In 2016, the Florida Legislature appropriated funding for “a comprehensive review of Florida's criminal justice system, including but not limited to criminal law and procedure, law enforcement, prosecution and defense of criminal offenses, the judicial and courts system, sentencing, and corrections.”
This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of trends in Florida’s criminal justice system over the last decade, and illuminate those trends with data from across the system.
After 30 years of growth, the last decade has seen Florida’s prison population plateau and its community supervision population decline. Two competing trends have led to the stabilized prison population: a decline in prison admissions, driven by major reductions in crime rates, arrests, and criminal prosecutions, balanced out by longer sentences for those who are sent to prison.
This report explores how Florida sentencing and release policies have shaped these competing trends, and looks beneath the statewide numbers at cases that defy these trends.
Click here to read the report.