Current Landscape
Florida’s Department of Corrections (DOC), the state’s third largest agency, has had a long history of challenges, ranging from budget cuts, understaffing, an aging population that requires intensive and specialized medical care, and aging infrastructure.[1] For years, department secretaries have warned the Legislature about the compounding effects of all these challenges and their impacts on the rehabilitation of those who are incarcerated in the system.[2] Now, a recent study commissioned by the Legislature has revealed just how dire the conditions of the department are.[3] The state needs to urgently appropriate $2.2 billion in immediate repairs for DOC and strategically plan to modernize the prison system in order to sustain its forecasted increase in population.[4] To date, the Legislature’s response has failed to measure up; as a result, there has been mounting pressure by advocates for lawmakers to heed the study’s recommendations. [5]
A major factor that is influencing the policy landscape in Florida is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ commitment to enacting “tough on crime” policies that exacerbate the state’s over incarceration problem while rejecting common-sense reforms that would foster rehabilitation and reduce Florida’s stagnant recidivism rate. Notably, in the 2024 legislative session alone, Gov. DeSantis signed into law several bills that lowered the felony threshold for certain crimes and increased the penalties for offenders.[6] The governor also used his executive power to veto several second-chance bills like those that would reduce barriers to occupational licensing for people with past criminal records and make it more affordable for those who are incarcerated to pursue a higher education. Further, the governor vetoed $2 million for a pilot program that would have offered incarcerated people with good behavior one 15-minute phone call per month. The funds were slated to come from the inmate welfare trust funds. All of these policy proposals would have had a positive impact on rehabilitation and chipped away at the state’s stagnant recidivism rate.[7] Studies have consistenly shown that access to good paying jobs[8] and maintaining familial and social[9] ties while incarcerated strongly reduces the likelihood of re-offending.
Florida’s minimum sentencing law is a major reason why a lower prison population does not translate into lower costs for DOC. The “85 percent rule” requires all incarcerated people to complete at least 85 percent of their sentence, even for nonviolent offenses.
Given lawmakers’ insistence on staying the course, prison admissions will inevitably rise, which will further intensify DOC’s funding strains. The incarcerated population is forecasted to increase by 10 percent in the next four years.[10] This is significant because even when Florida’s prison population was steadily declining, DOC’s budget continued to increase, while the department faced a budget deficit and faced severe underfunding. To illustrate, the prison population fell by 17 percent over the span of nine years, whereas DOC's budget grew by 42 percent during that same time period.[11] Additionally, during that same timeframe, DOC faced a $28 million deficit and experienced years of short-term cost-saving measures that have decimated the department’s rehabilitative programming capacity.[12]
Florida’s minimum sentencing law is a major reason why a lower prison population does not translate into lower costs for DOC. The “85 percent rule” requires all incarcerated people to complete at least 85 percent of their sentence, even for nonviolent offenses. Keeping people in prison for longer means more people reaching old age while incarcerated and needing more specialized care, which requires substantial financial investment.[13] As then-Senator Jeff Brandes described it, the prison system is “largely a healthcare provider that houses inmates.”[14] Notably, in FY 2022-23, people aged 50 years and older accounted for 62 percent of all outpatient cases and 58 percent of all hospital admissions.[15]
Budget
Department of Corrections
The FY 2024-25 budget increases funding for the DOC to $3.64 billion, roughly $364 million more than the FY 2023-24 funding level. Although this is a significant increase, it is still insufficient to address some of the most critical issues the department is dealing with.
Basic Education
The FY 2024-25 budget includes roughly $94 million for basic education, almost a $10 million increase over the FY 2023-24 funding level, and an approximately 119 percent increase over the FY 2022-23 budget funding level of $43 million. This is a commendable step because, for years, hiring and retaining quality teachers has been a persistent issue for the DOC. Nearly seven out of 10 returning citizens report unmet academic programming needs.[16] Relatedly, similar to the previous fiscal year, FY 2024-25 made specific allocations for the department to continue to expand educational and career technical opportunities for those who are in prison.
