|
Razor Wire in Rural Florida
By Hugh MacMillan
Consultant on Rural
Affairs
Most Floridians don't drive by,
live near, work at, reside at or
regularly visit a state prison.
Yet corrections is a big
business in Florida,
particularly in rural Florida,
where most of the prisons are
located. As of January 2008,
there were 97,000 inmates locked
up in Florida prisons. The
Department of Corrections (DOC)
employs roughly 28,000 state
employees and has an annual
budget of approximately $2.7
billion. In most of Florida's
rural counties, a job can be
hard to find and the prison is
often the one place where a man
or woman might find a steady
job.
In Fiscal Year 2006-2007, inmate
admissions rose eight percent
from the year before to 37,864.
Drug crimes accounted for 30.6
per cent, the largest single
category. And 35,337 inmates
were released from Florida
prisons in FY 2006-2007, having
served an average of 86.3
percent of sentences --
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/0607/stats
Here's a big problem: Almost one
half the inmates in Florida's
prisons have done time in a
Florida prison before. And at
least one in every three of the
inmates released will be
returning to a Florida prison
within three years of release.
This is a problem because the
safety of the public is
compromised by this revolving
door. Also, it is a problem
because of the high cost of
failure, no matter where we fix
the blame -- a complicated human
and systemic issue. A
conservative estimate of the
cost of housing an inmate for a
year is around $20,000. When we
house the same inmate for the
second and third time, one might
begin to wonder if there any
better ideas for dealing with
this ongoing situation.
The math is staggering. A new
1,200-bed prison costs about
$100 million to build, plus $30
million for annual operating
costs. The current recidivism
rate of at least 33% means that
one out of every three inmates
released will return to prison
within three years of his
release. At least 10,000 inmates
released this year will be
coming back to prison over the
next 3 years at an annual cost
of $20,000 each.
Governor Charlie Crist made
positive recommendations to the
2008 Florida Legislature
encouraging the investment of
$28.8-million in critical drug
treatment programs to cut
recidivism and save an estimated
$306-million in prison
construction costs and
$60-million in annual operating
costs.
For various reasons, the House
of Representatives objected and
the status quo remains. The
overall budget was over $4
billion less than the prior
year, DOC had no strong
champions in the Legislature and
thus was no match politically
for other competing interests,
not unusual for the agency.
Prisons and Rural Florida
Most prisoners are tried and
sentenced in urban court rooms
and most head back to the city
upon release, but big prisons in
Florida are a rural community
matter.
The Florida Statutes define a
"rural community" based on a
county population of 75,000 or
less. Of the 67 Florida
counties, 32 meet the rural
community definition and of
these 29 are home to a major
state prison -- Baker, Bradford,
Calhoun, Columbia, Desoto,
Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden,
Gilchrist, Glades, Gulf,
Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry,
Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson,
Lafayette, Levy, Liberty,
Madison, Okeechobee, Putnam,
Suwannee, Taylor, Union,
Wakulla, Walton and Washington.
Flagler, Highlands and Nassau
counties are the only rural
counties without a prison.
In each of the 29 counties
mentioned above, the Florida
Department of Corrections is one
of the most significant
employers.
Historically, timber and
agriculture has been the
economic base for these small
counties. This is the case with
Liberty County. The smallest
among these, Liberty is nestled
in the Florida Panhandle between
the Ochlocknee River of the east
and the Apalachicola River on
the west, and has a population
of approximately 8,000. Liberty
Correctional Institution (LCI)
houses 1,273 adult male
prisoners. With a staff of 330,
the prison is the largest single
employer in the county and
serves as a good example of the
state's rural prisons. At this
time there are no academic or
vocational education programs
and limited transition, library
and chapel programs.
The good news is that there is
an emerging consensus that
Florida may be ready to make
fundamental changes in its basic
prison system that can lead to a
significant return on this
investment in big prisons in
rural counties -- dramatic
reductions in recidivism rates,
stabilization of runaway prison
construction costs, and, in the
process, helping to make our
communities safer.
