Florida estimates it needs 19 new prisons over the next five years. Building the prisons is expected to cost a total of $300 million, plus an additional $81 million per year in operating costs. Florida prison population has just crossed the 100,000 marker, with an estimated count of 106,086 by June 2010.
What makes this story interesting is that Florida prisons are being used to house the mentally ill.
Why the never-ending need to house more inmates? The "get-tough-on-crime" laws, all passed within the past two decades, have kept inmates locked up longer. The minimum sentences allow judges little leeway. Florida has been accused of
leading the nation down a path giving America the world's highest incarceration rate while not significantly reducing crime rates.
One solution for the lack of beds is proposed by Associated Industries of Florida. Their policy paper has called on lawmakers to halt the scheduled construction of three new prisons, each to house 1,300 inmates. The group proposes the release of 3,900 inmates saying the prisoners should be near the end of their term, and the release should not include any violent felons, pedophiles or sexual predators.
A second option comes from Governor Charlie Crist. He claims the state could save about $24 million by contracting with either public or privately run prisons just outside Florida's borders to house 450 inmates.
Crist: The correctional systems in surrounding states, especially private operators, have a significant amount of beds available.
A third solution is to treat the mentally ill. Compounding the space problem is that Florida jails are currently used to house the mentally ill. Half the mentally ill inmates released each year return on violations related to their illnesses. Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman, who has crusaded for a decade to improve the care of mentally ill inmates, states:
If we could just deal with the mental health population in prison, we would not need to build a new prison every year.
A Miami-Dade county facility housing 1,200 inmates taking psychiatric drugs makes the county jail the largest psychiatric facility in Florida. A tour of the facility showed the despair among the inmates/patients. George Sheldon, secretary of the Florida Department of Children & Families, says:
It's the worst money we spend. The state should be investing in community-based mental health programs that keep Floridians with schizophrenia and other disorders healthy and outside of prison.
Across America, there are an an estimated 200,000 mentally ill prisoners behind bars. Many have never received treatment and are punished for their symptoms. Approximately 10% of prisoners have severe psychiatric disorders.
As kossack intrepidliberal points out in Stop the Criminalization of Mental Illness, the prison industry in America is driven largely by profit rather than benefit to society, and incarceration of the mentally ill plays a part. Intrepidliberal gives insight on why and how this happens and cites specific cases.
What to do about this? Mental illness has gained acceptance as a legitimate health concern. But there is still a long way to go. A ray of hope that we are on the right path is the recent court decision in Jacksonville that has ruled against the Florida Department of Corrections for "gassing" non-compliant mentally ill prisoners with pepper spray.
Crossposted from www.AmericasClassWar.com