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The Florida Department of Corrections is moving ahead with plans to change from 12 hour shifts to 8 and a half hour shifts in at least a third of the state’s prisons.

The move is opposed by the union representing officers, but in an exclusive interview, the new Secretary said he’s banking his department’s future on the change.

Faced with a staffing crisis just over seven years ago, state prisons moved to 12 hour shifts with rotating days off.

Instead of solving the problem, 3,000 of the 13,000 positions used to guard inmates are vacant.

Corrections Secretary Mark Inch calls it a downward spiral.

“You know, As the vacancies increase, you have to rely more on the overtime, but as you rely more on the overtime, the vacancies increase,” said Inch.

Officers now working 12 hour shifts can be ordered to work four hours of overtime.

Before the 12 hour shifts, the department spent $6 million a year on overtime.

Last year it was $70 million.

It is part of the reason the system has seen an uptick in staff on inmate violence.

“Fatigue affects behavior, of course,” said Inch.

But the union representing the officers opposes the change to shorter shifts.

“Every once in a while, they get a weekend off, where when they go to the eight hour shift, that’s not gonna happen. And that’s very important to the officers,” said James Baiardi with the Florida Police Benevolent Association.

Union aside, the Secretary says the agency is going forward with the pilot

“We’re not going to convince them all, but we are going to bring in a whole new generation of correctional officers, because this is about being able to bring in and retain a new generation of corrections professionals,” said Inch.

Under the plan, a third of the prisons would move to 8 hour shifts next summer.

The conversion of the rest of the department will be based on how the pilot works and lawmakers providing the funding for more hires.

Part of the plan also calls for $1,500 bonuses after two years on the job, and $2,500 more after five years.

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin spent a decade on death row for a murder the Florida Supreme Court ruled he did not commit.

Now he’s fighting the state over compensation for his wrongful incarceration.

Under state law, a wrongly convicted person has ninety days to file for payments, but after the state high court set him free in 2016, he remained behind bars.

Attorney Josh Dubin says as a result, he missed the 90-day window.

He’s hoping to get a Special Master to recommend lawmakers pay anyway.

“This indeed is the most unique case I have ever encountered. It is the strongest case of actual Innonence I have ever seen, and it is the most overwhelming case of guilt of another person I have ever seen,” said Innocence Project Attorney Josh Dubin.

The daughter of one of two women murdered has confessed.

The second woman was her grandmother, but she has not been charged with the crime.

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin could receive up to $50,000 for each of the nearly 15 years he spent behind bars.

The State Attorney fighting the case contends he is still the guilty person.

Missing children and their families were recognized at the state Capitol Friday morning.

Each year the families of missing children gather at the State Capitol.

Many knowing they’ll likely never see their loved ones again.

There are more than 1,000 missing children in Florida, but among the lost there are glimmers of hope.

Last year alone more than 30 children were brought home safely thanks to amber and missing children alerts.

“And we will continue to fight to bring every child home and we will not rest until we do so,” said Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis.

The ceremony serves as a memorial for families, but also a chance to recognize the tireless efforts of those who work to bring missing children home.

“When a certain case leaves the spotlight, they never forget it,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

And for Dan Campbell, whose step-daughter Wendy Hudakoc went missing in 1998, the ceremony is a painful, but necessary annual pilgrimage.

“It doesn’t get any easier, but it’s still equally important,” said Campbell.

While the search continues for those still missing, Citizen of the Year award winners Dawn and Anthony Butrym, whose efforts helped bring home a special needs teen who’d been missing for five days in 2018, have a message for families waiting for closure.

“There’s hope out there. I mean there’s several children out there in this day and age even after years are being found. You know, so don’t quit looking. There’s hope,” said Dawn.

The event spotlights Florida’s missing children once a year, but advocates say it takes a 24-7 effort on behalf of citizens and law enforcement alike to bring them home.

The number to report a missing child or adult to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is 1-888-FL-MISSING.

You can also sign up to receive AMBER and Missing Child Alerts at www.missingchildrenalert.com.

