Because 90% of all prisoners in the United States are in state facilities, the work that states are doing to reduce their prison populations is crucial. Attempting to end mass incarceration necessitates realizing this is a situation requiring not one national solution, but fifty state solutions. Below are current state solutions that could be effectively modeled by other states for meaningful reform.
“The Senate legislation could open prison doors for non-violent and drug offenders who have served 65 percent of their sentences — a dramatic shift from the state’s toughest-in-the-nation, 85 percent standard in place since the mid-1990s. That change would free an estimated 7,800 prisoners over five years, eventually saving taxpayers $419 million a year.“
Gainesville Sun
April 20, 2019
Read More“Last year, the Sunshine State became the first in the country to require its jails, prosecutors, public defenders, courts and prisons to coordinate their data collection, enabling lawmakers and the public to track how someone moves through the entire criminal justice system, from arrest to release. The new information will be sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which will publish it online.“
The Marshall Project
April 14, 2019
Read More“Florida will take up a bill that would make similar changes at the state level. Florida’s First Step Act would authorize judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences in some drug trafficking cases. It would instruct the Department of Corrections to place offenders in prisons within 300 miles of their residence, a measure intended to ease the burden on families visiting inmates.“
South Florida Sun Sentinel
March 21, 2019
Read More“According to 2016 data from The Sentencing Project, more than 1 in every 4 people disenfranchised in Florida is black, and more than 1 in 5 black people in Florida is disenfranchised. By some estimates, continued disenfranchisement paired with state trends in mass incarceration were predicted to soon yield a Florida “democracy” with 40 percent of black men barred from the ballot box. Forty percent.“
The Marshall Project
November 7, 2018
Read More“Despite Florida’s low crime rates and despite prison admissions declining for nine of the last 10 years, Florida’s prison and jails budgets are higher than ever. Due to long sentences, the inmate population has stayed stubbornly near its all-time high, and this past year, the state budget gave $2.3 billion for the Department of Corrections, and even that wasn’t enough — the agency hit a $79 million deficit.“
Florida Times-Union
October 19, 2018
Read More“What’s more, people in prison currently are barred from obtaining federal Pell Grants to assist with postsecondary education costs, and Florida state laws prevent people who are currently or were formerly incarcerated from accessing the state’s Bright Futures grant, the largest pool of state financial aid for college. Collectively, these laws work together to form a de facto education ban for many people whether they are in prison or not. When barriers are removed, however, enrollment rates increase, which has benefits for everyone.“
Miami Herald
October 2, 2018
Read More“If Amendment 4 passes it will enshrine into our state constitution discrimination against convicted murderers and sex offenders that will make enfranchising them virtually impossible. While some may point to the serious nature of their offenses, they have nothing to do with voting; the punishment of disenfranchisement does not fit the crime.“
Florida Sun Sentinel
September 28, 2018
Read More“To its supporters, Amendment 4 (which would also allow former felons to serve on juries and run for public office) represents a potential civil rights triumph: It could enfranchise more people at once than any single initiative since women’s suffrage.“
New York Times
September 26, 2018
Read More“The problem with Amendment 4 is that it perpetuates discrimination and bigotry against a sub-class of former prisoners and convicted felons, namely those convicted of murder and sex offenses. All the talk of Amendment 4 supporters about second chances, redemption, reintegration into the community, etc. rings hollow and opportunistic when they made the decision to exclude murderers and sex offenders from the franchise and to enshrine this form of discrimination into the state constitution.“
Prison Legal News
September 19, 2018
Read More“In the Sunshine State, Floridians are permanently excluded from voting because of a prior felony conviction — one of only four states with a lifetime ban. If we want people returning to society to be productive, law-abiding citizens, we need to treat them like full-fledged citizens.“
Tampa Bay Times
September 14, 2018
Read More"Gillum has campaigned on a platform that could change that. His campaign’s official site touts measures similar to those adopted in some Democratic-led states, like reducing the number of crimes that carry mandatory-minimum sentences and reforming the cash-bail system, which disproportionately harms lower-income Americans. Others are more bold: Gillum went further than his primary opponents and called for the full legalization, rather than just decriminalization, of marijuana."
New Republic
August 29, 2018
Read More"Even as crime rates and prison admissions have fallen over the past decade, ever-lengthening criminal sentences have left Florida prisons full of inmates and in need of a record $2.4 billion — a budget-busting challenge for the state’s next governor to resolve. How he or she would do so falls on a single but complex question: Does Florida’s harsh penal system need reform?"
Florida Times Union
August 17, 2018
Read More"It cannot be argued that Ms. Gonzalez committed an offense under Florida law. Nor can it be questioned that if Florida citizens find social utility in protecting queen conches that they have every prerogative under the law to do so. Nonetheless, many aspects of this case demonstrate the troubling extent to which criminal law is being degraded and brought to bear over activity that isn’t obviously criminal in nature."
Right on Crime
July 23, 2018
Read More"The report describes Florida as a perfectly baffling case: From 2000 to 2015, jail admissions dropped, the statewide jail population dropped, and the overall rate of prison admissions dropped by nearly a third — but the total number of inmates in state prisons still somehow increased."
Miami New Times
June 18, 2018
Read More"Amendment 4 would automatically restore voting rights for all felons (excluding those convicted of murder and felony sex crimes) who have completed their sentence, including any probation and restitution. It needs 60 percent voter approval to pass. A new poll commissioned by the Florida Chamber of Commerce found just 40 percent of voters in favor and 17 percent opposed."
Tampa Bay Times
June 16, 2018
Read More"Legislators ignored the warning and instead made cuts, leaving the agency with a $79 million deficit in its $2.3 billion budget, and not enough money to pay for inmate healthcare, which the state is legally required to provide. To make up the shortfall, Corrections Secretary Julie Jones announced last week she was cutting substance abuse and mental health treatment programs and eliminating re-entry and work-release services that prepare high-security inmates for life out of prison."
Tampa Bay Times
May 6, 2018
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