Gain time increase filed

Takeaways from Tallahassee, Florida Politics, 9/21/2019


	 
House Democratic Leader Kionne McGhee and Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart filed a bill this week that would allow some Florida inmates to chip away at their prison sentences.

“In 1998, we were promised a war on crime. As a result, Florida required inmates to serve 85 percent of their time. Years later, research has shown that the policy change failed to reduce recidivism,” McGhee said. “I agree that dangerous inmates must be punished. However, criminal justice reform should provide a second chance for nonviolent offenders to be rehabilitated.”

Florida’s “Truth in Sentencing” law requires convicts to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence, meaning an inmate will spend at least 8-and-a-half years in prison if sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

State law also allows inmates to work down their sentence by up to 10 days per month by accumulating “gain time,” which is awarded for things such as getting a GED or being a model prisoner. HB 189 would allow some prisoners to be released after serving 65 percent of their sentence by allowing for more gain time.

Hart added, “FDC suffers from gross overcrowding and consistent understaffing. HB 189 will focus solely on nonviolent first-time offenders. It is estimated by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research to save the State of Florida over $860 million across five years. That savings should go directly back into FDC funding initiatives”