Conservative Criminal Justice Agenda Unveiled

Florida lawmakers and a coalition of conservative public policy organizations joined the James Madison Institute in front of the Florida Senate Chamber on Wednesday when they unveiled the Conservative Criminal Justice Reform Agenda. The group shared a poll that demonstrates a majority of registered Florida voters support a number of smart justice reforms.
 
Agenda items for 2018 include -- 

• enacting a judicial safety valve for mandatory minimum sentences, 
• raising the threshold limits for various low-level offenses, and 
• reducing the frequency of driver’s license suspensions for non-driving-related offenses.

“These reforms, designed to raise the property theft threshold and put a judicial safety valve in place, will accomplish two things -- they will save Florida taxpayers millions of dollars and they will improve public safety,” said Sal Nuzzo, vice president of policy at The James Madison Institute. 

“We know this because in states where they have been tried, success has followed, both in the short term via reductions in crime rates, and in the long term via reductions in incarceration and decreasing the social costs of lower employability, safety net reliance and poverty,” he said.
 
Standing in support of the coalition at the press conference were Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg; Rep. Ben Diamond, D-St. Petersburg; Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Ocoee; Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples; and Rep. Cord Byrd, R-Jacksonville, along with representatives from a broad coalition of conservative public policy organizations including Right on Crime, Reason Foundation, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Florida TaxWatch and Freedom Partners.