A new coalition of lawyers, lawmakers, justice reform advocates and taxpayer advocates is trying to push for reduced costs in Floridas correctional system, which houses 102,000 inmates.
Board members for the Center for Smart Justice gathered Thursday in Tallahassee to hash out ideas and strategy for moving justice and correctional system reform measures through the Legislature. Backed by Florida TaxWatch, a taxpayer advocacy group, Smart Justice is an attempt to jump-start bills and create a movement for reforming the justice system based on reducing recidivism and preventing juveniles from entering what often becomes the revolving door of the jail cell.
Smart Justice chairman Bob Stork said the hard part of changing the culture among the public and lawmakers from a hard versussoft on crime approach to one where austerity is in vogue, is already done.
We dont have the money. We need to get smart with our justice, Stork said.
Part of that shift in approach is due to the sweeping 2010 elections, heavily influenced by the tea party, that brought in candidates across the nation that were ready to look for cuts from every taxpayer penny spent.
One of them was Gov. Rick Scott, who stated during his campaign his support for prison privatization. He also brought in former Indiana corrections secretary Ed Buss to be secretary for the Florida Department of Corrections.
Buss is already bringing to the Sunshine State his focus on streamlining departments, reducing spending and juvenile delinquency and recidivism rates that he used in Indiana under Gov. Mitch Daniels. The current fiscal year budget for the DOC is $2.78 billion, or nearly $153 million less than the previous year.
If were going to spend $2.4 billion for corrections, we need to make sure were getting the benefit of it and getting the outcomes we need, Buss said.
Buss is behind efforts to privatize prisons in 18 counties -- which recently drew a lawsuit from the Police Benevolent Association -- and wants to privatize medical services in the corrections system.
Hes also streamlining departments and reducing the number of regions in the DOC, but Smart Justice is concentrating on the future of justice reform.
Smart Justice board member Vicki Lukis, a former Lee County commissioner who spent 15 months in jail for "honest services" fraud in the 1990s before President Bill Clinton commuted her 27-month sentence, warned the group not to push for their full agenda in the next legislative session.
Go for low-hanging fruit like civil sanctions for juvenile offenders or programs to transition felons into society that have more support among lawmakers, rather than the holy grail of easing sentencing guidelines, which could fail and kill the movements momentum, she advised.
There is no reason under the sun that somebody shouldnt be transitioned down into a work program, Lukis said.
Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, hinted that there could be a bill in the works aimed at reducing recidivism, but nothing has been drafted yet. He wants to get better education and job-training skills for juvenile delinquents to cut down on repeat offenses and career criminals.
We will begin to craft a policy that -- I want kids to be able to come out and have skills and come out and get employed, Wise said. The question is, if you can never get a job, how do you get any life skills?
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
