Florida's prisons are more expensive than ever. What will the next governor do about it?

Even as crime rates and prison admissions have fallen over the past decade, ever-lengthening criminal sentences have left Florida prisons full of inmates and in need of a record $2.4 billion — a budget-busting challenge for the state's next governor to resolve.

How he or she would do so falls on a single but complex question: Does Florida’s harsh penal system need reform?

Adam Putnam, the standard-bearer of the Republican establishment, sees no need for change, vowing to veto any effort to reduce sentences that he says have made the state safer. Ron DeSantis, the Donald Trump-backed congressman and former prosecutor, has been virtually silent on the issue.

The throng of Democratic candidates want to upend the system.

The Florida Times-Union reached out to each of the seven gubernatorial campaigns to ask how they would transform the state’s criminal justice policies. The issue falls to a large degree on partisan lines, but that doesn’t mean the primary candidates see eye-to-eye on how best to prioritize what a future governor should do.

Desantis did not respond to a request for comment. Putnam — whose claims about mandatory minimums are not backed by supporting data — emailed a statement that said "we must continue to stand by the laws that have helped drive Florida to historically low crime rates. As governor, I will support law enforcement officers, increase penalties on drug traffickers that are fueling the opioid epidemic, and ensure maximum penalties for violent felons and repeat offenders."

The Democratic candidates say the criminal justice system is broken and in need of fixing. All of them agree that judges need more discretion, that mandatory minimum laws need to be reformed, and private prisons should be eliminated. But they differ in how to prioritize policies.

“You could just throw a dart at the board and you’d be largely better off with most states in choosing their criminal justice policies than Florida’s,” said Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes, who has been the leading voice in the Legislature calling for an overhaul of the justice system. “The simple truth is Florida can’t afford 96,000 inmates.”

The Democratic candidates each said the incarceration rate was too high.

This summer, there were 96,294 inmates in Florida’s prisons, and another 54,623 people sat in county jails on any given day. In 2017, 2,897 kids were sent to juvenile justice facilities. Florida’s incarceration rate is one of the highest in the country. More than seven out of every 1,000 residents were incarcerated.

While DeSantis and Democratic candidate Gwen Graham did not respond to requests for comment, their campaign statements helped fill in the blanks.

“The governor needs to provide a north star, a goal, an aspiration,” said Chris King, a Winter Park businessman who has vowed to reduce the prison’s non-violent population by 25 percent in five years and by 50 percent in 10 years by legalizing marijuana, cutting mandatory minimums and allowing inmates to be released earlier for good behavior.

Florida’s prisons are mostly filled by violent offenders. About 14.5 percent of inmates are there for some type of drug offense compared to 55 percent for violent offenses.

Some of the candidates like King and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine were reluctant to extend reforms to violent crimes, but Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and South Florida businessman Jeff Greene wanted a more expansive approach to reforms.

Gillum said he doesn’t want to eliminate mandatory-minimum sentences, but he does want judges to have the power to override those sentences if they deem the circumstances warrant it, even for violent crimes. “We should not remove a judge's discretion to consider all the circumstances of an offender.”

In conversations, Gillum and Greene highlighted their focus on reducing pre-trial detention in county jails.

In May, there were more than 51,000 inmates sitting in jail on any given day who had not been convicted.

Gillum pointed to New Jersey’s bail reform, which reduced pre-trial detention by more than a third in one year by using a risk assessment tool that largely eliminated cash bail. “I think we can be more aggressive than that,” he said. “I'm interested in some of these comprehensive reforms in the criminal justice penal system that results in a much fairer and much more effective criminal justice system writ large.”

Greene cited a friendship with Laura and John Arnold, fellow billionaires who have focused their philanthropic efforts around bail reform. The Arnolds developed the risk-assessment tool used by New Jersey.

“You want to punish people for doing things they’re not supposed to do,” Greene said, “but you want to have an eye on getting those people back into society.”

Putnam’s criminal policies are an outlier in the race. The agriculture commissioner has touted the endorsements of most of Florida’s sheriffs, the police unions and the state attorney general. In his policy paper, he promised to veto “any attempt to loosen criminal penalties on major drug traffickers and violent felons.” He also said he supports mandatory minimums and would “defend tough prison sentencing guidelines for all felony offenses.”

