“OK folks, here we go again. The Florida Legislature is in session right now, and we have a couple of legislators who think it’s a good idea to release felons from prison early. That’s right, they want to dump thousands of inmates back onto the streets early, into your neighborhoods, making a mockery of our criminal justice system, and eviscerating our truth-in-sentencing law we have on the books right now.

Today, convicted felons in state prison have to serve at least 85% of their sentence. This allows inmates to receive up to 15% off their sentence for “good behavior.” That’s fair. I like 100%, but 85% is fair.

This irresponsible Senate Bill 472 would allow prisoners to earn up to 20 days per month of gain time! Didya hear me? 20 days out of 30! Inmates will be able to get gain time if they behave—which is what they are supposed to do anyway.

Most importantly, the bill would lower the amount most felons would have to serve in state prison to only 65%. This is just crazy.

The simple, unavoidable fact is that if prisoners are released early in Florida, those felons will commit crime at a predictable rate. Based on a rigorous and comprehensive report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that looked at recidivism of state prisoners released from 30 states over 5 years, we can expect that 68%–that’s more than two out of three—of those prisoners will be re-arrested for a new crime within three years. And this doesn’t count the actual amount of crime they commit—only the crime for which they are caught.

If felons are released early, we will suffer more crime and there will be more victims than if we had simply kept them in prison. Releasing inmates early is irresponsible—innocent people will get hurt.

This legislation will make us less safe. Please, ask your local house member and senator to oppose Florida Senate Bill 472.

Thank you for your support of common sense laws that help to keep our neighborhoods safe.”

– Grady Judd, Sheriff