Change mandatory prison sentence law?

by Opinion Staff 
 

This week, legislative committees will hear how Florida may be able to spend less on criminal justice and yet do criminal justice better.

Simply stated, Florida spends too much money on the wrong kind of prisoner. Reformers want the state to save prison space, the most expensive, for the most dangerous criminals, and work harder to rehabilitate those who want to change their lives. Also, Florida should emphasize treatment, not incarceration, for prisoners whose crimes resulted from mental illness or substance abuse. The same approach would hold for juveniles.

This debate started in 2009, when the Department of Corrections presented the Legislature with a demand for five new prisons, to handle all the people who were being sentenced. One reason for that demand is that over the last quarter-century Florida has issued more rules on sentencing. In 1995, for example, the Legislature required that all prison inmates serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

As the reformers point out, that number is arbitrary, and ensures that people who might be able to be released sooner without a threat to the public will have to stay inside, running up the state’s tab. We have long believed that judges should have more leeway, each way, in sentencing. We want the Legislature, as part of prison reform, to abolish that 85 percent rule. 

What do you think? Take their poll at http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/opinionzone/2011/01/24/change-mandatory-prison-sentence-law/

Comment from a viewer:

I believe it is important to not have mandatory sentencing of any kind. Not all situations are equal and therefore no mandatory sentencing can fairly apply. We spend way too much money keeping people incarcerated. Money that can be spent on things that are productive. If a person is convicted of a violent crime they should not be on the street, but someone who has been convicted of a non violent crime due to the way our laws are written and do not pose a threat to society, or have a documented mental illness that does not cause them to be or become violent why should we continue to house them. We as a society will be better off if they can be rehabilitated,integrated back into society as productive tax paying members of our communities. There are many people in prison that probably should not be there. Many of us when young have done things that if the laws of today were in effect would have landed us in prison. We have had the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, grow up and move on. I am sure there are many in our prisons today afforded the same opportunities we had would do the same.