Greek Organizations at Florida State University are having trouble accepting what the university is calling the ‘new normal’ when it comes to hazing.

Multiple chapters have been closed in wake of the 2017 death of Pi Kappa Phi pledge Andrew Coffey.

After Coffey’s death FSU vowed to crack down on hazing.

“And that’s why I’m enacting several changes effective immediately,” said FSU President John Thrasher in November of 2017.

Some of the changes FSU adopted to combat hazing include shortening the pledge period to six weeks, limiting the number of social events with alcohol and requiring new members complete a social orientation prior to recruitment to teach them about the university’s expectations.

But is it working?

Since the start of 2018 five fraternities have been closed and one Sorority has been suspended for hazing.

Three other organizations are now facing discipline for other conduct violations.

FSU President John Thrasher said it’s a sign the new system is catching bad actors.

“Many of the things that are going on have to be incremental. We have to continue to talk about them every single year, almost every single month, to reeducate the leadership of our fraternities about how we feel about those values,” said Thrasher.

But Brendon Johnson, a fraternity member we spoke with said aside from the university’s crack down, many greek organizations took Coffey’s death as a wake up call.

“We just lost someone. We need to figure out what’s going on, why this happened and that’s what our fraternity has done,” said Johnson.

Another student we spoke with, Caven Hamilton, agreed that Greek Life has learned some hard lessons.

“You know you have public outcry and then you’re going to have changes,” said Hamilton.

Coffey’s death also resulted in a new law that provides immunity to those who report hazing.

The university told us it isn’t certain whether Andrew’s Law has been invoked in any of the recent hazing cases.

But the University said reporting overall has increased as a result of greater hazing awareness on campus.

And while there are growing pains, the university is sending a tough message to bad actors… get with the picture or face the consequences.

The NRA is moving forward with a challenge to the state law banning the sale of rifles to anyone under 21.

It was enacted as a response to the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in 2018.

On the day Rick Scott signed safe school legislation that also banned anyone under 21 from buying a gun the NRA filed suit.

Its plaintiffs were identified as John and Jane Doe.

“We wanted to protect these young adults from the vicious, hateful attacks and threats on their lives,” said NRA Lobbyist Marion Hammer.

A judge wouldn’t allow the plaintiffs to remain anonymous, so now the NRA has named a Jacksonville man as the plaintiff.

The hope is to get the case into court for resolution.

“These are young adults, 18 to 21. Old enough to go to war carrying a gun and die for their country, yet they are being denied their constitutional right to buy a firearm,” said Hammer.

19-year-old FSU student Anna Jensen isn’t happy about the law.

“I should be able to carry my weapon with me to protect myself if I should be attacked on the street,” said Jensen.

Other students like Francesca Althaus disagree.

“After the Parkland shooting, I think everyone is a little freaked out, but I think those rules should have been in place before then,” said Althaus.

When the Federal Government first banned the sale of handguns to anyone under the age of 21, a Texas case found that it was okay because they could still buy a long gun, but that’s no longer the case in Florida.

How quickly the case moves is important.

Once a plaintiffs turns 21, new plaintiffs need to be located.

The original plaintiffs, listed only as John and Jane Doe have since turned 21 and now have their right to own either a handgun or long gun.

Floridians are flocking to flower when it comes to medical marijuana.

A new report compiled for the state Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine shows nearly half of the state’s 300,000 patients are using smokable medical marijuana, but some believe those numbers might be slightly misleading.

44 percent of the state’s 291,000 qualified patients are certified to use smokable medical marijuana even though it’s only been available for half a year.

In those six months, 57 tons of whole flower marijuana has been dispensed.

Some advocates like Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida aren’t surprised.

Sharkey said the traditional method has its appeal.

“Folks, certainly boomers and in their middle age are familiar with ‘joints’ probably find that a useful method of application,” said Sharkey.

Others are skeptical, like marijuana advocate Josephine Cannella-Krehl who founded MMJ Knowladge.

