How the 65% Prisoner Law Works
The ultimate goal of the 65% law for prisoners was to: "[H]ave more money available to protect children." Florida Governor Charlie Crist said the following about the 65% law: "A law that sends a very clear message that this is a state where we value our children’s lives. And I think it’s a proper message for this state to send." The 65% law was proposed in Florida because of a 2007 rape case, in which a man received a plea deal of 10 years in prison for raping a 9-year-old girl, more than three times in three days . According to news reports, the convicted defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison because he agreed to plead guilty to lesser crimes of sexual battery with a plea deal that would not require him to register as a sex offender. Florida’s 65% prisoner law was eventually enacted after considerable public outcry about the 2007 rape case and the light sentence given to the rapist. Florida’s 65% law for prisoners amends the state’s "Truth in Sentencing" law and requires mandatory minimum sentences of at least 65% of the sentence. The law was signed by Florida governor Charlie Crist on October 1, 2008 and took effect on January 1, 2009. The Florida 65% law only applies to most violent crimes.
How the 65% Law Went Through the Legislative Process
In Florida, the Prisoner Release Law (as it is now called) was passed as a result of Chapter 77-185 Laws of Florida. This act required that the Florida legislature do a study and recommend changes to the way that inmates are released from state prison. In 1979, the legislature passed Legislative Bill 1505 which did away with parole and in its place was the new Florida parole commission, which took over all of the prior duties of the old Florida parole commission. The new law allowed correctional facility institutions and the Department of Corrections if they wanted to, could release their inmates on "gain time" or early release for good time. The amount of time to be deducted was 10 days each month served. After three years or 65%, and/or until the inmate had served their entire sentence, the inmate would then be released. The State of Florida was not finished with the formula. In 1981, by Chapter 80-213, laws of Florida. The Florida legislature enacted the "Florida 65% Prisoner Law." This came after detention center studies showed that the inmates who were eligible for release at the 65% point were committing crimes after they were released. So the legislature amended the existing law and began requiring a mandatory 85% prison time before release. The law also required that the impact of the law be reported to the Governor and the president of the Senate.
Impact of the 65% Florida Prisoner Law
It remains to be seen how the 65% law will affect the size of the prison population in Florida, but if the law does reduce sentences for some inmates it will have some impact. As the state cuts down on the inmate population that crowd our prisons, it will be able to reallocate "costs without lessening public safety safety, but by using fewer taxpayer dollars to get there."
The rehabilitation of inmates is the other area where Florida’s 65% law could help decrease costs. Having a program available to address and treat the underlying issues that lead to criminal behavior can impact the recidivism rates. The law requires rehabilitation programs to be established for both violent and non-violent offenders serving a 65% sentence, but "if an inmate is not eligible for release based on the inmate’s behavior in prison or is convicted of an additional offense, the inmate’s sentence shall be extended an additional 20%." 2014 Fla. Sess. Law Serv. Ch. 2014-220 (S.B. 1392). Imagine the positive impact having an additional 10% of sentenced offenders being transferred to work release programs and/or transitioning to the community, either through parole or probation. Not only would this be a cost savings to the state, it would help rehabilitate offenders which in turn has a direct correlation with reducing recidivism. This is a win-win for Florida and its residents.
Public and Political Sentiment About the 65% Prisoner Law
The Florida 65% Prisoner Law has enjoyed a relatively good amount of support and patronage from advocacy groups and human rights organizations. These advocacy groups are largely comprised of professionals in the legal field, including criminal-defense attorneys, victim services organizations, and Florida state legislators.
For example, the executive director for the Florida Innocence Project, Seth Miller, provided the Miami Herald with the following statement when the law’s future recently came into question, "I think any law that gives a judge discretion to impose a sentence less than what the prosecutor asks is good; especially when it removes the dangerous mandatory minimum sentences."
Not everyone shares such a favorable view of the Florida 65% Prisoner Law, however. In fact, some advocacy groups have been working hard to ensure that the law is struck down for good, citing that it has become "a law with an expiration date . " The primary argument against the law is that it has yet to accomplish its originally intended goal of reducing the state’s prison population and thus, its implementation was essentially pointless. SEIU Florida, the largest union for law enforcement and criminal justice employees in the state, said exactly that following the early termination of the law in early August. SEIU’s State Director Pio Ieraci argued that throwing away the statute is no way to spur legislative action in the state. He was quoted as saying, "Killing the 65 Percent Law helps no one." He added, "If you do this, nothing stops political leaders from doing it again the next time personal politics gets in the way of real reform."
