Forecasting Rise In Inmate Population, Florida May Re-Open Nine Prison Facilities

Last year, Florida did what many other states did to save money in a tight budget. They closed prisons and other correctional facilities. But unlike other states that implemented “smart on crime” reforms, Florida didn’t change the laws that imprison most people in the first place.

So the closures didn’t stick. Now, with projected increases in its prison population over the next two years, the state’s Department of Corrections is seeking to re-open nine corrections facilities, including two prisons, two re-entry centers, and five work camps. Work camps are minimum to medium-security facilities where inmates are transferred to complete their sentences while performing work assignments for the prison or community.

Although Florida’s crime rate is at a 41-year low, the prison population continues to grow, with the largest increase coming from first-time drug offenders ensnared by undercover agents, according to a recent analysis by the state’s accountability office. Among those inmates are John Horner, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for selling some of his own pain pills to an undercover informant who befriended him. A recent analysis by the state’s accountability office called for more use of ligher-security remedies like supervision with GPS monitoring and probation.

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Florida Lays Off State Workers After Outsourcing Prisoners’ Health Care To A Private Company

Now that Florida’s Department of Corrections has auctioned off the job of providing state inmates with health services to the highest-bidding companies, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is moving ahead with his controversial plan to privatize prisoners’ health care. Since Florida is now locked into a contract with Corizon Healthcare of Nashville, and plans to sign a second contract with Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources, Gov. Scott’s administration has already begun to lay off nearly two thousand state workers whose jobs have now become obsolete.
As the Miami Herald reports, nearly 2,000 state workers are beginning to receive notices that their jobs are ending, as part of the nation’s biggest push to outsource prisoners’ health care to private companies:

“Due to the outsourcing of this function, your position will be deleted,” reads a dryly worded dismissal notice from the Department of Corrections, sent to 1,890 state employees in the past two weeks. [...]
In the dismissal letters, prison officials emphasize that dismissed workers will get first consideration for new jobs at one of the two for-profit vendors, though with fewer benefits. The workers also expect to pay more out of their pockets for their own health insurance.
Many make less than $35,000 a year, have not had a raise in six years and live in economically distressed areas home to many state prisons, including Bradford, Dixie, Levy, Suwannee and Union counties.

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Quantifying the Specific Deterrent Effects of DNA Databases

Abstract

Re-offending patterns of a large cohort of offenders released from Florida Department of Corrections custody between 1996 and 2004 were analyzed to quantify the effects of DNA databases on offending patterns. Statistical models constructed to identify the specific deterrent effects of DNA databases distinct from their probative effects yielded mixed results. Small deterrent effects were found and for only some crime types (robbery and burglary). Strong probative effects were found for most crime types. Methods, data, results and implications are discussed in this report.

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This report is from the Urban Institute. Tom