The criminal justice system in our country is broken. America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and it’s only growing. Since 2022, the prison and jail population has steadily increased. Covid does play a role in that since many people weren’t sentenced or court appearances were postponed. The prisons were shut down around April of 2020 (at least in Florida), and during this time, no offenders were transferred from county jails to prisons. Research found that in 2022, 56% of federal inmates were charged with some type of drug offense, while state prisons held 13% of drug offenders.
Prison is an unfamiliar territory for most, or they may have a picture in their mind of what it’s like. Until you first hand experience the justice system, you’ll never truly understand. I hope it stays that way for most, but now since I have seen the corruption with my own eyes, I want to help protect all ex-offenders. Some people need to be in prison, while a lot of others made a stupid mistake or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life happens and sometimes there is nothing you can do to alter what’s about to happen.
I want to propose a bill where men and women can come forward with their experiences of prison, whether that be the good, bad, or inappropriate. A lot happens in the prison environment; the setting is it’s own working city. A secluded city where the inmates complete all the work around the facility, get treated poorly by correctional officers/staff members, and are silenced from assault they experienced. In the state of Florida, if you are sexually abused by another inmate or any staff member, you have the right to report it, and get ‘help’. What they don’t tell you is, once you do report a sexual misconduct, you are placed in solitary confinement, alone, without any information or means to call home. If it’s against another inmate, you both are placed in confinement while an investigation is completed. If it’s against a staff member, you are alone in a cell, with nothing but your thoughts and trauma. 9 times out of 10, if your allegation is against a staff member, it’s easier and cheaper for them to just transfer you to a different prison vs. firing the employee. Imagine going through the trauma of an assault, while incarcerated, where you’re supposed to be protected from staff, and then have to be moved from the place you have established a routine and met people you can actually trust. Then it all gets uprooted, just because you spoke out and didn’t stay quiet. They say they’ll protect you, but then they don’t and inmates end up dealing with double the amount of trauma.
I want to create a bill where former inmates can come forward with their experiences and press charges against their abusers, even if those abusers are staff members. As of right now, if an offender were to do that once released from incarceration, there could be prosecution towards the offender for not saying something sooner; or there are times when the attorney generals office has gone into prisons to questions inmates about sexual misconduct against prison staff members, and the offender may not of told the entire truth because they were terrified of repercussions from the staff member, being transferred to a different prison, or even the consequence of serving more time. I want to eliminate this fear for past offenders because this is an obstacle that could hold them back from healing and moving on from that time period of their lives. Everyone deserves a second chance, and if the system really is about reform, then they’ll help reform their officers and allow us to have a voice.
1 Like