Florida’s Department of Corrections is plagued by a presently insurmountable crisis: gridlock.
Prisons are understaffed, underfunded, and overcrowded. Florida law requires every inmate to serve at least 85% of their sentence, no matter the amount of gain time — a type of time off for good behavior the FDOC awards. Compounded with outdated sentencing laws such as the “10, 20, Life” statutes calling for mandatory minimum sentences, every year, the courts are dumping significantly more inmates into the prison system than the FDOC can release.
Current department policy bans inmates with more than three years remaining on their sentences from participating in most vocational, educational, and self-improvement programs or even attaining a high-school diploma. This policy gives inmates little motivation to amend their criminal behavior. Many institutions have become breeding grounds for violent crime, gang activity, and lockdowns.
Recently resigned FDOC Secretary Mark Inch made systemwide improvements, including incentive housing institutions offering more privileges for inmates who demonstrate exemplary behavior, mentor program institutions for inmates serving short sentences, and modified program institutions with more intense security operations for inmates involved in gang activity. Yet he stepped down after legislators refused to fund the budget needed to sustain more progressive changes.
Inch was fighting a losing battle.
The biggest obstacles to meaningful prison reform in Florida are twofold. First, mandatory minimum sentencing schemes. These deprive judges of the discretion to hand out sentences based on the details of the crimes. Then there’s the FDOC’s inability to utilize gain time to manage the inmate population. Most prisoners will stay in prison a long time and be denied access to meaningful self-improvement programs. Many of these inmates will eventually be released back into communities with few resources and little or no job training. Instead of rehabilitation, this system fuels recidivism. It is time for a change.
Simply put, Florida has too many inmates serving too much time, with too few prison rehabilitation programs. The present system is broken. It’s time to hit the reset button. We need to put the authority over reform and rehabilitation where it can be most effective: in the courtroom. I have a solution, and while most of the necessary tools already exist, others will have to be moved around a little.
A Pre-Sentencing Investigation is completed on every criminal before a sentence is pronounced. The report outlines the details of the present criminal offense along with any prior criminal history. The Department of Justice has a curriculum of accredited self-improvement programs used in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other state prisons. Each of these programs requires a certain amount of time to graduate.
A position much like a social worker can be created to evaluate the PSI, consider the most effective programs, and assign the offender a curriculum. This can be the foundation of an objective-based rehabilitation plan specific to the offender’s crime and prior criminal history. It would be simple mathematics to determine how much time it will take an inmate to complete his curriculum and make sure the numbers add up.
If someone is sentenced to 10 years the court can assign them a six-year rehabilitation plan.
Once the offender-turned-inmate completes all the objectives outlined in their plan, they would be eligible to file a request to the sentencing court for a review. A judge would then consider the program participation and other factors including disciplinary records. At which time the court would be able to modify the sentence, reducing it or converting it to supervised release if deemed appropriate. In addition to easing overcrowding and providing an opportunity for inmates to be productive, the monthly probation fees paid by the inmates who are released would generate money to fund the FDOC.
An objective-based sentencing review will motivate the majority of inmates to engage in self-improvement programs and stay out of trouble, making the inmate population easier to manage, improving prisons, and supporting a better transition on release.
Robert Lefleur was incarcerated in Florida for more than 31 years and works as a prison consultant.
