Should the head of Florida’s prison system serve a set term—sort of, decoupling the position from the Governor's term? Or might the state Department of Corrections rethink its methods when hiring new personnel?
Those are just some of the recommendations made by a Florida State University think tank looking at ways to improve Florida’s troubled corrections process. Project on Accountable Justice director Deborah Brodsky says one example is for the department to consider officers’ educational backgrounds and its minimum hiring age of 19.
“We don’t make a recommendation that says to hire a certain age, but if you’re looking for certain qualifications perhaps these are areas to explore. Is a 19-year-old necessarily a good launching point for this? But, these are areas where you really should be taking a look,” said Brodsky.
Other recommendations made in a new report released by the project include better salary compensation and benefits to "hire the best and the brightest" and creating a central body to look at the state’s criminal justice issues.
It also urges Florida look to other states, like Georgia, to reduce its prison population of about 100,000, which is projected to increase over the next five years. Florida also has the third largest prison population in the nation.
For more news updates, follow Sascha Cordner on Twitter: @SaschaCordner.