She said because edibles still aren’t available in Florida, many patients are using flower to make their own.

“You know that’s a big ethical dilemma that we’ve set up a program where in order to access the whole plant a person may have to go in and lie to their doctor,” said Cannella-Krehl.

While edibles still haven’t been approved, the draft rules so far suggest that when they are, restrictions will be severe.

“Tasteless, colorless, odorless, no additives. And if you look at other markets that have used edibles like California or Nevada it sort of runs the gamut. Everything from gummies to chocolates to lozenges and between,” said Nick Hansen with MedMen.

Strict rules could force Floridians to keep ‘baking their own brownies’ for the foreseeable future.

The popularity of whole flower has its benefits for distributors.

Unlike concentrates, whole flower is much cheaper to produce, which means higher profit margins for MMTCs many of whom are struggling to turn a profit.

Florida’s prison system is in a staffing crisis, and this week, Governor Ron Desantis proposed hiring 292 new officers, but the system can’t fill the jobs it already has, and officers are pushing back on a plan to change their work schedules.

System-wide, nearly one in five corrections officers positions are vacant.

To cover vacant shifts, the department moved from eight to 12 hour shifts nearly a decade ago.

It still regularly forces officers to work overtime.

“We have several institutions were the vacancy rate is above twenty percent, which is very dangerous for our correctional officers,” said Jim Baiardi with the Florida Police Benevolent Association.

As part of his budget, the Governor wants to spend $29 million for a pilot to move offers back to an eight hour shift.

“And then try to do some incentive pay to keep people there because the morale has been low,” said DeSantis.

But the plan is getting pushback from officers and their union.

“It’s unpopular with about 80 percent of the officers,” said Baiardi.

Prisons are usually in remote areas and switching to eight hour shifts would mean more travel time.

The PBA has gotten nearly 300 emails from officers who don’t want to make the stitch.

“The days off rotate and every once in a while, they get a weekend off. When they go to an eight hour shift, that’s not going to happen,” said Baiardi.

The PBA sued over the proposed change, arguing work hours were negotiable under the constitutionally protected collecting bargaining rights.

It won.

The state appealed.

And that appeal is giving some offices a bad taste.

They feel like the DOC holds them to a high standard, but then ignores the constitution when it comes to collective bargaining.

Baiardi believes the correct solution would be an across the board pay raise.

Under the Governor’s plan, officers would get a $1,500 raise for staying two years, and $2,500 more if they stay five years.

Starting salary is now at $33,500.

A high priority of the Governor’s budget is increasing election security.

The request comes after Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee issued a grave warning of ongoing threats.

“Every single day domestic actors and foreign actors attempt to penetrate our Department of State networks,” said Lee in October.

Governor Ron DeSantis took the issue seriously in his proposed 2020 budget request

“We’re doing $6.6 million for elections cyber security enhancements,” said DeSantis.

The Governor’s proposal includes items the Department of State has been requesting for years.

$1.3 million would go towards hiring ten cyber security experts who would not only help at the state level, but also advise local election supervisors how to bolster their defenses including Leon Supervisor Mark Earley.

“Our firewalls are being hit all the time, but there’s other threats too and so getting a better understanding of those, being able to develop responses requires a great level of expertise,” said Earley.

Another $1.4 million would implement a system known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which will help ensure the state’s registration database is up to date and accurate.

Earley said while he appreciates the gesture from the Governor, getting money distributed in a timely manner will be pivotal, especially with the 2020 election cycle just around the corner.

“In 2018 there was money allocated at the federal level and we were right in the middle of the Summer very close to August when we actually had access to those funds and that was very difficult to get that implemented in time to have much of an impact,” said Earley.

The Governor’s proposal is only a request, it’s the Legislature that approves the final spending plan.

Since the 2018 election, Florida has committed about $18 million for election security enhancements.

The organizers behind the Make it Legal recreational marijuana amendment are closing in on 100,000 valid signatures and have said they will have enough to qualify for the 2020 election by the middle of December.

