Despite a couple of good points, the author asserts some very incorrect statements and is off the mark on others. 1. Everyone in the system is fat and happy except the inmates? This statement is incredibly insulting to the men and women Correctional Officers (not guards) and Correctional Probation Officers and completely false. No officer was asked for a statement in the article. 2. Out of the 22,400 employees, about 17,000 are certified officers. The FDLE Certified Correctional Officers (not guards) are not the ones who gain by keeping a large prison population. This is like suggesting that police officers in general want a high crime rate in order to keep positions? A completely distorted view of what Correctional and Probation Officers have as their priorities. 3. Florida has some of the toughest sentencing laws in the country as reported by numerous CONSERVATIVE groups. There are an abundance of reports and recommendations by conservative groups to change some sentencing laws in a smart and safe manner and utilize more community supervision. The biggest determination by far as to the number of inmates behind bars is the Legislature and Governor. Why then in Florida with a republican Governor and controlled Legislature has there been little to no attempt by the leaders to intensely look at the sentencing laws and the probation arm of corrections has been decimated? Geo and other private vendors are major players in supporting republican candidates who in turn have utilized all their energy and effort to privatize prisons but wont touch any type of sentencing reform. Fat and happy are the Governor, the Legislative leaders and the private prison corporations. Ask a Corrections/Probation Officer how many years they have on the job, what their position and pay is, how many times they have been assaulted and what are their top priorities. C.BULLINS EXCERPT FROM ATTACHED ARTICLE: The money gets apportioned to 55 state prisons without regard to individual institutions’ recidivism rates. Of course, everyone in the system — except those behind bars — is fat and happy with the status quo. Unions want to keep those 22,400 guards and probation officers on the payroll. Prison administrators sure as hell don’t want to mess with the criteria that has made them big players in a Florida growth industry. “The way the reward system works, the way you increase your budget and increase your importance is to get more inmates,” said Allison DeFoor, chairman of the Project on Accountable Justice at Florida State University. “Nobodys getting paid to drop the number of prisoners.”
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:59:23 +0000
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