Responding to reports that prisoner contact with loved ones helps reduce the recidivism rate, state lawmakers last year approved a $1 million pilot project to allow inmates with good behavior to make one free 15-minute phone call per month to the outside world.

Pleased with its rollout, members of the Florida Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations came back during the 2024 legislative session with a budget line item expanding the program to $2 million from an inmate trust fund, and not from general revenues.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis slashed that line item in June. Advocates for prison and criminal justice reform say that’s a problem.

“Keeping families connected is very important for re-entry and so is the education,” said Karen Stuckey, who’s had to deal with escalating phone bills as both her son and husband have been incarcerated in Florida prisons. “If you want somebody to be successful, you have to keep them connected to their families or their loved ones. Because when you get out, it’s really, really hard.”

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/HrIlf

Our State Parks are under attack. Please help by at least contacting your representatives though this convenient form (it takes less than a minute).

Florida Wildlife Federation - Convenient Form

Information About The 9 Specific Park Plans

Our state government released plans to add golf courses, pickle ball courts, and more unnatural development to some of our state parks. Speak up.

Edit: this also contradicts the State Park mission statement. "FPS Mission Statement Provide resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources." https://www.floridastateparks.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/2020_12_01_Floirda%20Park%20Service_Operations%20Manual.pdf

Update: Here is a survey the state opened to accept feedback on their new plans: survey. For each park's proposal, it summarizes the proposal, then you can submit a feedback message followed by a satisfaction rating (very dissatisfied to very satisfied).

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17924668

If you hit a paywall: https://archive.ph/xeJIi

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15908405

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14774829

Calling her “an inherent danger to the community,” prosecutors on Friday asked a Miami judge to throw a 51-year-old mother back into jail for posting news articles on Facebook recounting her arrest on charges of stalking a Miami-Dade police officer who had shot and killed her mentally ill son. Prosecutors say Gamaly Hollis violated a judge’s order against using social media by sharing several stories this week about the June 2022 death of her son. Richard Hollis, who suffered from severe mental illness, was shot six times by Officer Jaime Pino in the family’s apartment. After her son’s death, the grieving mother took to the streets and the internet, calling officer Pino a killer and once confronting him at a crime scene. Miami-Dade Police arrested her on charges of aggravated stalking, resisting arrest and trespassing. After a year in jail, she was released on bond just a week ago.