Criminal Justice
Like so many of you, Jason and his wider family have been personally impacted by crime and by Florida’s criminal justice system. He believes that Florida legislative action can enact sensible sentencing reforms and programmatic changes, such as providing restorative justice as a victim right, to ensure the state criminal justice system successfully fulfills its mission to enhance public safety.
A staggering number of Floridians (41%) are impacted by incarceration – they or a family member has been incarcerated. Incarceration results in loss of job earnings, increased poverty, decreased health, family homelessness, and increased youth suicide. Florida has the highest incarceration rate in the nation and the world. The prison employees and their families suffer as well with high suicide rates and poor health.
Our prison pipeline to poverty can be addressed.
Workforce Development: Facilitate programs for successful re-entry post prison and to attract/retain prison staff. Increase inmate job and life skills training during and post-incarceration. Expand the availability of work-release. Increase prison employee and contractor training in life and job skills. Fund comprehensive community-based reentry programs.
Resilient Families: Facilitate well-being of incarceration-impacted families and prison employee families. Provide restorative justice as an option for victims and offenders. Reduce re-incarceration for technical probation and registry violations. Incentivize or implement housing/nursing homes for returning citizens who require extensive medical care.
Evidence-based Sentencing: Facilitate policies that enable pragmatic sentencing and post-conviction reentry. Establish an evidence-based criminogenic risk assessment tool – a test given to offenders to determine likelihood of re-offending. Amend 85% gain time to permit more gain time and to include all inmates eligible for release. Repeal minimum mandatory sentencing. Amend “Two Strikes and You’re Out” sentencing. Modernize the sex offender registry to focus on rehabilitation instead of lifelong punishment.
Education: Facilitate legal literacy modules in our middle and high schools so that students, teachers and staff know what kinds of activities are dangerous and illegal in Florida and how to mitigate potential problems before they occur. Provide restorative justice training and services to decrease ongoing lack of well-being suffered by victims as well as those responsible for the harm.