In establishing control release dates, it is the intent of the Legislature that the authority prioritize consideration of eligible inmates closest to their tentative release date. The authority shall rely upon commitment data on the offender information system maintained by the department to initially identify inmates who are to be reviewed for control release consideration.
The authority may use a method of objective risk assessment in determining if an eligible inmate should be released. However, the authority shall have sole responsibility for determining control release eligibility, establishing a control release date, and effectuating the release of a sufficient number of inmates to maintain the inmate population between 99 percent and percent of total capacity. V of the State Constitution; or against an officer, judge, or state attorney employed in a comparable position by any other jurisdiction; or. Are serving a sentence for an offense committed on or after January 1, , for a violation of the Law Enforcement Protection Act under s.
Are serving a sentence for an offense committed on or after October 1, , for a violation of the Law Enforcement Protection Act under s.
ALSO IN THIS SECTION
An inmate shall not have a right to a control release date, nor shall the authority be required to establish or reestablish any additional control release dates except under the provisions of subsection 2. The mandatory minimum portions of consecutive sentences shall be served at the beginning of the maximum sentence as established by the Department of Corrections. With respect to offenders who have more than one sentence with a mandatory minimum portion, each mandatory minimum portion of consecutive sentences shall be served consecutively; provided, that in no case shall a sentence begin to run before the date of imposition of that sentence.
Recently discovered information of: a. Past criminal conduct;. Verified threats by inmates provided by victims, law enforcement, or the department;.
Lawmaker promotes early release for inmates
Potential risk to or vulnerability of a victim;. Psychological or physical trauma to the victim due to the criminal offense;. Court-ordered restitution;. History of abuse or addiction to a chemical substance verified by a presentence or postsentence investigation report;.
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Cooperation with law enforcement;. Strong community support; and. You are now logged in. Forgot your password? In , Florida resident James Caruso was sentenced to 25 years in state prison for a drug deal involving 48 opioid pills. The mandatory minimum laws that put him behind bars for more than two decades has since been reduced, but he is one of more than 1, Florida inmates sweating out their long sentences under laws that legislators now consider flawed. Although the laws were intended to stop high-level traffickers, the low weight thresholds to trigger the mandatory minimums ended up putting thousands of small-time users in prison for decades for selling, or sometimes just possessing, a bottle of painkillers.
Local Florida news outlet NBC 6 profiled Caruso's case last week as an example of the people who are still serving lengthy sentences under mandatory minimums that have since been rolled back. Now a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers have introduced a number of bills that could lead to the early release of inmates serving lengthy sentences under the state's harshest drug laws, such as those profiled by Reason. Last month, Florida Republican Sen.
The bill would allow judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences in drug trafficking cases under a variety of circumstances, such as when the crime did not involve violence or the defendant wasn't part of a continuing criminal enterprise. It would also require inmates to be housed within miles from their homes. Although it was modest in scope, it has already led to the release of some federal inmates who were serving decades or life in prison under some of the harshest mandatory minimums on the books. Indeed, Matthew Charles, a former federal inmate whose case drew national attention and who became one of the first to be released under the FIRST STEP Act, travelled to Tallahassee last month to meet with Florida legislators about criminal justice reform, including Brandes.
Florida lawmakers are hoping to pass some of the small-ball provisions of the FIRST STEP Act in a state where voters have shown an appetite for some criminal justice reforms, and where the state's problem-ridden and expensive prison system has become a bipartisan concern. Like their federal counterparts, the authors of the Florida First Step are trying to keep the bill palatable to law enforcement groups and law-and-order conservatives.
For example, the distance limit for inmates was miles in the original bill, but the version unanimously approved by a Florida Senate committee Monday doubled that distance.
Florida Sentenced Nonviolent Drug Offenders to Decades in Prison. New Laws Could Change That
The question for criminal justice advocacy groups is whether they'll settle for a tiny step and support the legislation. Other organizations are more skeptical. In an op-ed published last week, officials from the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU and Desmonde Meade, one of the organizers behind Florida's recent successful ballot initiative to restore voting rights to people with felony records, worried that the bill didn't address racial disparities within Florida's criminal justice system, nor would it allocate more money mental health or addiction treatment.
Although Florida's rate of new prison admissions has fallen in recent years, its prison population has remained fairly steady at around 96, inmates—the third largest prison population of any state in the U. One culprit for the inelastic population is the amount of offenders serving long mandatory minimum sentences. In , the Florida legislature reduced mandatory minimums for drug trafficking and increased the thresholds necessary to trigger them, but lawmakers were barred from making those changes apply retroactively thanks to an obscure provision in the Florida Constitution. This meant that there was no way for lawmakers to reduce sentence lengths that they no longer considered just.
However, in November, Florida voters passed Amendment 11, a ballot initiative to repeal the so-called "savings clause," and now lawmakers' hands are free.
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Daryl Rousson has introduced another bill, S. That would mean freedom for inmates like Caruso.
The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, which has opposed similar reform proposals in the past, did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation. Florida activists are making a similar push to pass legislation improving conditions for incarcerated women, another issue that resulted in bipartisan legislation in recent years.
State lawmakers introduced the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act last month, which would require jails and prisons to provide free tampons and require documentation when male guards perform pat-downs or cavity searches. Last August, the Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct at Florida's Lowell Correctional Institution, a women's prison.