Senate Seeks To End Juvenile Justice Dispute

March 8, 2016

The Florida Senate on Monday unanimously approved a bill aimed at resolving a years-long dispute between  Escambia, Santa Rosa and other counties and the state over paying to detain juvenile offenders.

The House is scheduled to take up the bill Tuesday.

Lawmakers have tried to settle the dispute before, but have not been able to pass legislation amid multiple court battles. The proposal (SB 1322) by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, would divide the cost of detaining young offenders equally between the state Department of Juvenile Justice and county governments — a 50-50 split that would replace a formula that currently requires counties to pay 57 percent and the state to pay 43 percent. The measure also would simplify a billing process in which counties pay annual estimated costs in advance.

Counties say the current system has resulted in them being owed millions in overpayments — or getting hit with unexpected bills at the last minute.

Before moving forward with the new bill, Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, insisted the 22 counties that have been litigating the cost-sharing formula waive their claims to recoup overpayments. Broward County waived its claims last week. The last county to sign on — Volusia — did so in an emergency meeting Monday after refusing last week.

“(The counties) frankly left a lot of money on the table,” Latvala said. To start carrying out the proposal, the bill includes providing $10.8 million to the Department of Juvenile Justice. That money would be in addition to money the department receives for detention costs.

State leaders got additional incentive to close the deal on Feb. 18, when the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the counties on the matter of back payments — a ruling that Cragin Mosteller of the Florida Association of Counties estimated was worth more than $100 million to the litigating counties.

by The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News