C OR R E CTIONS
FLORIDA’S PRISON SYSTEM
IN CRISIS
Staffing levels are so low that there is one corrections officer for 250 inmates By Jannis Falkenstern
F
lorida is facing a “tsunami of inmates” who may be released from local and county jails due to a critical staff shortage, according to state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican. As a result of inaction by state leadership, Brandes said, the state may have to release some prisoners because facilities are overcrowded and there aren’t enough corrections officers. He said Florida’s prisons could house 60,000 inmates appropriately and manage them adequately, but there are more than 80,000 incarcerated. The total doesn’t include defendants behind bars while their cases are heard. “I say overcrowded, but it is not because we do not have enough bed space—it is because of the lack of staff,” he said, adding that the system currently has one guard for every 250 inmates. The state senator blamed the state’s legislators on both sides of the aisle for the problem. “The state legislature failed to put any plan in place,” he said. “They don’t understand the depth of the problem.” In 2016, the Florida Legislature commissioned a study on the prison system and asked for recommendations. The Crime and Justice Institute
28 I N S I G H T December 10 – 16, 2021
conducted the study and released a report in 2018. “The analysis found that Florida is sending fewer people to prison than in years past, but those who do end up there are serving longer sentences, including those convicted of low-level, nonviolent offenses,” the report stated. The report found that Florida’s prison population stagnated at 100,000 inmates, making it the third-largest in the United States. In late August, staff shortages caused three Florida facilities to close–Cross City, Baker, and New River correctional institutions, all in north Florida. The affected inmates were sent to other facilities, where Brandes said many were sleeping on floors. Brandes said the incarceration rate is 21 percent higher than the national average. Florida’s elderly prison population is rapidly growing and is expected to reach more than 27,700 inmates by 2023. Most elderly inmates have significant medical needs. In 2015, the FDC spent more than $366 million on health care for inmates. Along with staffing issues, programs for the inmates have been cut because of lack of teachers, Brandes said. “We are just warehousing and not correcting anything,” he said. “There may be one teacher to every
The Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on June 5, 2019. Florida may have to release some prisoners because facilities are overcrowded and corrections officers in short supply.
21%
IS HOW MUCH higher Florida’s incarceration rate is compared to the national average.
