Summit supports prison reform

11/18/2009 © News Service of Florida

Florida’s prison population has increased five-fold in the past 30 years, while its general population hasn’t even doubled. Today 5.4 of every 100 Floridians are incarcerated.
 
Meanwhile, each new prison costs roughly $100 million to build and $25 million to operate annually – and the Department of Corrections has plans for three more ready to implement.

As a state Senate committee meets today to figure out how the state can reduce spending on prison beds, several criminal justice leaders meeting for a summit in Tampa this week are calling on lawmakers to shift the state's approach from locking criminals away to drug treatment and other types of rehabilitation.

“We really needed to do a much better job of taking away the symptom of locking ‘em up and throwing away the key,” Dominic Calabro, CEO of Florida TaxWatch said this week during the conference, sponsored by the Collins Center. 

“Because it became unsustainably expensive and increasingly a training ground for prisoners to become better convicts, better perpetrators of harm and evil against the people of Florida”

Texas Rep. Jerry Madden, a long-term Republican lawmaker who has led his state’s efforts to divert offenders into mental health and drug treatment programs and provide more opportunities for rehabilitation said that the notion that conservatives – who have controlled Florida state government for more than a decade – are simply all about long prison terms as the only solution to crime is wrong.

“This is not a partisan issue,” said Madden. “This is an issue where thoughtful conservative thinkers and thoughtful moderate or liberal thinkers generally will agree.”

The discussion at the two-day conference also touched on the efficacy of faith- and character-based prisons, which a recent report by the state Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability found to reduce recidivism by as much as 15 percent.

Florida Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil also touted DOC’s efforts to create re-entry centers where newly-released inmates can find social services and community supports as an alternative to homelessness and crime as something the state needs to do more of. He said the department’s goal is to reduce recidivism from its current 32.8 percent rate to between 18 and 22 percent.

Speaker after speaker deplored the unintended consequences of “zero tolerance” policies under which time served has lengthened and probation violations, such as being late for curfew or missing appointments with corrections officers, have put thousands back behind bars.

Part of the reaction to several high profile crimes has been to simply crack down on everyone who resembles the person who committed the crime. After a couple high profile murders were committed by probation violators, for example, the Legislature decided to get tougher on those who violate probation. That, of course, increases prison population.

Another major problem is the lack of programs to help keep people out of prison, said Judge Steve Leifman of Miami. Leifman, a crusader for diversion programs for the mentally ill, said Florida’s state and local governments are spending $1 billion a year to lock up people with mental illnesses instead of treating them. Meanwhile, 7,000 will be released this year and 1,500 will re-offend within two years.

The thought was echoed more generally by Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon.

“We need to focus on people who are at risk before they become criminals,” said Sheldon. “Let’s create a system that uses punishment to make people better, and not just get them out of the way.”

The summit comes as Sen. Victor Crist's Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee holds a workshop Wednesday in Tampa to ask anyone with any ideas to tell the panel how Florida can invest in programs and services that will cut down on the need for prison beds.

“Our goal is to gain insight and information, on how we can help prevent children and adults from entering the justice system and how we can best equip those within the system for re-entry so they can grow into productive members of society,” Crist, R-Tampa, said last week in announcing the workshop.

Associated Industries of Florida President Barney Bishop said at the Collins Center conference that business leaders are increasingly coming to support prison reform because they're starting to see waste of human and monetary capital. In other words, if large segments of entire communities are behind bars, how can businesses be expected to participate in those communities when they can't find workers?

Former Gov. Buddy MacKay said a key to getting something done to reduce prison population would be to get as many people on board with the idea as possible, regardless of political stripe.

“The way the parties could lead on this is to be non-partisan,” MacKay said. “Everybody’s fingerprints have got to be on this.” 

--News Service of Florida covers the Capital.