Florida Sentencing Schemes
In Florida, there is a complex maze of sentencing schemes that make restructuring the present system a tedious task that ensures an all-encompassing strategy for reform. Admittedly, there is difficulty and challenges in making effective reforms that benefit the public and the over-sentenced inmate respectively.
In times past, sentences have ranged from far too lenient to far too cruel for a civilized society. Florida must find a better way and change its current sentencing scheme away from the mass incarceration ideals that created the warehousing system that has given a false sense of security. It has been a philosophy that has been shown to be detrimental on several different levels.
Excessive and lengthy prison sentences have not been effective and have decimated our society even more than any one individual offender could. We still have over4,000 offenders that are not paroled from a parole system that went out almost 40years ago, from 65% and 85% gain time that really only gives hope to those who did not get more than 20 years,118 mandatory minimums, multiple enhancers and designators mixed in the middle of it all.
The legislature has the tall task of reforming our criminal justice system and will need all the help they can get. We must take what we have learned from the past, and while putting our citizens first and foremost, we must seek new reforms that solve the complex issues that have previously prevented any real reform.
Through Society-First, we wish to lend our voice to help establish the sharpest minds that our society has to offer. We are a platform that allows every solution to be heard and ultimately chosen by the People who are affected the most.
No longer will the legislation have to wonder how to fix the system, because it will be already known how to fix the system. To circumvent the will of the People would go against the very fabric of what has made our country great, so throughSociety-First every politician will be able to fully understand what that will truly is.
We invite all, whether an ex-offender, inmate, family member, victim, church, correctional officer, or simply a citizen to share their personal experience, solutions, or questions concerning all aspects of the criminal justice system.
More Problems
Staff Mentality
The mentality of a company's staff will dictate which direction that company takes and this is one of the prime reasons behind FDC's present culture. When the FDC switched gears from "rehabilitation" to the strict parameters of "care, custody, and control", it began to lose touch with its accountability in placing society first.
Violence
Violence is one of the biggest factors that has promulgated today's culture in prison, and due to no solution being provided, violence has become a necessity in many inmates' minds. To survive, one must embrace the violence to ensure that one is not grossly affected by it. What goes up must come down.
Culture
In today's prison system, there is an epidemic that has amassed a very destructive force, and one would be sadly mistaken to shrug it off as being inconsequential to the world outside of prison. We must not turn a blind eye to the fact that the realities in prison will one day become realities outside of prison.