It is already promising to be a heated campaign.

A Ribbon was cut as MedMen opened its first medical marijuana dispensary in the State Capitol Tuesday.

A few patients came and went, but MedMen is banking on voters approving the recreational marijuana amendment the company is bankrolling.

“A super-majority of Floridians are truly wanting this and survey after survey is saying that,” said Make it Legal Florida Chairperson Nick Hansen.

So far, MedMen and another license holder Surterra, have already dropped $1 million each into the petition process.

They are already planning ahead for an expensive campaign.

“You starting at multiples of millions and it could be, you know, ten times that when you are done, but it really depends on where is the polling and who is the opposition,” said Hansen.

Barney Bishop is on the other side of the debate.

He said MedMen is right, it’s going to be an expensive and hard fought election.

“No question that law enforcement and other conservative opponents are going to spend a lot of money to try and keep this ballot initiative from winning,” said Bishop.

Bishop said a $10 million opposition campaign would be possible.

Some state House members are already arming themselves with information to fight the amendment.

Last month, Dr. Bertha Madras a Harvard Professor of Psychobiology testified before a committee Chaired by Rep. Ray Rodrigues.

“The alarm bells are beginning to come in with marijuana, and we hope people are listening,” said Madras.

Rodrigues has been vocal in his position to legalizing recreational marijuana.

Florida is already expected to be a battleground state for the Presidency next year and likely for legal marijuana as well.

The deadline for certifying petitions is February first.

More than 766,000 are needed to get on the ballot.

A federal court ruling could change up the order candidates appear on the ballot.

Republicans have been listed first for the last two decades because they’ve controlled the Governor’s Mansion, but Democrats argued it’s put them at a disadvantage because of something called the primacy effect, which is the tendency for people to choose something that appears first.

Former Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho said appearing first has a measurable advantage.

“When you have a law that gives one party a one and a half to five percent advantage in every election at some point you have to say that’s not fair,” said Sancho.

Evan Power, who serves as the Chair of Chairs for the Republican Party of Florida, believes the advantage is exaggerated.

“When it was enacted by Democrats, Democrats were winning and then the state was taken over by Republicans. So obviously a five percent effect would never have allowed that to occur,” said Power.

But a Federal Judge has struck down the law, siding with Democrats who filed suit earlier this year.

Power called the ruling partisan.

“It was good policy. It was passed by Democrats 70 years ago and hasn’t posed a problem until now that the Democrats have become very litigious on every election point,” said Power.

The judge didn’t tell the state how to fix the problem.

That falls on the Florida Legislature.

While Sancho said there are many examples of ballot rotation in other states, he doesn’t expect the Republican controlled House and Senate to act any time soon.

“The Republican leadership will essentially do what they have done over the last decade, which is dig their heels in the sand,” said Sancho.

The Governor’s Office has confirmed it will appeal the ruling, which means Republicans will likely still appear first on the ballot in 2020.

The federal judge gave Florida’s Secretary of State three weeks to come up with a new plan, but the state will likely attempt to have the ruling put on hold before then.

Governor Ron DeSantis proposed a modest increase of just 0.4 percent in the overall state budget for the coming year, but Florida schools will get over a billion new dollars under his plan.

School spending would increase $302 for each of the 2.8 million K-12 students.

It would rise to just under $8,000 per student.

“That’s an increase of just over a billion dollars over last year,” said DeSantis.

The bulk of the increase, $602 million is for teacher raises.

“Everybody in Florida will be at a minimum of $47,500, and so that represents 101,000 current teachers that will see a raise,” said DeSantis.

And the Governor repurposes $300 million being spent on teacher bonuses that currently rely on decades old college admission test scores, and replaces it with a program based on performance and school grades.

“You know, if the school reaches a certain threshold, an 85 or better, every teacher gets a bonus. If you’re not at that threshold, but you improve by a certain amount year over year, every teacher gets a bonus,” said DeSantis.

There’s also $100 million for mental health, a $25 million increase over last year, and another $25 million for school safety grants.

