Jim Rosica
Speaker Richard Corcoran on Wednesday followed up on a promise to shake up the criminal justice system and shake out more data on how it’s doing.
That includes, as he once said, analyzing prosecution and sentencing outcomes by race and county.
Corcoran, a Land O’ Lakes Republican, and others announced legislation (PCB JDC 18-02) to make Florida “a leader in the collection of quality criminal justice data,” said Chris Sprowls, the Palm Harbor Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
“This legislation will give us the most robust data collection in criminal justice in the world,” he said at a press conference, adding that Florida will become known as the “open data” state. (A bill summary of the “Criminal Justice Data Transparency Act” and staff analysis is here.)
As one lawmaker later privately put it, “The worst that can happen is we find out there’s bigots on the bench and who they are.”
In September 2015, before he assumed the speakership, Corcoran told reporters he expected a fight over his idea.
“Make no mistake, when we start drafting that legislation, it will be one of the most controversial we draft,” he said then. “It will be fought by state attorneys, judges, public defenders, because nobody wants to be held accountable.
“When we start getting those metrics, we will find out – unfortunately – that justice is not blind in this state,” he added. “And we are going to fix that.”
The problem always has been that justice is local, including down to 67 different county courthouses in Florida. And researchers long have been hamstrung by the technical and other differences in how municipalities classify and store criminal information. That apart from state agencies like the Department of Corrections.
On Wednesday, one of the House’s data consultants called the bill “an historic moment,” saying policymakers and the public will be able to ask “basic questions” and get answers about who’s in jail statewide, who keeps getting convicted, who’s on early release.
And the “most fundamental question of all,” said Amy Bach, executive director and president of the nonprofit Measures for Justice: “How are we doing? We’ve got to get this right.”
Corcoran, a potential candidate for governor this year, added: “We’re throwing back the curtain. We’re pushing against institutional biases. It’s been said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This is the beginning of the potential to have justice everywhere.”