Maintenance and Repair
The FY 2024-25 budget for maintenance and repair is $293 million. While this is a $95 million increase over FY 2023-24 funding, it is significantly below the estimated amount that is needed to address the most critical repairs. Particularly, 17 of the state’s 50 institutions were built before 1980 and all are in dire need of renovations, such as electrical upgrades, windows, locking controls, plumbing systems, roofs, and central air conditioning.[17] To illustrate, only 153 out of the DOC’s 639 housing units have air conditioning (AC), and those largely house special populations such as the elderly and pregnant women. The lack of AC, especially during Florida’s summer months, has helped to create unbearable living conditions for both the staff and incarcerated people.[18]
In 2022, the Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) contracted out to KPMG, a global consulting firm, to develop a 20-year master plan for DOC.[19] The study revealed the current state of the department as “unsustainable,” and the firm outlined a myriad of recommendations ranging from $6 billion to $12 billion that would improve the department and promote public safety.[20] KPMG’s proposals were divided into three options: modernize, manage, and mitigate. All options included the crucial need for the department to 1) reopen closed facilities such as work camps and closed dorms, 2) build a 600-bed hospital and 300-bed hospital by 2030 and 2035, respectively, and 3) construct a new prison by 2036.[21] The option to “mitigate” is the most cost-effective at a total cost of $6.3 billion, whereas the options to “manage” and “modernize” are $9 billion and $12 billion, respectively.[22] Unlike the “mitigate” option, both the “manage” and “modernize” options proposed the construction of an additional prison by 2030. Moreover, the “modernize” option recommends that the state build another prison by 2041.[23]
The FY 2024-25 budget did not provide allocations for any of these recommended projects. However, in FY 2022-23 the Legislature did propose a $1 billion budget for maintenance and repairs. From it, $645 million was meant to build a 4,500-bed correctional institution, and $195 million for the construction of a 250-bed hospital unit for those aged 50 and older. However, these recommendations did not materialize since the governor vetoed funding for both projects.[24]
Health Care
The budget includes roughly $688 million for health care services, an $11 million increase over previous year funding. Allocations for health care services programs have grown by 21 percent since FY 2019-20. Similar to previous years, in FY 2024-25, contracted statewide inmate health care services, for which $549 million is allocated, constitute the majority of funding. This is a direct result of the department’s aging population, as older people in prisons require more specialized care. For example, over the span of 12 years, the number of outpatient cases rose by 89 percent, and older incarcerated people made up most of all outpatient cases.[25]
Security and Institutional Operations
The budget includes $1.7 billion for all four types of custody operations:
- $881 million for adult male custody, an 8.2 percent decrease from prior year funding of $960 million.
- $78 million for adult and youthful offender female custody, a 25 percent decrease from the prior year funding level of $103 million.
- $28.2 million for male youthful offender custody, a 48 percent decrease from prior year funding of $54 million.
- $702 million for specialty correctional institution, a nearly 12 percent increase over prior year funding of $629 million.
Community Supervision
Community supervision is a part of community corrections where some who are justice-involved are serving their time out in the community under the supervision of probation officers. Community supervision receives approximately $281 million in the budget, a $23 million (9 percent) increase over the FY 2023-24 budget. Additionally, the FY 2024-25 budget includes an approximately $31.5 million investment in community substance abuse prevention, evaluation, and treatment services, roughly the same as FY 2023-24.
Juvenile Justice
From FY 2018-19 to FY 2022-23, the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has reported a stark decrease in the number of youths who are arrested, on probation, and placed on residential commitment.[26] Meanwhile, the percentage of youths who are partaking in diversion programs has increased over the last three fiscal years.[27] However, these trends are likely to cease, as a new state law recently took effect that is going to significantly change the landscape of juvenile justice in Florida.
Following a highly publicized case in which a 19-year-old Floridian, a youth with a juvenile record, was charged with murder in relation to a shooting that claimed three lives,[28] Gov. DeSantis doubled down on his "law and order" agenda and announced a series of proposals. House Bill (HB) 1181[29] — one of the governor’s top priorities — does the following, among other things:
- Changes the term “civil citation” to “delinquency citation.”
- Bans a juvenile charged with an offense involving the use or possession of a firearm from being issued a delinquency citation.
- Authorizes education records to be used in juvenile proceedings without the consent of a parent/guardian.
- Mandates a court to only consider, rather than use, the results of DJJ’s Detention Risk Assessment Instrument (DRAI) tool in making a determination of whether to continue to detain a juvenile. The DRAI tool is used by detention screening staff to “determine whether a youth should be detained in a secure detention facility prior to their detention hearing, placed on supervised release (community-based detention status), or released without any additional supervision.”[30]
The far-reaching implication of this new law is that the department will potentially see an increase in intakes, with more youth being sent to secure detention and supervision.
The DJJ receives $739 million in the budget, about $74 million more than FY 2023-24 funding of $665 million. Lawmakers continue to mandate a comprehensive statewide review with the goal of developing benchmarks across counties, which supports the DJJ’s strategic goals of “preventing and diverting more youth from entering the juvenile justice system, providing appropriate and less restrictive community-based sanctions and services, reserving serious sanctions for youth who pose the greatest risk to public safety, and focusing on rehabilitation.”[31]
The far-reaching implication of this new law [HB 1181] is that the department will potentially see an increase in intakes, with more youth being sent to secure detention and supervision.
Relatedly, the budget includes almost $176 million for detention centers, $26.6 million more than the past fiscal year’s $150 million appropriation. Community supervision receives $4 million in additional funds, for a total allocation of $109 million. The budget includes $4.2 million to help the department provide alternative services to youth who are at risk for commitment, and another $3.7 million to offer vocational and educational services that would support at-risk youth in their transition from residential commitment programs to the community.
The budget for delinquency prevention is $114 million, which is $8 million more than the prior year funding level. This is a step in the right direction; however, it is worth noting that the governor vetoed a total of $3.3 million from delinquency prevention, including legislative initiatives that would reduce and prevent juvenile crime and promote rehabilitation. That is more than two times what the governor vetoed for the FY 2023 –24 budget.
