Racial analysis of Florida prison population turns to need for jobs, training to re-enter society

Florida State University Criminology professor Thomas G. Blomberg was midway through a presentation on the racial and ethnic make-up of the state prison system when Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, interrupted with a question that turned the discussion away from race and toward socioeconomic status.

Brandes wonders about the Department of Corrections’ recidivism rates – the likelihood an inmate will commit another crime once released from prison.

One out of every three Florida inmates returns to prison within three years of being released and that number increases to 65% after five years. Blomberg, the dean of the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, had just laid out for the Criminal Justice Committee how a disproportionate number of African-Americans make up the prison population.

They are nearly twice as likely to be arrested and imprisoned than whites, but Blomberg suggested that may be more a factor of socieconomic status – the lack of opportunity, education and job skills – than it is of institutional racism – which he conceded is also a factor.  

In the data, Brandes saw an opening to further his career-long goal to reform Florida’s criminal justice system.

“So, based on your research, we should be doing everything we can to ensure employment on the back-end for when someone is released,” asked Brandes.

“All the research I know, supports that statement,” Blomberg responded.  “Jobs, jobs, Jobs. Economic disruption … certainly does have a big factor in incidents of crime.”

Blomberg attended Tuesday’s meeting to brief the panel on how a team at the FSU College of Criminology and Criminal Justice will produce Racial/Ethnic Impact Statements (REI) for bills the committee will debate during the 2020 session.

More:Senate taps Florida State criminology experts to determine racial impact of proposed bills

REIs are like the fiscal impact statements the Legislature uses to estimate the financial cost of proposed legislation. The REIs will project what is the human cost of proposals to white, black and brown communities.

African Americans account for nearly half of the 96,000 people locked up in Florida prisons while making up about 17% of the state population.  Whites with half of the overall population make up 38% of inmates, while 13% of inmates are Hispanic.

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Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, chairs the committee, and said the REIs will provide insight for lawmakers to develop programs to reduce the state prison’s population.  

After the meeting, he said the Brandes – Blomberg exchange highlighted one of the committee’s main challenges, how to get the DOC to adequately prepare inmates for life outside of prison.

He said many inmates never had any educational and job training opportunities and leave prison “worse off” then they were when sentenced. He said there is need for vocational programs and things like ethics training in prison.

“If you don’t have that in the prison system, then don’t expect a guy to get out of jail, (hand him) a $50 check and drop him off at the intersection where he was arrested and say, ‘oh yea, you learned your lesson.’ It just doesn’t work that way,” said Perry.

“What they model in prison is what they are going to model when they get out,” observed Perry. “We have to change that dynamic.”

Later in the afternoon, a bill emerged in the House to start the process that Perry had outlined. Rep. Dianna Hart, D-Tampa, filed HB 531, which among others things requires the DOC to assess the most cost-effective way to ensure inmates are job-ready for employment opportunities upon their release.

Perry said the Senate has its eyes on the bottom line for prison reform. He said it is going to take more money to ensure that inmates are mentally and physically fit for life outside of prison. Lawmakers fund the Department of Correction with an annual $2.4 billion budget.  

Writer James Call can be contacted at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on Twitter @CallTallahassee