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DOC Cuts Putting Hundreds of Offenders Back in Prison and Hundreds of Jobs At Risk

May 29th, 2018 by Jake Stofan
Florida legislators failed to intervene last Friday and budget cuts for transitional and addiction services at the state Department of Corrections are now able to move forward.
Earlier this month House Speaker Richard Corcoran assured the Legislature would act to address the problem.
“It’s got to be fixed and it will be fixed,” said Corcoran.
When asked how the Speaker simply replied, “More Money.”
But with no new funds the State Department of Corrections can now move forward, cutting $29 million from substance abuse services and transitional programs for inmates and probationers.
Overall, funding for the programs is being cut by more than 40%.
The cuts will cost hundreds of jobs and take inmates out of work release and substance abuse treatment programs and put them back behind bars.
“They will be pulling those at least 500 inmates back to a reception center to make a determination of what they’re going to do with those offenders at this point,” said Mark Fontaine, President of the Florida Drug and Alcohol Abuse Association.
Corrections says it hopes the cuts will only be temporary, but providers say the cuts, (which will be in place for at least the next year) will cripple the progress made over the past 15 years.
“If you’re going to have treatment you need to have treatment and you need to keep it in place,” said Sheila Randolph, CEO of the Unlimited Path of Central Florida.
The department says it plans to give inmates who were in the programs priority for other programs offered by the prison system to minimize the number who have to return to an institution.
But not all inmates will be able to qualify for the alternate programs.
“Those offenders will have to be at eligible work release status in order to qualify for those beds. If not, they’ll go back to an institution,” said Fontaine.
Fontaine says he knows of at least one program in Jacksonville with more than 100 offenders that are all but guaranteed to have to return to prison.
Providers say they believe the Governor could solve the problem by declaring a state of emergency and using the state’s rainy day funds to fill the funding gap. The Governor’s Office says allocating funds is up to the Legislature.

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