{"id":28471,"date":"2019-09-30T17:26:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T21:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/?p=28471"},"modified":"2019-10-02T11:34:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T15:34:55","slug":"stetson-students-get-a-crack-at-criminal-law-reform-in-fl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/index.php\/2019\/09\/30\/stetson-students-get-a-crack-at-criminal-law-reform-in-fl\/","title":{"rendered":"Stetson students get a crack at criminal law reform in FL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"picture
State Sens. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg) and Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) spoke to Stetson College of Law students about the Florida Legislature\u2019s Criminal Punishment Code Task Force on Sept. 24. Pictured from left: Sen. Darryl Rouson, Stetson Professor Judith Scully, Sen. Jeff Brandes, and Stetson student Matt Keen. Photo by Daniela Gomez.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By George Thurlow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Sens. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg) and Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) spoke to Stetson College of Law students about the Florida Legislature\u2019s Criminal Punishment Code Task Force during a campus visit on Sept. 24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Florida Legislature created the Task Force last spring to take\na fine-toothed comb to the state’s Criminal Punishment code. The group is studying\nhow to rethink non-criminal sanctions, sentencing enhancements, and sentencing\nguideline calculations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of that effort, Sen. Rouson contacted Stetson Law Professor\nJudith Scully with a proposal to create a student-equivalent of the Task Force\nat Stetson. The goal is for the students to conduct extensive research of their\nown and to draft legislation to be presented at the Spring 2020 Session of the\nFlorida Legislature, which runs from January to March 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Keen, a 3L at Stetson, will\noversee the creation of the Law Student Criminal Punishment Code Task Force and\nits work as part of his directed research project for his Social Justice\nAdvocacy concentration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe process, although only recently started, has already\nbeen incredibly rewarding,\u201d Keen said. \u201cI feel extremely grateful to both\nProfessor Scully and to Stetson Law as a whole for preparing me to undertake\nthis experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State of criminal reform in Florida<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Rouson, whose district\nincludes the College of Law, explained that Florida\u2019s current criminal justice\nsystem is based mainly on 1997 and 1998 revisions to the Criminal Punishment\ncode that introduced things such as the elimination of discretionary sentencing\nby judges, mandatory minimum sentences for both non-violent and violent crimes,\n\u201cthree strikes\u201d laws, and the requirement that inmates serve 85 percent of\ntheir sentences. The result of these changes is that, as Sen. Rouson put it,\n\u201crehabilitation [became] subordinate to punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Brandes explained that most\nprisons have 20-40 percent staff vacancy rates, and the statewide average two-year\nstaff retention rate is 46 percent. The average pay of a corrections officer is\nless than $35,000 per year, and given that few auxiliary staff positions are\nfilled, corrections officers are responsible for many things beyond their job responsibilities.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prisons face more than just\nstaffing challenges. Fewer than five percent of inmates have educational\nopportunities, resulting in little opportunity for rehabilitation and making\nprison violence and crime more common, Brandes said. Officer-inmate violence\nand inmate-inmate violence is up nearly 50 percent over the past 10 years, and\nthere\u2019s been nearly a 500 percent increase in contraband. Inmates who have\ncompleted their sentence receive little re-entry assistance (only $50 and a bus\npass), so that, coupled with the lack of rehabilitation, leads to increased recidivism\nand penalties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"picture
Students ask questions during the Sept. 24 meeting. Those interested in participating in the project should contact Matt Keen at skeen@law.stetson.edu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Brandes estimates the cost adequately\nstaffing prisons and making them a rehabilitative atmosphere to be nearly $200\nto $300 million a year. To make that realistic, he has a number of proposals to\nlimit the prison population, including diversionary programs such as drug\ncourts and veterans court, as well as facilitating earlier releases and\nre-entry programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Rouson and Brandes were\noptimistic about the prospects of achieving such reforms in the future,\nalthough they identified potential hurdles, including lack of support from law enforcement and the\nfact that prison reform is a hard issue to excite people about. The two\nsaid they are eager for the opportunity to work with students for fresh ideas\nand perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who are interested in\nhelping with the Law Student Criminal Punishment Code Task Force should contact\nMatt Keen at skeen@law.stetson.edu<\/a>\nor speak with Professor Judith Scully. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By George Thurlow State Sens. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg) and Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) spoke to Stetson College of Law students about the Florida Legislature\u2019s Criminal Punishment Code Task Force during a campus visit on Sept. 24. The Florida Legislature created the Task Force last spring to take a fine-toothed comb to the state’s Criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2001,2019],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life-news","category-featured-campus-life-news"],"yoast_head":"\nStetson students get a crack at criminal law reform in FL - Stetson Law News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/index.php\/2019\/09\/30\/stetson-students-get-a-crack-at-criminal-law-reform-in-fl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stetson students get a crack at criminal law reform in FL - Stetson Law News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By George Thurlow State Sens. 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