The United States leads the world by a significant margin in prison population. Many citizens would be shocked to learn the United States has five percent of the world’s total population but more than twenty-five percent of its prisoners. After remaining relatively steady in the early nineteenth century, the country’s prison population began a steady ascent in the late 1970’s and peaked in the mid-2010’s. In 2019, over two million prisoners were held in state prisons, federal prisons, local jails, and Native American country jails. This is a significant growth considering the country’s prisoner population was a mere 57,760 in 1880. A study found one in every 100 American adults was confined in jail or prison.

Florida has played no small role in the United States prison population explosion. As evidenced in the Florida Department of Corrections (“FDOC”) logo, the agency was founded in 1868. Florida’s prison population was a mere 269 prisoners in 1880. By 1983, 42,498 inmates were held in FDOC. In 2021, FDOC held 80,495 inmates, down from 100,884 in 2013.

While many states may allow for early release or parole upon good behavior, Florida remains an outlier in its harsh “good time” practices. The state legislature abolished parole long ago. A sentence of life imprisonment means exactly that – no possibility of release. Prisoners eligible for gain time earn it at the rate of ten days per month until reaching the maximum of 15% of the total sentence. Gain time-eligible prisoners must serve 85% of the total sentence. However, many crimes carry mandatory minimum sentences upon conviction. Stated simply, Florida sentencing law is harsh; there is no parole, little reward for good behavior, and no way out absent due process remedies or the rarely granted executive clemency.

Being tough on crime comes with a steep price. As of 2021, the FDOC’s yearly budget was just under $2.7 billion. It costs an average $28,042 per year to house an inmate. The cost per inmate per day is $76.83.18 This figure is broken down into $55.66 for daily security, $19.23 for health services, and $1.94 for education services.

Assessing the FDOC and its results, the Florida legislature long ago wrote failure into law when setting forth its legislative intent. The statute states Florida citizens have not received a fair return on their investment in FDOC and described large prisons as “for the most part . . . schools for crime.” However, the statute contains language which partially signals education as a way forward in positive change:

One of the chief factors contributing to the high recidivism rate in the state is the general inability of ex-offenders to find or keep meaningful employment. Although 90 percent of all offenders sent to prison return to society one day, the correctional system has done little to provide the offender with the vocational skills the offender needs to return to society as a productive citizen. This failure virtually guarantees the probability of return to crime. Vocational training and assistance in job placement must be looked to on a priority basis as an integral part of the process of changing deviant behavior in the institutionalized offender, when such change is determined to be possible.

These changes must not be made out of sympathy for the criminal or out of disregard of the threat of crime to society. They must be made precisely because that threat is too serious to be countered by ineffective methods.

Notably, the statute identifies the need for vocational training for job skills, but says nothing about the virtues of general education, the link between higher education and dramatic reductions in recidivism, or cost comparisons between education and security.

Education could be the way forward and finally provide Florida with a solid return on its investment.