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Florida lawmakers have unveiled new legislation aimed at better collecting crime statistics throughout the state.

Currently lawmakers say information is hard to consolidate from agency to agency and even country to county. The new legislation would require law enforcement agencies, clerks of court, state attorneys, public defenders, county jail operators, and the Department of Corrections to issue weekly statistics to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

FDLE will be required to organize the data and make it available to the public.

Representative Chris Sprowls says the data will help lawmakers draft better informed criminal justice policies.

“Right now we have very very little information. Even basic things like recidivism,” said Sprowls. “What we have in the way of data is woefully insufficient and in order to have a full picture of what the criminal justice system looks like and how we can improve it we need as much information as possible and right now we don’t have it.”

If passed the Legislation would cost the state $1.75 million dollars to implement.

Florida prosecutes more children as adults than any other state, but new Legislation would reform he way the state handles non-violent offenses committed by minors.

Miguel Rodriguez was sentenced as an adult for breaking into a home at the age of 15.

“We thought this abandoned house was abandoned and nobody was going to be hurt by what we were doing,” said Rodriguez.

After breaking his parole at the age of 21, he was sent to prison for three years.

“I was arrested for a technical violation where I was at work past curfew,” said Rodriguez.

Since 2009 14,000 kids like Miguel, some as young as 10-years-old, have been indicted as adults in Florida.

The new legislation would prohibit children under 14 from being prosecuted as adults for non-violent crimes. It would also take away the power of prosecutors to directly send 14 and 15-year-olds to adult court.

“Kids are going to make mistakes,” said PTA Committee Member Dawn Steward. “Should they pay for the rest of their life because of a non-violent crime or a non-violent issue?”

The Campaign for Youth Justice found Minors held in adult prisons are 36 times more likely to commit suicide compared to those in juvenile detention centers.

A study found 80% of Floridians believe juveniles convicted of a crime as an adult should serve their time in juvy until they turn 18.

The proposal would require juveniles serving in adult prisons be segregated from adult prisoners.

Senate Sponsor Bobby Powell says lowering the amount of minors prosecuted as adults will also help the economy.

“It definitely is a blemish on their record and makes it more difficult for them to get a job,” said Powell.

The Legislation would also prevent children from losing their right to vote as a result of being prosecuted as an adult.

The proposal also gives judges more say in prosecuting children as adults and require them to justify why adult penalties are necessary when a minor is given an adult sentence.

Florida tries more kids as adults than any other state in the country, and 98 percent of those cases are due to the state’s “Direct file” statute – it basically gives prosecutors the ability to move a juvenile into adult court on a whim. As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers are now preaching “reform” and are trying to change the law.

If two kids commit the same crime in different parts of the state – one may go through the juvenile justice system – the other could be tried as an adult.  Representative Katie Edwards (D-Plantation) is looking for uniformity.

“I want to get every juvenile a first crack at the juvenile system so they get the programs that they need, the services, the support, and make sure that were not diverting a juvenile who could be rehabilitated in the juvenile system,” she said.

Edwards is part of a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers looking to reform how kids are tried after they’ve committed crimes in the state.  Her bill would require prosecutors to get a judge’s approval before they can try a juvenile as an adult.

Of the more than 1200 juveniles tried as adults in 2014 and 2015. a majority of them were for non-violent burglary crimes.

Circuit Judge Terrance Ketchel says the adult system doesn’t help most juvenile offenders.

“Juvenile courts have a lot more services, the adult criminal courts, it’s more about punishment,” he said.

34% of the teens who are tried as adults wind up back in prison.

“What we’re doing is we are seeing kids who are crimjnally inclined not get the very help to keep them from recidivating,” said former state Juvenile Justice Secretary Wansley Walters.

Non-partisan research group the James Madison institute estimates that reform could save more than $12 million dollars over 10 years – which could then be reinvested for more state juvenile services.

The bill still gives prosecutors the ability to direct file and transfer a kid into adult court for more heinous offenses a juvenile may be charged with including murder, carjacking, and sexual crimes.

