The Jail Bird State

Florida Prison Pop. Tops 100,000 For 1st Time

quote:
Florida's prison population has topped 100,000 for the first time, making it only the third state in the nation to break into six digits after California and Texas…

…In 2005, it cost Florida more than $22,000 annually to house and feed each inmate, a little lower than the national average of just under $24,000.

The U.S. prison population has increased four-fold from 1980 to 2002, growing from 500,000 to 2.3 million now incarcerated. The prison population for the state of Florida has increased by 30,000 inmates since December of 2000. Maybe it would be beneficial to start statistically surveying the country of origin for our swelling prison population to monitor which if any country is contributing to our recent rapid growth in inmates. If a trend can be shown, then immigrants from those areas would need to be screened more closely before being allowed to enter.

I also have another suggestion. Since we are farming out our other industry to foreign counties, why not contract out the incarceration of repeat violent offenders to those same countries. In the prisons of many third world countries, if you don’t work or have your family support you, then you don’t eat. With repeat violent offenders, it appears that the country club style rehabilitation program is not working effectively, so maybe it is time for a new strategy that will also help solve our overcrowding problem.

If the prison polulation keeps growing at this rate, then maybe they should change the saying on Florida license plates from The Sunshine State to The Incarceration State, and make our state seal a jail cell.