet behind the ears rookie early on in my law enforcement career, that decision has resulted in individuals with significant mental deficiencies being placed into our nation’s jails and prisons where they should never have been placed except for the fact that they were convicted of crimes with no good alternatives out there for their treatment. As a nation, we really took a hit with that horrible plan and it made our country’s incarceration facilities less safe for those with mental health issues as well as other inmates, not to mention that jail and prison staff who, for the most part, were never trained to deal with the mentally ill. Aside from those with various mental deficiencies, I firmly believe that education and a good support system of family/friends/associates while growing up is what helps most young people make good decisions as well as re-route those who are making bad decisions back on the right road so they can continue to make good decisions when they reach adulthood. We all need to do our part and help within our communities as much as we are able to so loved ones and others close to us hopefully never get to the point of experiencing the inside of a jail or prison cell in the first place… that would be the ultimate solution as far as I am concerned.