Florida charging inmates for their prison beds after they’re released

Clinton ran on crime, the federal bill was part of his platform - it was a campaign promise. This was part of the DLC 'triangulation' strategy, so it was a deliberate move, not reactive to bad polling (as was killing welfare). If you recall, he actually stopped campaigning to sign the execution order for a mentally-incompetent person in Arkansas. Part of the bill was expanding the federal death penalty too. And of course ancient pundits like James Carville still think that is how Democrats should campaign because they never left the 80s/90s.

 

It's unreasonable for any and all crimes. It's abusive conduct.

 

I remember when Clinton did it. As far as I'm concerned his decision to sign the death warrant was far more egregious than his relationship with a White House intern although as far as a certain segment of the electorate was concerned the former was probably a positive. Keep in mind that Micheal Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election largely as the result of a smear campaign which focused on crimes committed during a work release by convict (Willie Horton) as result of an error by the State's Department of Corrections under a program instituted by Dukakis's Republican predecessor. Crime is a major trigger issue in the late '80s and early '90s although ironically the crime rate was already declining when the 1994 Crime Act which result in mass incarceration was enacted.

 

Pretty crazy that the crime bill had more support from black voters than white voters in '94. Completely different time.

 

Not that all surprising considering that predominately black areas tend to experience the most violent crime. The Minneapolis proposal to defund the police following the death of George Floyd failed largely as the result of opposition from the city's black community. Although anecdotal this quote says it all.

Black residents were divided over the calls to defund the police. Charlotte Hall, 62, who was born and raised in south Minneapolis, said she understood the outrage galvanizing young activists. But the vision struck her as utopian, she said. “You can’t defund the police; you have to have police,” she said. “There’s bad police officers out here, but all of them aren’t bad.”

When voters had their say in November 2021, the measure to dismantle the Police Department failed by roughly 12 percentage points. Mr. Frey won a second term, handily beating opponents who favored defunding the police.​

How ‘Defund the Police’ Failed

 

Media is a powerful thing.

 

Pretty much all the 'progressive' prosecutors that Republicans and conservative Democrats hate owe their election to black voters (and many of the candidates are black themselves). I think there is less demand now among black democratic voters for being 'tough on crime' which is why no one is running like Clinton did in '94 on crime. But crime in the late 80s and 90s was much worse then too. With crime at historic lows, arguments about "overpolicing" are easier to accept. We were well on the way to reform being a common two-party position until 2020 broke people's brains.

 

I've got a fabulous idea. Prison vouchers! What works for schools will work for prisons!

 

So if they can't or won't pay: lock them up again or do we go back to debtors prisons?

 

Most likely they will end up right back in jail/prison or on the street, since it makes it even more difficult to find work, a place to rent or participate in society in general. Every stay gets you more debt that you wont be able to discharge or payback. Pawns of the state as it were. Gotta keep those prisons profitable.

 

So they still owe money for us taking care of them apparently reading is not your isn’t your strong point

 

Actually, reading isn't your strong point considering that the proposal isn't just to charge them while they're actually incarcerated but to charge them for the full length of their sentence even if they're released early and aren't actually confined.

From the original linked article:

 

You’d think he’d get embarrassed eventually

 

I wonder if you can find a cheaper prison bunk on Priceline.

 

Just a wild guess but I don't think convicts would have that option.

 

There is a major procedural issue with how this cost is assessed. Apparently, the judge in the OP's link imposed the lien on the day her prison sentence was imposed and it was imposed for the entire sentence, 7 years. There is 3rd DCA case law out of Miami that holds that was the proper assessment. Also, the judge, at that point, did not how much gain time, if any, DOC was going to award her. Complicating matters was the defendant's age at the time. She qualified for youthful offender sentencing and, after 10 months in prison, the judge allowed her to go into a boot camp. At that point of sentence modification, someone should have addressed the previously imposed lien as it was obvious she wasn't going to be doing the whole 7 years in prison. No one did, and by the time this caught up with her, she was time barred by the Rules of Criminal Procedure from having it changed. In this set of circumstances, that is an unjust result, and the rule needs to be changed to allow this issue to be addressed. Better yet, if the legislature is going to insist on collecting this money, DOC should be imposing the lien based on the actual number of days served on the date of the defendant's release.

Under most circumstances, adult inmates only receive 15% off their sentences for gain (good) time, so the normal case wouldn't be nearly so egregious. That gain time is a reward for good behavior and can be forfeited. This particular defendant, due to her young age, was very much the exception, not the rule in terms of having a 7 year sentence modified to boot camp after 10 months.

That being said, this is horribly unfair for this young woman, a success story for our criminal justice system. Someone needs to fix this for her. I don't know what state entity is responsible for enforcing these type of liens, but they should do the just thing for her.