Wakulla County and its Prison
with a Special Mission
Wakulla County, just south of
Leon County, extends to the Gulf
Coast and has an estimated
population of 28,400.
Many Wakulla County residents
work with state government in
Tallahassee and some have
retired to the coast. Among the
county's major employers, St.
Marks Powder employs 350 people;
CSG Systems, Inc. employs 200;
and Eden Springs Nursing Home
employs 115. Wakulla
Correctional Institution has a
capacity and employment base
similar to LCI's -- 332
employees and an inmate
population of 1,701 until its
new 1500-bed annex opens this
year and these numbers double.
Most of us have not lived or
worked in a prison. We may not
know anyone who has. And we
probably never visited a prison.
But a few people for various
reasons - often related to
religious faith - volunteer in
prisons to help others. This
sustained community volunteer
link is a key factor in some
dramatic improvements in prisons
in Florida and around the
country. The basic education,
transition and chaplaincy staff
is enhanced by coordinated
volunteer workers and by the
positive efforts of inmate
facilitators in various programs
and activities. This is not the
usual prison culture and to date
the prison outcomes are not the
usual outcomes.
Wakulla Correctional Institution
(WCI) is part of the DOC's Faith
& Character Initiative, a
program designed to build a more
positive prison culture through
sustained community volunteer
links. In fact, a sign at the
facility's entrance reads
Wakulla Correctional
Institution, a Faith- and
Character-based Facility.
WCI is the only maximum security
prison in the United States with
that designation. And Florida
may be the only state in the
country currently implementing
faith-based programs in prison
based on a policy that meets
federal constitutional
requirements. That is what The
New York Times concluded in a
front-page article published on
December 10, 2006.
The policy of the prison
provides that religion and
religious expression is
voluntary, not supported by
state funds, and occurs in
circumstances that do not
infringe on the rights of other
inmates who choose not to
participate in the program. When
the Senate Criminal Justice
Committee decided to make a site
visit to WCI in October 2007,
Governor Charlie Crist
authorized the following
statement to be released: "With
a firm constitutional
foundation, faith- and
character-based institutions
allow any inmate, secular or
religious, to make him or
herself into a better person.
Through the initial step of
volunteering to reside in a
faith- and character-based
institution, an increasing
number of inmates are taking
their first step towards
personal responsibility and
self-improvement."
The Tax and Budget Reform
Commission (TBRC), which
convenes every 20 years to place
potential constitutional
amendments directly before the
voters, recently completed its
work. The TBRC approved a
statutory recommendation (SR 19)
that codifies the Governor's
policy statement regarding
faith- and character-based
prisons and requires study and
replication of this model. The
key question for this prison
initiative is whether it is
possible to combine strict
professional security management
with a prison environment that
is essentially positive. An
important element for the
program's success is the
sustained presence of community
volunteers who are trained and
supervised.
On his first day on the job,
newly appointed DOC Secretary
Walter McNeil visited WCI.
Governor Crist recruited McNeil
to fill the DOC leadership job
because of his performance as
Secretary of the Department of
Juvenile Justice. Every
indication is that he has the
vision, experience and ability
needed to provide true
leadership at this difficult and
opportune time. Old ways and
established cultures resist
change and the Florida prison
culture is no exception.
Rural Florida will continue to
receive more than its share of
prisons and prisoners and the
ex-offenders who choose to make
their living in these counties.
The TBRC research, analysis and
proposed legislation regarding
the faith- and character-based
prison model helped to elevate
this local initiative to a new
level of significance as a sound
fiscal and economic policy. And
it is also relevant that prisons
have a new champion in the
Florida Legislature with the
election of former TBRC
Commissioner Representative
Daryl Rouson, who introduced SR
19.
To finish reading and/or
download Mr. MacMillan's article
in Acrobart Reader Format,
please click here: Razor
Wire in Rural Florida: Can Our
State's Prisons Succeed?
|