Members of the public also had their thoughts on the 65% Law and its early termination. A poll conducted shortly before the law was suspended indicated that more than two-thirds of Floridians favored the 65% Law, with 76 percent of voters believing that the measure should remain in place.
How the Florida 65% Law Compares to Those in Other States
While Florida’s 65% prisoner law is the most unique version of a truth-in-sentencing law, many other states have enacted similar laws though some have provisions that differ significantly from Florida’s. For example, Georgia and Illinois both have truth-in-sentencing laws that require at least 85% of the sentence to be served but both allow for parole consideration after that point with certain programs available. Parole in Georgia is completely discretionary and in Illinois is mandatory. With such a high percentage of the sentence to be served in Georgia there are few releases granted on parole. Georgia’s law has had little impact on its violent crime rate as it is virtually identical to its prior law. In contrast, Illinois saw a dramatic drop in its violent crime rate after it enacted its truth-in-sentencing law. Few inmates are released on parole in Illinois for violent crimes, but the non-violent offenders are released at a fairly significant rate. It is thought that since a person’s sentence is known at the time of their plea they can more easily anticipate the risk of a trial, and it is thought that this perceived risk has encouraged more pleas. However, Illinois’ law allows for early release consideration for inmates in several specific programs and that is important to note because another reason Illinois is thought to have had a success is because certain designated inmates are eligible for early releases. Florida, on the other hand, has no such early release programs in our prison system.
Other states that have truth-in-sentencing laws or a high percentage sentence serving law include New York and Minnesota, which both have a percentage law of 2/3 or 66 2/3% of the sentence. In both of these states inmates are eligible for parole at the half-way mark of their sentence. In fact, New York actually has a program in which inmates can be released and transferred to a half-way house at the very half-way mark, or at their three-quarter mark voluntarily. However, Florida has not followed any of these examples in implementing parole such to be released sooner than the statutory minimum.
What does all of this mean for the 65% law and how it might affect Florida? Well, interestingly, up until now, the law has had little impact because it was only applied to a very small percentage of those sentenced. However, the longer it’s in effect the more applied it is becoming and that means that its true effects will begin to reveal themselves and Florida will know with certainty whether the law is a good thing as we would imagine or whether it is disastrous. Note that parole eligibility will not begin until everyone sentenced to 65% must serve that term. This means that even if we are still in that time period being considered to be able for parole eligibility to actually be effective isn’t going to happen for many years.
What to Expect and What is Next
As certain legislators have made clear they intend to remain vigilant in their efforts to restore the 65% law, and there is always a possibility that it may be reintroduced in future legislative sessions. Senator Darryl Rouson, one of the bill’s authors in 2016 and 2017, has promised to have the bill back again next year and believes that with broader support for a new version that adds in language that is more palatable to Governor Scott, i.e., reform for violent offenses only, his colleagues will go for it next year.
Also, recent efforts by the editor of the popular website www.floridabulldog.org to expose public corruption have recently led to the indictment of former FLDOC Secretary Mike Crews, as well as lobbying and PR flacks with connections to Scott and current Secretary, Julie Jones. Although jailhouse witnesses are notoriously unreliable, an indictment against Jones would seem like a significant hurdle to the Governor’s office, and by extension the FDC, in keeping the 65% law off of the books .
It is also possible that the political struggle behind the 65% law will be the impetus, not only for a repeal of mandatory minimums and three strikes laws, but also a movement towards a "Truth in Sentencing" scheme, where inmates are guaranteed 85% of their sentence, or 85% subtracted for "good time", whichever is less.
Alternatively, it is never beyond the realm of possibility that a grand coalition of interests, including the now-numerous private prisons, might actually be able to convince Governor Scott to relax some of the tough-on-crime polices he has adhered to while in office, in favor of some more relaxed penalty laws, shorter sentences, and other types of non-incarcerative criminal dispositions.
One possible beneficiary of these eventual changes could be the FDC network of substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities, as they have been found to be equally or even more effective than imprisonment and have recidivism rates that are significantly lower than traditional prison sentences.