REFORM FLORIDA'S SENTENCING LAWS

A dormant advisory council must find ways to reform Florida's
soft-headed sentencing laws.

Whispered discontent over the skyrocketing costs of warehousing
Florida's prison population has become a full-throated scream.

Associated Industries of Florida last year called on lawmakers to stop
spending millions on new prisons, and instead release thousands of
nonviolent inmates nearing the ends of their sentences.

Groups including the state Chamber of Commerce and TaxWatch have
joined the powerful lobbying group in sounding the alarm. They say
prison costs - now at $2.4 billion annually - are tunneling an
ever-widening hole through Florida's budget.

About the only group that hasn't explored sentencing reform is the one
the Legislature and governor created in 2008 to do just that. But in
fairness, that's only because the Correctional Policy Advisory Council
has never met. Not once.

For starters, the lapse willfully flouts state law. But for a
commission that was expected to help steer the cash-strapped state
toward solutions, ignoring that critical imperative is
unpardonable.

Just last year, the Coalition for Smart Justice, a statewide
public-private partnership, warned state pols and Gov. Charlie Crist,
"Without reform - [DOC's] budget will continue to grow at a pace
that crowds out other mission-critical state services such as
education, human-service needs and environmental protection."

One road to change, it noted, would require Mr. Crist to "immediately
implement" the Correctional Policy Advisory Council. It's now clear
that "immediately" means something else in Tallahassee.

The 2008 statute mandated the council hold quarterly meetings and
issue annual reports of findings and recommendations. Yet, the News
Service of Florida last week reported that the council hasn't convened
a single time, hasn't offered a single suggestion, and hasn't issued a
single report. In other words, it hasn't done anything.

Apologists say the law failed to fund a research staff for the
council.

What myopic penny-pinching. Florida's prison population has nearly
doubled from 53,000 in 1993 to 101,175 today. Annual costs since 1995
have soared nearly $1billion. Florida's perched near the national
summit in prison spending while wallowing in the gutter on education
spending.

Over the next five years, the DOC is planning six new major facilities
at about $100 million a pop.

Critics say bulging prisons owe less to raging crime than
tough-on-crime parole and sentencing that prohibits judicial
discretion. Under "three-strikes" laws, for instance, nonviolent
offenders face life sentences for carrying a few joints or filching a
slice of pizza.

Had the council convened, it might have encouraged state legislators
to emulate Kansas and Texas, which have banked hundreds of millions in
savings - without crime sharply increasing - by embracing a blend
of community service and community supervision for nonviolent offenders.

It might have offered proven interventions to reduce Florida's rate of
nearly one in three felons returning to prison, such as trimming
sentences of inmates who complete substance-abuse and other programs.

And it might have proposed escalating sanctions for parole violators
and other flexible sentencing options.

As it stands, the Legislature may compel the council to meet. Excuse
us if a move to enforce an already ignored mandate doesn't inspire our
confidence.

But the state can no longer wait for lawmakers to join the chorus
seeking alternatives that keep Florida tough on crime and easier on
taxpayers.