Other News

We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved founder, friend, and mentor Randy Berg has died after a battle with ALS.  Randy co-founded the Florida Justice Institute (FJI) in 1978 and served as its Executive Director for 41 years until his retirement in 2019.  During that time, he was a mentor, friend, colleague, leader, […]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Randy Ratledge doesn’t get out much. Since he was arrested in 2012, Ratledge, 61, has a fear of the police. He doesn’t like leaving his home, and definitely doesn’t like coming downtown, where he was locked up for 117 days. He faced 120 years in prison, and under the state’s minimum mandatory […]

Florida Department of Corrections staff briefed a House panel on the structure and status of prison health care Wednesday before detailing some of their 2019-20 budget requests. DOC in recent years has faced budget shortfalls, causing them to make dramatic cuts to inmate health care services. The $55 million shortfall last budget year caused officials to slash substance-abuse, […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NEWS SERVICE FLORIDA) – Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to fund the Florida Department of Corrections next year at $2.7 billion, a spending plan that has some criminal-justice reform advocates pointing to struggles facing Florida’s prison system as a result of increased health-care costs. Following litigation, the state needs to meet court mandates requiring it […]

On May 15, 2017, after serving 37 years, David Maldonado was released from prison. He had been sentenced to life for a murder he committed when he was 16. But for Maldonado, getting out was about more than freedom; his release might have also saved his life. In 1997, Maldonado was diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C—a disease, now curable, […]

By David C. Fathi September 3 David C. Fathi is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. Prisoners across the United States began a strike Aug. 21 that is scheduled to last until next Sunday. The strike’s organizers are encouraging their fellow prisoners to refuse to work and to engage in other forms of […]

Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call “prison slavery.” Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are demonstrating. Individuals in Texas, California and Ohio have gone on hunger strike, including […]

  Photo: Meredity Nierman / WGBH A Massachusetts state prison is expanding the graveyard where it buries inmates who die in custody, one consequence of the state’s huge increase in aging prisoners. And as more inmates age and die behind bars, the cost of their care is skyrocketing, fueling new efforts to release prisoners who are too […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) — Prison reform groups are celebrating a victory after a proposed rule to cut visitation hours in Florida prisons was withdrawn after extensive public outcry. The Florida Department of Corrections had been trying to cut prison visitation hours since February. The department was met with outrage from families of those behind bars. “I […]

As a candidate, Gov. Rick Scott pitched the idea of having private companies provide health care to the state’s prisoners in a plan to save taxpayers $1 billion over seven years. But in the first five years of privatization, the cost has climbed from $278 million to $375 million. Privatization isn’t the only cause for […]