Florida lawmakers need to address poor state of prisons | Opinion

Tachana Joseph-Marc
·2 min read

Over the years, the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) has grappled with various challenges, including understaffing, an aging population that requires intensive health care services, and dilapidated building infrastructure that creates inhumane conditions for those who are incarcerated.

Many of Florida’s prison facilities were built five decades ago — they are outdated and lack a central cooling system. Notably, out of DOC’s 623 housing units, only 150 of them have air conditioning. This has contributed to unbearable living conditions, especially during the scorching heat of Florida’s summers. Despite the pressing need for renovation and advocates’ consistent pleas for change, the Legislature has failed to render any solution.

Tachana Joseph-Marc is a senior policy analyst focused on criminal justice issues at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Florida Policy Institute.
Tachana Joseph-Marc is a senior policy analyst focused on criminal justice issues at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Florida Policy Institute.

The current budget for fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 includes a $3.3 billion appropriation to DOC, a sizable increase of $318 million over FY 2022-23 funding levels. This allocation includes $198 million for maintenance and repairs, slightly more funding than the previous fiscal year, but still far less than what was allocated in FY 2021-22. None of these dollars were earmarked for air-conditioning projects.

The Legislature’s efforts to address this issue have been insufficient and misguided. In 2021, lawmakers recommended that two new prisons be built and offered funding to the tune of $645 million for a 4,500-bed correctional facility and $195 million for the construction of a 250-bed hospital unit for people over 65. They believed that would help solve the problem. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed those projects. Since then, DOC’s failing infrastructure has not been prioritized in the budgetary debates. The challenges remain, and those in prison continue to carry the brunt of the Legislature’s inaction.

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The best solution is not building new prisons. Instead, the Legislature should implement common-sense criminal justice reforms that decrease the prison population. This would help to close some of those outdated prisons, which would yield fiscal savings; those savings, in turn, could be invested in identifying innovative air-conditioning projects or expanding existing ones, such as the “portable evaporative air coolers” pilot program that is underway at Lowell Correctional Institution.

Liane Lastra, an inmate at the Lowell Correctional Facility in Florida, talks about the poor conditions at the facility. Lastra was pregnant when she entered the prison in 2021, and she says she miscarried due to lack of medical care.
Liane Lastra, an inmate at the Lowell Correctional Facility in Florida, talks about the poor conditions at the facility. Lastra was pregnant when she entered the prison in 2021, and she says she miscarried due to lack of medical care.

Specifically, lawmakers should lift the “85 percent rule” for nonviolent offenses. This rule, which requires that sentences be served at least at 85 percent, has led to longer sentences and an aging prison population. Lifting that rule would help release many people who present no threat to public safety while saving taxpayer dollars. The cost of incarceration per person was $28,298 in 2022.

Florida’s prisons are in dire need of repair, and so is Florida’s criminal justice system. Fixing the latter would mean taking care of the root cause, not just the symptoms. Enacting smart criminal justice policies would create systemic changes that would promote better and more humane living conditions for incarcerated people in Florida’s prisons.

Tachana Joseph-Marc is a senior policy analyst focused on criminal justice  issues at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Florida Policy Institute.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida lawmakers need to address poor state of prisons