Senators seek justice reform

TALLAHASSEE – With the cost of imprisoning nearly 100,000 inmates on the rise, a bipartisan group of Florida senators is proposing bills designed to reduce sentences and costs.

But skeptical leaders in the House might not be willing to go along with the reforms.

An aging inmate population with higher medical costs and state sentencing laws that keep convicts in prison for longer periods are two of the main factors in driving up costs. The state will spend $2.4 billion on the Department of Corrections this year, and Gov. Rick Scott wants to spend an extra $200 million next year, with much of it going to hire more prison guards.

“It’s not an increase in violent crime,” Leonard Engel, director of policy for Community Resources for Justice, a Boston-based think tank, told a Senate panel Thursday. “It’s largely a function of policy decisions over the last 20 years that have gotten you to this point.”

Florida installed mandatory minimum sentencing for some violent crimes and drug offenses in the 1990s, along with a requirement that prisoners serve 85 percent of their sentences. The longer sentences and longer time served have helped keep Florida’s prison population hovering around 100,000 even as the crime rate drops, Engel said.

In Florida, the at a 46-year low.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, chairman of an important criminal justice budget committee, is a major proponent of reforms. He thinks the money saved could be used for education or health-care programs.

“We can ... maintain the current system, or we can begin to address some of the policy decisions that the data is telling us crime rate is