The Governor is also asking lawmakers for just under $250 million to keep property taxes for schools from going up based on the increased value of your home.

University funding remains basically flat under the Governor’s proposal, but the plan doesn’t increase tuition.

“This is becoming a really good value, and you can’t say that about too many other aspects of higher education,” said DeSantis.

There are also a modest nearly $12 million increase for Pre K programs.

It’s the first increase in at least six years.

The plan must still be approved by lawmakers, and the reaction from the House Speaker was mixed.

In a statement, Jose Oliva said “While the details of his ambitious teacher-pay program remain obscure-not a small matter, his commitment to responsible spending is crystal clear. A solid base upon which to begin our budget discussions.”

One of three ballot initiatives seeking to legalize recreational marijuana is picking up steam and raking in large amounts of cash.

The Make it Legal Florida amendment is utilizing an innovative approach get the signatures necessary to make it to the 2020 ballot.

More than 120,000 of the 400,000 signatures the campaign has collected are from voters who received petitions through the mail.

Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida said it’s the first time a citizen initiative has seen such success by using the postal service to collect signatures.
“They’re sending out these petitions via mail all over the state. I think they’ve realized it’s critical and necessary in order to make the time frame,” said Sharkey.

Sending all that mail comes with a hefty price tag, but the campaign isn’t short on cash.

Backed by Marijuana Tycoons MedMed and Surterra, the initiative received over $1 million in October alone.

Overall, the campaign has pulled in a total of $2.8 million.

All but $1,000 has been donated by MedMed and Surterra.

In contrast, a competing ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana has banked about 14 times less money, just over $200,000.

“If it goes recreational Florida will be maybe on par with California as the largest state for marijuana sales,” said Sharkey. “There will be a positive return on investment for those who have invested in this.”

But the clock is ticking.

The campaign has to reach 766,200 signatures by February 1st.

“I’m glad that the committee has gotten more donations, but folks need to sign those petitions, send them back, if they want to see this question on the ballot,” said Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, who has for multiple years attempted to push legalization of recreational marijuana through the Legislature.

But the success of the continuing mail campaign is making it more likely that Floridians will see the amendment on the ballot next November.

In 2016, medical marijuana received 71 percent voter approval.

Recreational would need at least 60 percent to pass.

The gun control movement that was sparked in the wake of the Parkland Shooting was in the State Capitol Thursday, rallying behind multiple gun reforms including legislation that would ban so called assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

NRA and republican opposition remains steadfast.

Dozens of students from across the state came to push for gun reform.

“What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!” students chanted.

The students, part of the March for Our Lives Movement, are backing what they are calling the ‘Peace Plan for a Safer Florida’.

“Here in Florida we lose nearly 3,000 lives due to gun violence each year,” said Alyssa Ackbar with the Tampa chapter of March for Our Lives.

The plan includes universal background checks for gun and ammunition purchases, preventing domestic abusers from owning a firearm and most controversially a ban on assault style weapons and high capacity magazines.

“There is no need for an assault weapon,” said Senate sponsor of the assault weapon ban Gary Farmer.

The legislation has been filed for the past four consecutive years, but has never gotten a hearing.

“The 49 from Pulse, the 17 from Parkland and many many others deserve a hearing to ban military style assault weapons,” said House sponsor Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith.

While it’s unlikely the legislation will be heard during the 2020 session, a constitutional amendment that would ban all semiautomatic weapons capable of carrying more than ten rounds has gun rights groups more concerned.

Former NRA President Marion Hammer plans to fight the amendment when it comes up for review by the State Supreme Court.

“The way it’s worded it would ban essentially every semiautomatic long gun known to man,” said Hammer.

The proposed Ban Assault Weapons Now Amendment still need more than 600,000 signatures before February first, to be eligible for the 2020 ballot.

The State’s Attorney General is also petitioning the State Supreme Court to block the assault weapon ban from the 2020 ballot.

She also believes the amendment would likely ban all semi automatic rifles and shotguns.