Bipartisan Call To End Mandatory Minimums

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) - Several years ago, there was a call for mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. But, the Great Recession is bringing together both parties to call for an end to mandatory minimums for drug offenders.

The bills, filed in the Florida House and Senate, will provide alternatives for nonviolent drug offenders and give judges more discretion when deciding sentences on a case-by-case basis, according to the News Service of Florida.

"In our minimum-mandatory sentences, we capture a lot of people that are not necessarily criminals but addicts," said state Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale. "We need to focus our rehabilitation for those people who are not necessarily suffering from a life of crime but from a life of addiction."

The measure is being supported by groups including Florida TaxWatch, the Pew Center on the States, and Right on Crime for Inmate Sentencing.

Part of the reasoning behind the bill is to save money. According to the NSF, Florida's prison population has seen a five-fold increase over the last 30 years. It has seen the budget for prisons go from $170 million in 1980, to $2.4 billion this year.

The bill will also call for seeing that when inmates are released, they'll get job training and a high school diploma.

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