A state Supreme Court ruling requiring Stand Your Ground defendants to prove their innocence has the National Rifle Association hopping mad. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the decision will likely result in state lawmakers getting involved.

It was Christmas 2011 when a car nearly ran an Indiana family off the road on their way to Disneyworld. Jared Breatherick made a frantic 911 call.

“And he stopped in the middle of the road and won’t move his vehicle.”

When the other driver approached,  Breatherick help up his holstered gun and the driver backed off. That driver made his own 9-1-1 call.

“He has a gun pointed to me on the back of my car.”

Now the Supreme Court has upheld Breatherick being charged with aggravated assault.  The court also ruled it was up to Breatherick to prove he was entitled to stand your ground immunity, not prosecutors to prove he wasn’t. Marion Hammer of the National Rifle Association says the decision is an assault on second amendment rights.

“Under our system of justice, you are innocent until the state proves you guilty. They have reversed that. If you protect yourself and your family against the criminal, you are now guilty until proven innocent” says Hammer.

Lawmakers are almost certain to get involved in coming months with legislation that will clarify or minimize what the court has done.

State Rep. Alan Williams says the ruling is now an opportunity for lawmakers to scrap stand your ground and start over.

“There are provisions of the law that allow aggressors to get away with murder, so I want us to repeal it and start over, so hopefully this is our opportunity” says Williams.

Legislation, if filed, could reignite the Stand Your Ground battle as early as September.

The NRA says the court decision will have a chilling effect on people willing to protect themselves or their families because people will be afraid of being charged with a crime and may hesitate when danger is imminent.

Reme Jo Lee was given what she thought was an antibiotic, but was given an abortion pill instead. Now a year after she lost her baby, state lawmakers are on the verge of making the crime a felony.

Reme Lee’s troubles began on Good Friday last year. That when her fiancee gave her an abortion pill disguised as an antibiotic. By Easter Sunday she had lost her baby. Police found they could not charge the boyfriend except for product tampering.

“Their only reason for this is to kill that child” said State Representative Larry Ahern.

Reme sat in the front row of the House Gallery with her father. She cried as lawmakers described her ordeal while debating a bill to kill an unknown child. Sponsor Larry Ahern described her as a victim. “So the child gets a death sentence, and Reme Lee and her family get a life sentence. They suffer everyday” said Ahern of Pinellas County.   Opponents, like Rep. Elaine Schwartz of Broward County,  who sympathizes with the woman say the legislation is much too broad. “ Its unenforceable and it is part of a war on women” is what Schwartz told the House.

And as the House prepared to vote, Reme’s tears turned to a smile.  “74 yeas, 42 nays Mr. Speaker. Show the bill passes.”

Afterwards, clutching the ultrasound Memphis, the child who’ll never be born,  Reme says justice is being done. “I hope this serves as a deterrent so other people don’t have to suffer like my family has and Mr. Weldon’s family has suffered as well. And that people will respect pregnancy and pregnant women.

Her father, James Lee told us the ordeal has been tough “I’m very proud of my daughter but its been a very hard road to follow” says the senior Lee. The legislation still has to be approved by the full Senate but it has been discussed there. Reme says she will be back to the Capitol  when Senators debate and send the bill to the Governor the week after next.

The legislation does not require prosecutors to prove intent, or that the offender knew the woman was pregnant.

The NAACP and Florida Democrats are joining forces to reform the way Florida deals with minors who committee crimes.

The groups held a joint news conference today at the state capitol. They say too many teens are being locked up and in some cases the kids are being jailed in adult prisons. A teen who goes by JP spoke out at the conference. He was jailed in Polk County and says he was beaten by inmates and pepper sprayed by guards.

“They had came and blindsided me and I got hit in the face. Seven of them came from behind me. I got slammed. Beat up real bad. After that I got pepper sprayed,” said JP.

Democrats are calling for lighter penalties for teens who committee misdemeanors.

A group of environmentalists is suing the state and asking everyone else to take a slime tour.

Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection today claiming not enough is being done to protect waterways. Part of their evidence can be found online through an interactive map the group is calling a slime tour. The map shows pictures of green rivers throughout the state. David Guest, the group�s attorney says the pictures help tell the story.

�Functionally what you have here is, we have toxic slime outbreaks and green colored water all over the state,� said Guest.

The slime tour can be found at http://goo.gl/N7kVI.

Alan Crotzer, the man who spent 25 years in state prison for a rape he did not commit asked the Governor for a fresh start today and got it.� Crotzer and his attorneys appeared before the Executive Clemency Board asking for a complete pardon for two earlier crimes; a 1979 robbery, and a 1991 controlled substances violation when he was in prison. Telling the panel that he is �Not the monster they make me out to be�, the former inmate says he was 18 and outside a convenience store when his friends went inside to steal cases of beer. In prison, he says a guard forced him to sell marijuana.

Crotzer is now working part time and volunteering for the Department of Juvenile Justice, hoping to dissuade other kids from making their first mistake and paying huge consequences like he has paid. He also told the Governor and Cabinet he would like to be a Prison Inspector after getting a college education so he can expose the problems he found while incarcerated.

Governor Charlie Crist made the motion to grant not only a full pardon but a compete expungement of the criminal records. The motion started a discussion of whether the panel could order an expungement under a 2004 Supreme Court decision to the contrary, to which the Governor asked rhetorically….�aren�t there two new judges over there now…and two more to come?”

Someone would have to file suit to challenge the vote to grant the expungement. Crotzer says he feels �like he is finally off to a fresh start in life�.

Florida’s prison population has grown 373 percent over the last 40 years, while the state population has only doubled over the same time period. Taxpayers are now spending more than 2 billion dollars to house 96 thousand prisoners. A study commissioned by the State Senate is recommending a handful of ways to reduce the population without risking safety. Len Engel is with the Crime and Justice Institute.

“Sending low level offenders to prison is more likely to increase their criminal behavior. Secondly, longer prison terms for low level offenders do not reduce recidivism more than shorter terms of incarceration. Third, treatment programs delivered in the community are more effective than programs delivered in prison” Engle told reporters at a news conference.

Lawmakers are looking to raise the threshold for felony theft, and to require low level non violent drug offenders spend any time in local jails.

Florida lawmakers are putting nearly seventy million dollars in the coming years budget to strengthen fatherhood in Florida through grants and education. The legislation directs DCF and the Dept of Juvenile Justice to coordinate care when a child is involved with both agencies, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, this is the first effort of its kind with any real cash behind it.

One in four children here in Florida and across the country have no father, stepfather, or adoptive father in their household. House Speaker Chris Sprowls calls the lack of guidance the root cause for may of the states problems.

“From poverty to crime, to incarnation, just about every negative outcome that we see that faces boys here and across the country can be linked back to an absent father in the home” says Sprowls.

House Bill 7065 will provide nearly seventy million in grants to help fathers find a job, 

Satisfy child support obligations, transition from being in jail, and getting parenting education. Rep. Thad Altman, (R-Brevard) is the committee chair that developed the bill. 

“With House bill 706, we can change lives” says Altman. “We can make a difference. We have the opportunity to connect fathers with their families.”

State Rep. Ramon Alexander’s day job is finding mentors for kids. 

”This is a game changer” he told the crowd.

The legislation puts more cash into the effort.

“These young people, they don’t have a deficit in talent” says Alexander. “They just have a deficit in opportunity.”    

The staff analysis for this bill says there are studies that show fathers who are involved with their children are happier, and may live longer.

We asked Speaker Sprowls about the expected outcome.

“So, you ask what the outcome is Mike. The outcome is that we move the needle on fatherlessness and therefore we have a great huge benefit to our community as a whole,” says the Speaker

And for Jack Levine, who has fought for kids for more four decades, there is hope.

“I’m  very very optimistic. There are good people driving this bus” Levine told us.

June is Fatherhood month. Expect to see a month long campaign and education effort from the state.

The legislation is the last bill on the House Calendar today and is expected to be sent to the Senate by the end of the night.