Notes
[1] Florida Department of Corrections, “2021-2024 Strategic Plan,” pages 12-16, https://pubapps.fdc.myflorida.com/pub/annual/1819/2020-2021-Strategic-Plan.pdf.
[2] Florida Department of Corrections, “2021-2024 Strategic Plan,” pages 12-16.
[3] Florida Senate, “SB 2512: Correctional Facilities Capital Improvement, Bill Analysis,” February 2024, https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/2512/Analyses/2024s02512.ap.PDF.
[4] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” December 27, 2023, page 3, https://floridapolicyproject.com/researchs/multi-year-master-plan/.
[5] Tachana Joseph-Marc, “Walk the walk: Florida legislature must shore up funds to implement KPMG’s $2.2 billion urgent repair recommendations,” Florida Policy Institute, July 2024, https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5cd5801dfdf7e5927800fb7f/66a2713b5654b624277a300c_7.25.24_FPI_DOC_Repairs_Analysis.pdf.
[6] Romy Ellenbogen, “5 Florida bills that increase punishments for street racers, porch pirates, other crimes,” Tampa Bay Times, March 26, 2024, https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/03/26/florida-desantis-law-order-punishment-criminal/.
[7] Jeffrey Schweers, “DeSantis Vetoes Three Criminal Justice Reform Bills,” Orlando Sentinel, June 28, 2024, https://www.governing.com/policy/desantis-vetoes-three-criminal-justice-reform-bills.
[8] “Bridging the Divide: Licensing and Recidivism,” James Madison Institute, 2019, https://www.jamesmadison.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PolicyBrief_LicensingRecidivism_v02.pdf.
[9]M.T. Berg, and B.M. Huebner, “Reentry and the Ties that Bind: An Examination of Social Ties, Employment, and Recidivism,” 2011, Justice Quarterly, 28(2), 382-410 https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2010.498383.
[10] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” December 27, 2023, page 3.
[11] An analysis of Florida Department of Corrections Annual Reports from FY 2014-15 to FY 2023-24 can be found at: https://www.fdc.myflorida.com/statistics-and-publications.
[12] Tachana Joseph-Marc, “Massive Cuts to Substance Abuse and Re-Entry Programs, Maintenance Repairs as DOC Deals with $28 Million Budget Deficit,” Florida Policy Institute, May 4, 2018, https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/massive-cuts-to-substance-abuse-and-re-entry-programs-maintenance-repairs-as-doc-deals-with-28-million-budget-deficit.
[13] Florida Department of Corrections, “2022-2023 Annual Report,” n.d., https://fdc-media.ccplatform.net/content/download/3089/file/Annual_Report_22-23_V10.pdf.
[14] Allie Pitchon, “In Florida, Home of the 97-year-old Inmate, Prison Healthcare Costs Spiraling,”Miami Herald, February 22, 2022, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article257273507.html.
[15] Florida Department of Corrections, “2022-2023 Annual Report,” n.d., page 22.
[16] Department of Corrections, “Long Range Program Plan: Fiscal Years 2024-25 through 2028-29,” Florida Fiscal Portal, September 29, 2023, page 28, http://floridafiscalportal.state.fl.us/Document.aspx?ID=26886&DocType=PDF.
[17] Florida Department of Corrections, “2020-2024 Strategic Plan,” page 15.
[18] Florida Department of Corrections, “2020-2024 Strategic Plan,” page 15.
[19] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” page 6, December 2023.
[20] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” page 6, December 2023.
[21] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” page 6, December 2023.
[22] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” page 6, December 2023.
[23] Florida Department of Management Services, “Final Multi-Year Master Plan (FAR-D16): Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System,” page 6, December 2023.
[24] FY 2022-23, line item 684A.
[25] Florida Department of Corrections, “2022-2023 Annual Report,” n.d., page 22.
[26] Department of Juvenile Justice, “Delinquency Profile Dashboard,” data updated September 15, 2023, https://www.djj.state.fl.us/research/reports-and-data/interactive-data-reports/delinquency-profile/delinquency-profile-dashboard.
[27] Department of Juvenile Justice, “Delinquency Profile Dashboard,” data updated September 15, 2023, https://www.djj.state.fl.us/research/reports-and-data/interactive-data-reports/delinquency-profile/delinquency-profile-dashboard.
[28] Freida Frisaro, “Suspect in Florida TV crew attack faces more murder charges,” Associated Press, February 28, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/tv-reporter-killed-orlando-florida-shooting-ac76e38d55e7a480c76459051d8ba122.
[29] Florida House of Representatives, “Staff Final Bill Analysis,” https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1181/Analyses/h1181z1.CRJ.PDF.
[30] Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, “What is the DRAI,” https://www.djj.state.fl.us/research/detention-risk-assessment-instrument/what-is-the-drai.
[31] Department of Juvenile Justice, “2023 Service Continuum Analysis,” January 2024, https://www.djj.state.fl.us/research/reports-and-data/research-reports/service-continuum-analysis.
