Danielle Wa

🚨🤔Thought experiment on Florida’s prison system. Florida incarcerates roughly 87,000 people in state prisons, making it the third-largest system in America. An independent KPMG assessment found the system requires $2.2 billion in immediate capital repairs to bring facilities up to minimum operational standards. Over the next 20 years, projected infrastructure needs approach $11.8 billion. Roughly one-third of facilities were rated poor or critical. Today roughly 75% of prison housing units still lack A/C. Staffing isn’t better. At some @FL_Corrections facilities, correctional officer vacancy rates have ranged from 24% to more than 70%. That means skeleton crews, mandatory overtime, constant officer turnover, dorm closures, skyrocketing violence and routine lockdowns. This isn’t anecdotal. It’s structural. Now here’s the thought experiment: Require every county jail in Florida to operate under the same constraints as the #Florida prison system. Same per-inmate funding pressures. Same double-digit staffing vacancies. Same deferred maintenance. Same aging facilities rated poor or critical. Same heat conditions in summer. Same multibillion-dollar backlog with little legislative support. County jails often spend 2X per inmate per day what the prison system spends and answer directly to local voters. When A/C fails, phones ring. When staffing drops, commissioners demand answers. When conditions deteriorate, it becomes front-page news. Now imagine a sheriff explaining that 75% of jail housing units will operate without full climate control because “that’s how the state does it.” Imagine explaining a 30%-70% deputy vacancy rate as normal. Imagine telling voters the repair backlog will be addressed sometime over the next TWO decades. Make them explain why violence is skyrocketing in their facilities. It’s up 50% in Florida prisons. Would that last a week? If it’s politically intolerable in a county jail for people awaiting trial and serving shorter sentences, why is it acceptable in a state prison for people serving time? Here’s the difference: @FLSheriffs are one of the most powerful lobbying forces in Tallahassee. If their facilities were forced to operate under state-level constraints, there would be emergency press conferences, caucus meetings, and a call for a special session before the day was over. Relief would not be theoretical. It would be immediate. So the real question isn’t whether Florida can afford modernization. The KPMG report makes clear what the bill is. The real question is why urgency only appears when politically powerful actors feel the pressure. We tolerate in state prisons what would be politically explosive in county jails. Not because it’s acceptable. Not because it’s efficient. But because the people inside are politically distant. Real reform starts when incentives align. If you want modernization, remove the distance. Sometimes the fastest way to fix a system is to make everyone live under it. Thoughts?

I visited Lowell Correctional today as part of the Judson Women’s Field Ministry Program. To my surprise, I was able to join Rep. Maney on parts of his scheduled tour. My challenge to legislators: visit a prison. If you refuse to step inside a corrections facility, you’re not just in the dark…you’re willfully blind. #visitaprison #FAMM @FL_Corrections

Create a commission- the legislature will likely spend less than 4 hours collectively on prisons during the 60 day session. It isn’t designed to dive into deep issues like A/C, facilities, education programs, staffing, elderly inmates and reentry. -miamiherald.com/opinion/op-e…

1/ All 67 Florida county jails have AC. State prisons? Most have none. We keep people in sweltering 110° heat until the air inside is hotter than outside—and call it “justice.” 🪡news.wfsu.org/state-news/202…