‘Smart Justice’ Bill Would Rehab Felons

February 20, 2013

Lawmakers Tuesday filed a bill aimed at breaking the cycle of recidivism in Florida prisons by beefing up the rehabilitation of non-violent felons in the last three years of their sentences.

But the measure may face resistance from the top: Senate President Don Gaetz is skeptical.

The “smart justice” measure by Rep. Dennis Baxley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Thad Altman, a member of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, would prepare offenders for release with educational and vocational training and treatment for substance abuse and mental illness.

Altman, who sits on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said it’s smarter to give ex-felons alternatives to further crime.

“We’re in the modern days, in the 21st century, but in many ways our criminal justice and punitive system is still in the middle ages,” he said.

But the measure appears to face an uphill climb. Gaetz told the News Service in an interview later Tuesday he had reservations about such an approach.

“We’re at a 41-year low in our crime rate in the state of Florida, so apparently what we’ve done not only is working, but it reversed what really was a crime wave in our state,” Gaetz said. “And we did that by being tough on criminals. If it’s working, I’m not sure we should change it.”

Baxley agreed that strict sentencing guidelines had served the state well, but said there was room for improvement.

“In Florida we’re known as being tough on crime,” he said. “We think the accountability measures are a big part of why we’ve seen a reduction in crime, and we don’t depart from that. But we’ve also looked around at other states and looked at our own numbers, and we realize that there are some things we could do to reduce the number of crimes committed by recidivist inmates. That is our ultimate objective: fewer crimes and fewer crime victims.”

Earlier this month, the Department of Corrections announced that the percentage of inmates who commit another crime within three years of release had dropped to 27.6 percent for those released since 2008.  It used to be 33 percent. DOC Secretary Mike Crews credited a change in his agency’s culture, with more focus on helping inmates overcome the conditions that helped land them behind bars.

According to DOC data, two in five offenders entering prison each year are re-offenders, but fewer than one-fourth of inmates receive treatment to help them after their release.

Barney Bishop, president and CEO of the Florida Smart Justice Alliance, said the bill would not reduce the length of inmates’ sentences. Under state law, inmates must serve 85 percent of their time.

“Critics, mainly unions with protectionist agendas…will tell you that this legislation would violate the 85 percent rule or lead to the early release of inmates,” Bishop said. “This is not true in any way or fashion. They will tell you that this bill privatizes prisons. That’s not true, either.”

Altman said the bill would not have a substantial fiscal impact, and in fact would cut costs.

Bishop said the state wouldn’t have to build new facilities.

“There are right now three brand-new prisons sitting empty around the state,” he said. “And yet the state is paying the debt payment on those.”

Bishop is a lobbyist for Bridges of America, a private provider of faith-based re-entry centers that teach inmates work and life skills.

“Our hope is that the private sector, in a competitive bid process, will have the opportunity to
operate those three facilities,” he said.

Gaetz said he always likes to follow the money.

“Who would profit from this so-called ’smart justice’?” he asked. “Are there companies waiting in the wings, just ready to have private-sector contracts and get millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money so that they can be in charge of rehabilitating criminals? I think that there probably are.

“My understanding is that the meetings that have been held about smart justice, most of the people in the audience have worn $3,000 suits,” he added.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

5 Responses to “‘Smart Justice’ Bill Would Rehab Felons”

  1. No Excuses on February 20th, 2013 5:48 pm

    @Walnut Hill Roy:

    Roy, truer words were never spoken. As the article states, Florida is tough on crime. What is wrong with swinging from the human warehousing business to trying to reduce recidivism? A lot of them WILL come back, but educating (at least to a GED level) and offering drug treatment as well as vocational training has been proven to reduce recidivism. The federal system uses it along with inmate labor to build our new buildings (the non secure ones) – areas like green houses, education buildings and the like. We use inmate tutors overseen by a staff teacher to help educate and so forth. I think it’s a great idea and could create jobs other than corrections positions – although the new staff can fill in for those positions if necessary. Some people are worth saving – let’s give them a chance.

  2. David Huie Green on February 20th, 2013 12:47 pm

    CONCERNING:
    “some of these noviolent felony charges are just based on for example cost of damages ect. why send people like that to prison.?

    Are you sure you know what you are talking about?

    Even if so, I can well imagine there being people who stole billions of dollars from widows and retirees and we wouldn’t want them to be able to continue to do so. Others might be non-violent but do great harm by vandalism, including hacking. You might even consider arson to be non-violent since it isn’t committed against a person even though it often kills people.

    These can do much harm if loose.

    Again, I don’t know what you are really trying to say, so it might make perfect sense if I understood it better.

    David for perfect justice

  3. Walnut Hill Roy on February 20th, 2013 8:14 am

    I’m from Maryland, at one time the inmates used to get real hands on practice at a trade like “bricklaying” by building new buildings for the prison system – until the unions started squawking about them stealing jobs from the bargaining unit. Now they are warehoused until release to go out and commit another crime. I know this because I paid a Maryland offender who had learned a trade to put the 28K bricks
    onto my house. The road to recovery and non-recidivism very much depends on the inmate coming out of prison sober and with a trade.

  4. 429SCJ on February 20th, 2013 5:55 am

    I would like to see these repeat, habitual, never ending crime spree types be givin a chance to do something good for society.

    I say send them over to the Bio Mass Plant and put them to good use.

  5. kevin enfinger on February 20th, 2013 12:21 am

    I understand some felons need to be in prison. but some of these noviolent felony charges are just based on for example cost of damages ect. why send people like that to prison. what happened to criminal punishment being based on the harm principle

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News