Jason DelgadoDecember 29, 2020
5min1603
Jones is no stranger to Florida law enforcement.
Tag: Julie JonesImage via AP.
Jason DelgadoDecember 29, 2020
A.G. GancarskiDecember 27, 2018
7min605
The Governor-elect Ron DeSantis‘ transition-based public safety panel convened Thursday with juvenile crime and incarceration the topic du jour. The 45-person panel is stacked with law enforcement professionals, as well as civilians impacted by the Parkland tragedy. The first major topic: juvenile crime. Unsurprisingly, the conclusion was the kids aren’t alright (building on contentions made […]
Guest AuthorMay 18, 2018
4min320
The Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) is dismantling successful substance abuse and re-entry treatment programs to fix a $28 million shortfall. The shortsighted action will adversely affect communities, offenders and businesses: an action that is totally unacceptable. DOC Secretary Julie Jones recently announced that 33 community and in-prison substance abuse treatment and housing providers will […]
A.G. GancarskiOctober 25, 20176min260
Florida Department of Corrections’s troubled security operations were big talkers Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice. DOC Secretary Julie L. Jones addressed staffing patterns, contraband reduction efforts and use-of-force incidents. Major issues faced by the DOC are familiar to longtime observers, including continued staff attrition, overcrowding, increases in contraband, and a secretary confronting […]
Jim RosicaSeptember 29, 2017
4min546
O.J. Simpson won’t return to Florida if Pam Bondi has any sway over his homecoming. The state’s Republican attorney general sent a 2-1/2 page letter to Corrections Secretary Julie Jones on Friday, saying she objected to Simpson’s return on behalf of the state. He previously lived in Kendall, Miami-Dade County. Simpson’s lawyer also Friday said the […]
Peter SchorschJuly 13, 2017
5min411
It was a moment Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones remembered clearly — even though she got it completely wrong. Talking with the Miami Herald in 2017, Jones recounted a visit to Graceville Correctional Facility two years earlier; Graceville is a North Florida correctional facility operated by Geo Group, a Boca Raton-based private company […]
Les NeuhausMarch 16, 2017
5min646
More than three-quarters of Florida’s corrections officers have less than two years’ experience. In some state prisons, a single CO will be left alone to supervise 150-200 inmates in a jail block. Contraband has become so bad, one random search of (just half) a Dade facility turned up $15,000 in street value of cocaine, seven knives, […]
Mitch PerryMarch 15, 2017
4min272
Under current Florida law, those who are convicted of any felony lose the right to vote, the right to sit on a jury, the right to hold public office, and the right to possess a firearm, unless they are granted the restoration of their civil rights by the state Office of Executive Clemency. Legislation being […]
Mitch PerryMarch 13, 2017
6min1029
A class-action lawsuit filed Monday aims to automatically restore former felons’ voting rights and eliminate Florida’s rights restoration process, considered one of the most onerous in the nation. The Fair Elections Legal Network and the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven former felons. It targets all four members of the Cabinet, […]
Staff ReportsJanuary 30, 2017
4min244
Gov. Rick Scott is looking to give Florida corrections officers a pay raise, including $38 million for the state’s prison system in his proposed budget. Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald reports that the increase, part of the budget Scott will announce Tuesday, is for “officers up to and including the rank of captain.” […]