Claire Mazur Staff Director (850) 487-9211 mazur.claire@oppaga.fl.gov
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OPPAGA Criminal Justice Recommendations Yet to Be Implemented

• Corrections, Department of
  • Intermediate Sanctions for Non-Violent Offenders Could Produce Savings 10-27
    • The Legislature could consider expanding alternative sanctions by creating pilot projects for alternative sanctions to serve a portion of Florida's offender population. This approach would test the outcomes of the programs, including community supervision with electronic monitoring, probation and restitution centers, day reporting centers, and residential substance abuse treatment. It also would enable judges, state attorneys, and public defenders to become more familiar with these sanctions as an alternative to prison while maintaining sufficient prison bed capacity to house dangerous offenders as well as those who fail to complete intermediate sanction programs. First year cost savings could be $387,989 to $1,220,246 per 100 offenders diverted from prison.
  • PRIDE Is Tightening Its Business Practices but Needs Greater Transparency 06-67 (Related Report 03-68)
    • To enhance its monitoring of PRIDE's risk assessments and internal performance, the Legislature could consider revising s. 946.516, Florida Statutes, to require PRIDE to annually report on its internal controls and to require that such report be subject to an attestation of an independent certified public accountant. This attestation should be required in addition to the financial audit required in s. 946.516, Florida Statutes.
  • Several Deficiencies Hinder the Supervision of Offenders in the Community Corrections Program 06-37
    • To allow the department to supervise all offenders based on their assessed risk to public safety, the Legislature could consider removing statutory languages specifying minimum caseloads for community control, sex offender probation, and drug offender probation; and removing language requiring the department to allocate 10% of its resources to community control. Upon revision of Florida law, the department should develop and implement new contact standards and caseloads based on offender risk and report these changes to the Legislature.
• Judicial System
  • Opinions Are Mixed About Sentencing Laws for Painkiller Trafficking 12-02
    • The Legislature could consider modifying the statutory provisions for trafficking in prescriptions through the following six options.

      •Address weight thresholds and sentences for offenses involving hydrocodone by revising Florida statutes so that these offenses will be prosecuted in the same manner as offenses involving other Schedule III drugs.
      •Allow courts to consider committing addicted offenders with minimal prior criminal histories to secure community-based residential drug treatment programs as an alternative to prison.
      •Revise Florida statutes to increase the weight thresholds for prescription painkillers so that it would take more pills to be charged with drug trafficking offenses subject to minimum mandatory sentences.
      •Reduce the minimum mandatory sentence lengths for prescription painkillers so that they are consistent with the penalties for most other drug trafficking offenses, which are 3, 7, and 15 years rather than 3, 15, and 25 years.
      •Modify the method used to calculate the weight of prescription painkillers to only include the weight of the controlled substance rather than the weight of the entire pill.
      •For illegal possession of an amount of prescription painkillers weighing less than 28 grams, require proof of intent to sell to be charged with trafficking; without proof, sanctions for possession would apply. This option also could be limited to first offenses.

  • Pretrial Release Programs' Data Collection Methods and Requirements Could Improve 10-66 (Related Reports 10-08, 08-75)
    • If the Legislature wishes that all 28 pretrial release programs maintain weekly registers and produce annual reports, it could consider revising the statutory definition to state that "pretrial release program" means an entity, public or private, that supervises or electronically monitors pretrial-released defendants. This would prevent those programs that do not conduct all four inclusive activities from being exempt from providing information on the grounds that the law does not technically apply to them.
    • To avoid violating federal regulations and jeopardizing Florida's law enforcement and public safety entities' access to federal criminal history, the Legislature could consider removing the requirement that programs display specific criminal histories of defendants in their weekly registers and instead require programs to provide an aggregate summary of criminal convictions.
    • The Legislature could consider amending ss. 907.043 and 907.044, Florida Statutes, to improve accuracy and data uniformity, streamline reporting requirements, and reduce local costs. Specifically, the Legislature could consider revising statutes to make programs' weekly and annual requirements and OPPAGA's statutory requirements directly correlate. The Legislature could also require programs to report data on a monthly rather than weekly basis, which could increase compliance by resource-limited programs, but would still enable OPPAGA, the state, and citizens to evaluate outcomes and identify program trends.
  • Intermediate Sanctions for Non-Violent Offenders Could Produce Savings 10-27
    • The Legislature could consider expanding alternative sanctions by creating pilot projects for alternative sanctions to serve a portion of Florida's offender population. This approach would test the outcomes of the programs, including community supervision with electronic monitoring, probation and restitution centers, day reporting centers, and residential substance abuse treatment. It also would enable judges, state attorneys, and public defenders to become more familiar with these sanctions as an alternative to prison while maintaining sufficient prison bed capacity to house dangerous offenders as well as those who fail to complete intermediate sanction programs. First year cost savings could be $387,989 to $1,220,246 per 100 offenders diverted from prison.
• Juvenile Justice, Department of
  • DJJ Should Better Identify At-Risk Youth, Use Proven Prevention Models, and Revise Funding Practices 08-07
    • The Legislature could consider revising s. 985.605(2)(a), Florida Statutes, to require the Department of Juvenile Justice to limit prevention funding to program models that are evidence-based. The department should develop a list of approved evidence-based prevention program models, such as the Blueprints for Violence Prevention identified by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and only fund grant proposals that implement these programs.
    • The Legislature could consider amending s. 985.676(2)(a), Florida Statutes, to allow for continued funding of demonstrably successful prevention programs beyond three years.
• Law Enforcement, Florida Department of
  • State Criminal Record Processes Are Adequate; Potential for Inaccuracies from Private Companies 09-10
    • The Legislature could consider requiring private background screening companies to disclose Florida jurisdictions included in their databases and the date the data was last updated. This would help ensure that employers that intend to buy criminal history reports from the private companies are aware if any jurisdictions or time periods are not included in the private company's records.
    • The Legislature could consider requiring private background screening companies to purge a record from their databases upon receiving a copy of a court order to seal or expunge the data. This would help to ensure that the privacy provided in law extends beyond records maintained by criminal justice agencies to those maintained by private companies and reduce the unauthorized release of these records.

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