Florida Prisons

Mental health and substance abuse disorders contribute to the total.

On the first and third Tuesday of every month, dozens of volunteers for Gainesville Books to Prisoners gather at the Civic Media Center to sort, package and mail books to prisoners across Florida.

The Florida Policy Institute on Thursday released a report saying the state Department of Corrections needs an additional $2.2 billion in funding to address critical infrastructure needs.

Part of the law says, “A person arrested for a dangerous crime may not be granted nonmonetary pretrial release at a first appearance hearing if the court has determined there is probable cause to believe the person has committed the offense.”

The measure would have applied to people who otherwise met requirements to be classified as residents, such as maintaining legal Florida residence for 12 months before enrolling at colleges or universities.

Miami-Dade's corrections department remains under court supervision, and a federal judge is getting more frustrated about suicides in county jails.

Broward Public Defender Gordon Weekes continues his push for federal help for providing services for scores of mentally ill inmates in Broward jails. The sheriff's office says it isn't needed.

Senate Bill 62 could ‘ease burden’ on incarcerated people applying to college.

The provision ramps up a previous measure that only applied to violent offenders.

In December 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report showing the number of homicides in state and federal institutions in 2019 was almost quadruple that of 2001, when the bureau began collecting data.

The bill passed in the Florida Legislature reduces how long criminal background checks can be used to keep a former inmate from applying for a barber or cosmetology license and allows any inmate enrolled in barber or cosmetology classes while incarcerated to apply those credits toward getting a license.

The family of a slain Black man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia deputy who shot him during a traffic stop that spiraled into violence. Leonard Cure, 53, was killed after spending 16 years in a Florida prison for a crime he didn’t commit.