Quick Facts

About the Florida Department of Corrections

Revised February 2012

Sgt. Monroe at the Taylor Work Camp

In January 2012, the Florida Department of Corrections housed 100,345 inmates in its 60 state prisons (including seven private prisons), and supervised almost 115,000 active offenders on community supervision at 156 probation offices throughout the state.

The Department employs approximately 25,500 employees, the majority of whom are Correctional Officers or Correctional Probation Officers.

Florida's recidivism rate has dropped to 30%, which means almost one of every three inmates released from a Florida prison returns to prison in Florida within three years. (This does not include the number of inmates who return to county jails, federal prisons or prisons in other states.)

Prison Life

Inmates cook more than 87 million meals each
year for their fellow inmates.

The majority of Florida's state-run prisons ARE NOT air conditioned. All contracted prisons are air conditioned.

Most prison inmates live in dormitories not cells. Florida State Prison in Starke is the only Florida prison where all inmates live in single cells.

Most Florida inmates must serve a minimum of 85% of their sentences before release. Inmates released in December 2011 served an average of 85.5% of their sentences.

More than 84% of prison inmates work in jobs ranging from laundry, cooking and prison maintenance to prison industries and outside work squads. Community Work Squad inmates perform services under agreements with the Department of Transportation, other state agencies such as the Division of Forestry, counties, cities, municipalities, and non-profit organizations. In Fiscal Year 2010-11, the Department of Corrections' Community Work Squad inmates worked 4.2 million hours in our communities, saving Florida taxpayers more than $53 million.

For more info, click here www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/myths.html

Appropriation History (Billions)

Florida prisons DO NOT have cable television. Inmates have access to a single, donated television in most of their day rooms that services about 75 inmates per dorm. Correctional Officers control the channels and remote. Death row inmates have 13-inch (donated or purchased) television sets in their cells.

As mandated by law, all inmates have access to libraries, religious services, medical and dental care.

Inmates using Florida prison general libraries during fiscal year 2010-11 borrowed 1,751,703 books and periodicals.  This includes fiction, non-fiction, reference books, magazines, and newspapers.  Law library services were provided to inmates 627,044 times throughout the state.  If you or your organization would like to donate books to our general prison libraries, please contact Marty Morrison at (850) 717-3163.

For more info, click here www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/myths.html

Inmates grow acres of yellow squash each year,
one of the many crops that supplement their meals.

Inmates grow crops every year, and under the leadership of Governor Rick Scott, inmates are growing even more of their own food. Inmates are cultivating approximately 1,100 acres at over 53 different farms and gardens and six University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) facilities. They harvested three million pounds of produce including broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, and watermelon from July 2011 to December 2011, compared to 2.1 million pounds harvested during the same time the previous year. These crops, which include donations and IFAS-produced crops, are used to supplement inmate meals, help inmates learn a skill and reduce inmate idleness.

For more info, click here www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/myths.html

 

Per Diem

It costs an average $53.35 a day or $19,473 per year to house an inmate in a Florida prison.

Salaries

Certified entry-level Correctional Officers are paid $30,807.92 annually.

Certified entry-level Correctional Probation Officers are paid $33,478.12 annually.