Found an editorial over at the Daytona Beach News Journal Online (Overtime served, Reforming Florida's violent incarceration mentality, 12/29/2009) that calls out a couple of Florida sheriffs regarding the passing of misinformation to the public that both tout as gospel regarding the possible legislative reforms of the state's prison system.
Gospel that proved fairly effective when the plate was passed during far different state budgetary times.
(...)Like other law enforcement officials in the state, Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson is sowing undue fear and misinformation about legislative proposals that would reform the state's overly harsh and unsustainably costly prison system. Johnson is following the lead of Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker, who claims -- wrongly -- that "Florida is funding prisons less and less" while preparing to release offenders early.
(...)
Writing on the Sheriff's Office's Web site, Johnson wants residents to oppose "a particularly bad proposal that would grant early release to certain inmates 50-years-old or older as long as they have already served at least 25 years of their sentence." He is also building opposition to another proposal that "would reduce the sentence of dangerous youthful offenders under certain circumstances" -- offenders 15 or younger who were convicted as adults.
Johnson makes it sound as if violent offenders are never released (or should never be released) from prison. He should have a look at Department of Corrections reports. Better yet, he should encourage his readers to do so. Last August alone, 3,073 offenders were released from Florida prisons. Of those, 814, or 26.5 percent, were violent offenders. On average, those violent offenders served 53 months. Johnson says, "This is not the type of person we want roaming our streets again." But every prison system in the nation eventually releases a portion of its violent offenders for the obvious reason that life terms are rare. Johnson also makes it sound as if the proposals, if enacted, would result in immediate releases. Not so. Prisoners would have to petition for their release and have their cases reviewed one by one. It's a restoration of parole by other means.
Criminals aren't getting more violent or committing more crimes. The state's incarceration laws have been made harsher since the mid-1980s (when Florida abolished parole) and the 1990s (when Florida harshed up mandatory sentences on adults and youthful offenders and ended the release of any state prison inmate before he or she serves at least 85 percent of a sentence). Yet, criminologists cast serious doubt on the effectiveness of harsher sentences, which contradict the principle of rehabilitation. It's called a department of corrections, not a department of punishment.
(...)
Since 2001, when it was at $1.62 billion, the Department of Corrections' budget has increased by 50 percent. It's at $2.43 billion today, a 5.7 percent increase over last year's $2.3 billion. The department's budget devours almost 10 percent of the state's general revenue to maintain a total payroll of 30,500 that keeps 100,000 inmates in prison -- a 3-to-1 per-inmate ratio. That's about eight times better than the state's teacher-pupil ratio. Despite a crime rate that has fallen steadily through the decade, the inmate population has risen 46 percent since 2001.
(...)
Figures released by the Justice Department reflect 1.6 million persons remain incarcerated in this country's prisons, although "...the rate of growth is slowing as state authorities look for cheaper ways to mete out justice." (Throw in those sitting behind bars in jail and the number rises to a cool 2.3 million).
That's one out of every 133 U.S. residents in jail or prison over the last year.
The states with the largest increases in prison population were Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona, whose one-year increases were all greater than the federal prison system, which grew by 1,662 inmates. (Miami Herald, 12/8/09)
4 comments:
EVERY sheriff in Florida is corrupt, I believe. In fact I have never read (for ages) about a sheriff who is NOT corrupt. They have a LOT to hide. They imprison people who know the truth or attempt to marginalize them in other ways. Of course they will fight and lie and murder to keep their nemesis in prison. Read about Charlie Wells in Manatee Cty. HE's a private investigator now. Imagine what he WON'T DO for money?? VERY LITTLE. BEWARE PUBLIC.
seems to be Johnson's site is in violation or IRS rules for advocating a bill I couldn't find the link for the county attny anywhere on any county link to ask their opinion as if I couldn't guess the answer. D
Two old sayings came to me as I was reading your blog. The first and foremost is " penny wise, pound foolish" and "a stitch in time saves nine". Yes, as our politicians were looking for ways to gain public favor and reduce budgets the first thing to cut is prison spending and offender programs. We all despise law breakers so this sounded like a good idea. Then we had problems with people continuing to commit crime after crime, so it MUST be that we need longer, harsher sentences. That's good cuz we don't need or want these law breakers back in our society! So after we threw the book at them and locked them up for a long time, we had budget problems again! We need to feed, clothe, at medially treat these men and they must be kept in secure facilities...costs were rising and rising. More and more programs were being cut; prisons became the worst kind of warehouses, places to become meaner and more learned in the ways of the criminal. The longer they were prisoners, the fewer, if any, resources they had when it was time to get out.
Are we really ignorant enough not to see how the first step leads to the last? Why does no one’s light bulb go off when studies show that programs in prison to teach offenders reading, writing, a skill, religious support, therapies, and transitional facilities drastically reduce recidivism?!?!? Oh yea, I remember, all that stuff is just being "soft" on these bad guys! LOL
Well the programs worked, the "tough on crime" approach has given us a revolving door.
The politicians will only be in office for a period of time. They can screw up anything they want and call it progress. It is not until the next or the next guy is in office that the crapola hits the fan and we need to build 5 new prisons while cutting costs everywhere else.
I think that is one of our societys big problems, not being able to defer gratification and look past today.
It's all about the Benjamin s!
Want to know what makes me REAL ANGRY?
Everyone knows it's about money and just looks the other way!!!!!
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