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Groups suggest alternatives to incarceration at Fort Lauderdale summit
Alternatives to incarceration made at Lauderdale summit
8/3/08|South Florida Sun-Sentinel| by Jonathan Del Marcus - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Organizations concerned with the effects of state criminal justice system policies recently agreed to measures aimed at reducing the number of offenders sent to prison.

Participants at the Alternatives To Incarceration Summit at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale's Fellowship Hall focused their efforts on groups of offenders that could be effectively and safely diverted from the costly facilities.

Representatives from more than 15 organizations listened to speakers, prioritized goals, and passed a resolution urging adoption of strategies to reduce Florida's prison population.

The Coalition to end Homelessness, a Broward County-based nonprofit, helped organize the event, and its chief executive officer, Laura Hansen, facilitated the program. Others participating included Henderson Mental Health Center, Opportunities Industrialization Centers Inc. of Broward County, and the Salvation Army.

"We are here to come together for a program of action, a legislative agenda to safely reduce the rate of incarceration for nonviolent offenders," said Shane Gunderson, director of client services, Broward County Public Defender's Office.

Participants ratified four goals to pursue at the state level: increased use of diversion programs; reform of mandatory sentencing laws; reform zero-tolerance laws and policies; and issue citations for nonviolent offenses rather than formal criminal charges.

There was consensus to decriminalize offenses such as possession of fewer than 28 grams of marijuana, driving with a suspended license and petit theft less than $100. Rather than hard time for these offenses, fines, treatment and education programs were advocated.

District 105 State Rep. Joseph A. Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, and District 93 State Rep. Perry E. Thurston, Jr., D-Plantation, said they would present the resolution to the Florida Caucus of Black State Legislators.

If approved there, the resolution would then be introduced to the Florida House of Representatives. Gibbons acknowledged it would be a tough sell in the Republican-dominated House.

"The only people who did well in this year's budget were prison builders," he said.

To build grass roots support, those involved will widely circulate the resolution.

"I am hoping that this resolution ... will be handed out at a lot of different clubs and organizations to build support for reforming the criminal justice system in Florida," said Gunderson, a 19-year veteran of the Public Defender's Office.

Florida is a national leader in prison construction and incarceration rates. In "One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008," a recent report by The Pew Center on the States, Florida is cited as a case study for an explosion in new prison construction.

"Between 1993 and 2007, the state's inmate population has increased from 53,000 to over 97,000. Without a change in direction, Florida is expected to reach a peak of nearly 125,000 inmates by 2013," according to the report.

Alan Elsner, a Maryland-based journalist and author of Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons, was the keynote speaker. Elsner focused on understanding the causes of criminal behavior as well as relationships between incarceration and drug offenses, mental illness, race and public health.

Elsner noted many enmeshed in any state's criminal justice system are homeless or mentally ill. Often, they do not need to be incarcerated, but are in need of social services, he said. He referred to this association as the "Bermuda Triangle," linking mental illness, the emergency room and jail.

Frequently, he said, these populations are ill-served by being locked up, but are instead in desperate need of social services and diversionary programs.

"It's a question of making our society function for all of us. Let's look at it in a way that understands that we're all members of society," he said.

Howard Finkelstein, Broward County's Public Defender, put it another way: "Don't call them 'these people,' 'the homeless,' 'the mentally ill.' They are human beings who need our help."