After more than a decade during which the Republican mantra was to get tougher on criminals, measures aimed at more gently helping some criminals and ex-offenders break a cycle of incarceration and recidivism – while saving the state money – are quietly becoming law this year.
From civil citations for juveniles instead of lock-up to loosened restrictions allowing former inmates to find work, bills aimed at decreasing Florida’s prison population are sailing toward passage.
“I believe it’s unprecedented,” said Vicki Lopez Lukis, former chairman of Gov. Jeb Bush’s Ex-Offender Task Force.
“The stars are aligned on this one,” said Jim McDonough, former secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. “It wouldn’t happen without terrible constraints on the budget.”
McDonough and Lukis credit a confluence of new data, new technology, new leadership and a new coalition of supporters for the reforms, in addition to unprecedented financial limits in a budget that started nearly $4 billion in the red.
The move to divert criminals from long, hard time includes the business lobby, with backing by groups like Associated Industries of Florida and Florida TaxWatch, whose push for alternative punishments Lukis calls “a sea change.”
“As they watched both the criminal and juvenile justice systems growing beyond what anyone could ever have expected,” she said, “I think they were left with no other choice than to say ‘Enough is enough.'”
With 101,000 inmates, Florida has the third-largest prison population in the United States. That’s a five-fold increase in the past 30 years, while the state’s general population hasn’t even doubled in that time. Meanwhile, each new prison costs roughly $100 million to build and $25 million a year to operate – even as one-third of ex-offenders commit new crimes within three years of release and return to the state’s custody.
With cuts pending in such critical areas health care and education, said McDonough, “criminal justice is the easiest to cut, as long as you’re doing it in the right way.” By that he means protecting the public – and reports seem to show that public safety can be improved while spending less.
“It’s one of those rare areas where the right and the left can come together,” said David Utter, the Tallahassee-based policy and legislative director for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Because it’s all based on research and data.”
The Senate on Tuesday passed SB 1390 by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, which promotes supervised re-entry programs and allows model inmates to perform work release in their communities. Dockery cites a recent report by the TaxWatch Government Cost Savings Task Force.
“Conservative estimates show the passage of this legislation could result in $5 million in savings per year,” she said in a statement. “Ninety percent of all inmates will be re-entering society, and it is in our best interest to ease them into that transition with the proper tools to make them successful, law-abiding and contributing members of society.”
Other reform measures on the move:
-SB 1300 by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, would require juvenile civil citations and other diversion programs at the local level. On Monday it was read a second time in the Senate and the House companion, HB 997 by Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, was substituted.
-SB 146, known as the “Jim King Keep Florida Working Act,” is also on the verge of passage. It would prohibit state agencies from denying a license for employment due to an ex-offender’s lack of civil rights. Lukis said it’s the bill that affects the greatest number of people.
-SB 400, which promotes the use of treatment-based drug courts, has already gone to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature.
McDonough said part of the receptive climate for reform is due to lower crime rates. State officials recently announced crime is at a 40-year low.
“Did public safety get better because we locked so many people up, and therefore they’re off the streets?” he asked. “Or have other things been coming together to reduce the per capita risk to the public? That we can’t be sure of.”
One thing McDonough is sure of: over the past 30 years, taxpayers have seen a diminishing return on their investment in incarceration.
“It’s been tapering off,” he said. “With every $100,000 we spend, we’re less safe than we were 10 or 15 years ago.”
McDonough said technology now allows for wiser use of resources. For example, he said, it costs $50-60 daily to keep an offender in a Florida prison, but just $8-10 for an ankle bracelet that lets authorities know about violations in real time. By the same token, said McDonough, it’s cost-efficient to address behavioral health issues such as alcohol and drugs, “both present as an underlying cost in many, many crimes.”
Lukis praised Wansley Walters, secretary of the state Department of Juvenile Justice, who spear-headed civil citations and other diversion programs in Miami-Dade County. From 1998 to 2008, during her tenure, juvenile arrests dropped by 51 percent, juvenile detention by 66 percent and re-arrests by 80 percent. Estimates are that Miami-Dade saved more than $20 million as a result.
And the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Blueprint Commission in 2008 found that Florida’s DJJ facilities house many low-risk youth. One thousand young offenders admitted in 2008-2009 had never committed a felony, while 71 of all admissions were for non-violent misbehavior. “Racial disparities continue to prevail,” ran the report, “and children are held in facilities longer than before, a practice that inhibits rehabilitation and harms public safety.”
Walters, McDonough and other policy makers say weeding out low-risk offenders will allow the justice system to focus its attention and resources on the most dangerous, chronic criminals.
But despite the reforms taking shape, said Utter, Florida still has a long way to go.
“Nationally, this is where juvenile justice programs have been going,” he said, “and Florida is sort of playing catch-up here.”
Lukis said she and others are encouraged to move forward because during the 2011 session “we have now laid a significant foundation.”
“And hopefully,” she said, “it will lead to a comprehensive review of our criminal justice system, because I think that’s what’s still missing.”
By Margie Menzel
