Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/author/jjie-org/page/14/)
While most Florida Commission on Offender Review decisions are made during hearings without the inmate present, parolees whose supervision terms are being reviewed sometimes do show up in person.
As a career prosecutor I have spent the better part of 45 years working in all areas of the criminal justice system. I started as a juvenile court prosecutor at a time when our juvenile justice system was not nearly as adversarial as it is now but rather seemed more interested, as such cases are legally styled, in the best interest of the child.
Criminal justice reformers say that letting very sick inmates out of prison early would be a sensible way to relieve pressure on Florida’s overburdened corrections system, and on taxpayers, who will pony up nearly half a billion dollars in 2020 for prisoners’ health care.
When I first heard the topic was on guns, my initial response was I have zero experience with guns. Other than using a water gun at the local fair to win a prize, I never held a gun, shot a gun or even seen a real gun in person.
Inevitable. That’s how winding up in prison felt for a group of former foster youth — now adults who are imprisoned at Monroe Correctional Complex in Washington state.
Inside a carpeted room at the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, an audience of about 75 settled into rows of banquet chairs. In the center of the room was a table, topped with microphones and a box of tissues that would be plucked from liberally over the next few hours.
The losses of life, the endless pain and suffering, the thousands of lives sent to prison, fatherless and motherless children and worst of all a parent having to bury their child. Going back into my life I'll never forget the tragedy that came with the first time I heard gunshots and then saw the horrific wreckage. Two people died that night, one a man I didn’t know and the other a best friend of mine. I wasn't shot, I didn’t pull the trigger, but the bullets tore through my heart and soul. I remember sitting next to my best friend who was laying there dead with a bullet in his head.
In the midst of the ongoing pain and heartbreak of America’s gun violence epidemic, there are some incredible success stories from around the country that have profound policy implications.
In the city of Stockton, Calif., gun violence was already notably on the rise in 2011 because of a series of compounding circumstances. First, there were cutbacks in law enforcement due to a city budget crisis.
When we began our journey to rebuild broken urban communities in our city, Jacksonville, Fla., 20 years ago, little did we know that we would become an important part of a powerful national movement — reframing how we look at crime, incarceration and poverty.