At one campaign stop, Putnam derided “liberals who are looking to water down many of the strong sentencing guidelines that have made this 47-year low in our crime rate possible.”

DeSantis, a former federal prosecutor, has given no indication what his criminal policies would be. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams endorsed DeSantis.

While Graham wouldn’t agree to an interview, her website lists a broad outline of her criminal justice goals."We face a crisis today and cannot afford to continue with the status quo,” she said in a news release. “As governor, I will fight for impactful progressive policies that can pass the legislature with bipartisan support.”

One proposal she offered is modeled on Jacksonville State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s own policy: requiring that state attorneys seek approval from a panel of in-house prosecutors before seeking the death penalty or seeking to charge a child as an adult.

Gillum, King, Levine and Greene all said they’d support establishing a statewide sentencing commission to review the state’s criminal punishment code. The code hasn’t been overhauled in more than 20 years, when it was last changed to make it easier to send people to prison.

Those four candidates also all said they support bringing back parole to Florida. In the early 1990s, Florida stopped using parole, and it began requiring inmates serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. That sets Florida as having one of the harshest sentencing laws. In most other states, good behavior can allow inmates to get out earlier.

While Levine and Greene sometimes struck an aspirational tone, Gillum and King pointed to solutions already enacted in Republican-led states.

Brandes, the Republican state senator, supported many of the Democrats’ proposals. “We want a top-to-bottom review of sentencing. We want a discussion of mandatory minimums. I’d love to see a discussion about gain-time and some concrete proposals to deal with the 85 percent law.”

King has made changing gain-time laws a centerpiece of his justice platform. “These aren’t super liberal ideas. These are ideas that save massive amounts of money and are being used in Republican states.”

All of the Democratic candidates said they support restoring voting rights to people who have served their time for felony convictions. When Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011, he ended the previous governor’s policy of automatically restoring voting rights for certain types of felony convictions. In 2016, the Sentencing Project estimated that 1.5 million Floridians couldn’t vote because of Scott’s policies, including 23.3 percent of black citizens.

If Florida voters pass Amendment Four, that will automatically restore the right to vote to anyone with a conviction who has served their prison and probation sentences, except for those with murder or sex offense convictions. Levine said “restoring felon rights is very important,” but he also said he wouldn’t consider restoring rights to people with those types of convictions.

King was the only candidate who committed to abolishing the death penalty. He also said he would use his clemency powers if needed to change some death sentences to life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Levine, King, Gillum and Greene also said they support an effort by Brandes and Democratic state Sen. Darryl Rouson to limit driver’s license suspensions to driving offenses. Currently, people can have their driver’s licenses suspended for a host of reasons, including if they are convicted of a drug crime.

The Times-Union asked each of the candidates who they would turn to for counsel on criminal justice policy.

Levine cited four current or former law-enforcement officials, including Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. Greene said he’d turn to Democratic attorney general candidate Sean Shaw if he wins his race. King named several African-American pastors, as well as pro-gun control groups.

Gillum, who has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, named two Republican think-tanks. “There are so many powerful, emerging reports and focuses within institutes on crime and justice; Right on Crime being one of them, right? Not who you'd naturally think I would be in allyship with. … It has actually produced some good work here, and believe it or not, the [conservative] James Madison Institute has done some great work. … This is one of the issues where the right and the left can find common ground on this.”

All of the Democratic candidates have criticized private prisons. Those prisons hold about 10 percent of inmates, while private community release centers hold another two percent. The rest of inmates are held in public prisons.

King, Greene, Levine and Gillum also said they support installing air conditioning the public prisons. Currently, most public prisons lack air conditioning, while all of Florida’s private prisons have it. The state of Florida currently owns the private prison facilities but contracts them out to companies.

Green and Graham said they would phase out private prisons, while the remaining three Democratic candidates called for the immediate abolition of private prisons. Levine went a step further and said he would end the privatization of prison services, such as food, treatment, transportation and phone calls. Outside of the employment of guards, most services in public prisons are provided by private company.

“This is a public service that should be operated by the state of Florida,” Levine said. “I also believe the individual services should be provided by the state of Florida. This has been done for generations throughout the state of Florida. There’s no reason Florida can’t provide a safe environment for prisoners.”