Point of View: To improve Florida prisons, shift more than the 12-hour shift

Florida's Department of Corrections (DOC) is the third largest state agency -- 80% of its staff is employed as a correctional or probation officer. That is no surprise, given that Florida also houses the third largest prison population in the United States.

Mark Inch, who runs the $2.7 billion dollar department, inherited a system broken and overcrowded long before he came secretary. But he's paying attention and trying to figure out ways to fix it.

More than 67% of correctional officers, many of whom are just out of high school, have less than two years' experience. Since 2013, turnover rate is 150%. Violence is vast and widespread -- inmate-on-inmate assaults and inmate-on-staff assaults are up 67% and 46%, respectively, in the last six years. Force by officers is up by 54%; inmate gang population has increased 140% and possession of contraband by a whopping 484%. (Officers supplying the contraband is yet another problem the DOC reluctantly admits needs to be addressed.)

As Inch proposes, shortening shifts from 12 hours to 8.5 hours, and hiring new officers to fill vacant positions and no-shows (overtime increased 549%) may improve working conditions, as will adding $60.6 million in pay. Officers do need better working conditions and better pay. I witness their frustrations because I spend a lot of time in prison running Exchange for Change, a nonprofit that teaches writing in South Florida's state and federal prisons.

I also see what happens when the incarcerated population has too much time on their hands. Studies show that violence and recidivism decreases when there are educational opportunities provided inside the razor wire.

So shifting the focus of Inch's proposals could be a win-win for everyone.

Start by providing more classes. Less than 5% of Florida's$2.9 billion Correctional budget is spent on education. Spread that out between 145 facilities and 95,000 inmates and, well, for one correctional institution in South Florida, that meant a mere $500 allocation for 1,500 inmates last year.

Many correctional institutions offer nothing more than the state-mandated GED classes. Most educational and vocational opportunities exist solely because of volunteers.

Educational programs could, if nothing else, decrease the amount of time men and women spend locked in non-air-conditioned dormitories. Imagine what kind of steamy tension rises in a dorm where some 70 men sleep side-by-side in Florida's brutal summer heat.

At best, classes could provide skills that mean the difference between returning to prison and becoming gainfully employed once an incarcerated person is released.

Additionally, how about revisiting the 1983 law that eliminated the possibility of parole. That year, the DOC released nearly 4,000 people on parole. By 2013, just 27 people were released, less than 1% of those eligible. Meanwhile, that same year, more than 35,000 people left the DOC because their sentences ended. Were all of those men and women less of a risk to society than the men and women whose parole was, some would argue, arbitrarily denied?

Steps are being implemented to reduce the prison population, but we can do more. Lower the sentencing guidelines -- Florida has some of the toughest in the nation. Do away with mandatory minimum sentencing. Address the increasing aging population; it has risen nearly 10% since 2014. Health care for the elderly -- men and women over 50 years old -- costs the state between four and eight times more than the under-50 population.

If Inch's proposal included funding for more positive opportunities inside, it's likely officers' working conditions would improve.

We, on the outside, can also do our part. We can save money -- our taxpayer's money, by pushing for legislative reform, revising our sentencing laws, and bringing back parole.

<strong xmlns="http://www.infomaker.se/idf/1.0" id="strong-8a19391a771578abf2a682a04c660fc0">KATHIE KLARREICH, MIAMI

Editor's note: Kathie Klarreich is executive director of the nonprofit prison-writing program Exchange for Change, which offers dozens of writing classes of all genres to incarcerated men and juveniles in state and federal institutions. Prior to this she was a journalist for several decades, half of which were spent in Haiti.

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