According to Florida Statute 20.315(5), “The department shall report annually to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives recounting its activities and making recommendations for improvements to the performance of the department.” The following accomplishments and recommendations are provided to fulfill those requirements.

• Entered into a grant agreement with the USDA, the Florida Department of Community Affairs and three non-profit developers to construct housing components for the migrant farm workers housing initiative.
  
  
• Created a Victim Assistance e-mail address for victims to correspond with the victim assistance program over the Internet.
  
  
• Created an automated Victim Notification request form so that victims can fill out an Internet based form to receive notification and information.
  
  
• Converted approximately 25,000 inmate grievance files from alphabetical to numerical order. The purpose of this file conversion was to eliminate duplicate files for those inmates committed under more than one name and to promote a more efficient and effective filing system.
  
  
• Piloted a distance learning and web-based training program for criminal justice officers with over 800 courses, in partnership with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement .
  
  
• Implemented the Correctional Officer Basic Recruit Program (COBRA) for officers within the department. This training modifies the delivery of the Basic Recruit Program for correctional officers. This includes 532 hours of instruction and as part of the delivery method recruits are required to complete a 160-hour practicum. Each recruit is required to demonstrate proficiency in 36 essential functions while working on the compound of a correctional institution under the supervision of a Commission certified instructor.
  
  
• Coordinated over two million hours of staff training.
  
  
• Entered into a partnership agreement with 28 certified training centers throughout the state for the provision of Criminal Justice Standards Training Commission approved Advanced and Specialized Training for certified correctional officers and correctional probation officers of the department.
  
  
• Facilitated over 600 teleconferences using the Corrections Distance Learning Network in the areas of inmate education, staff development and training and meetings reaching over 28,500 employees. Satellite usage resulted in savings of over $3 million in travel and time off the job costs for the department.
  
  
• Developed firearms course for Correctional Probation Officers approved to carry 9mm firearm.
  
  
• Implemented a centralized court ordered payment system (COPS) where offenders mail in their court ordered monthly payments to COPS Accounting in Tallahassee in lieu of making the payment in the probation office. This allows the officer more time to spend in the field supervising offenders. All 20 circuits are participating in this new process.
  
  
• Worked with FSU researchers to design and initiate randomization study of the effect of substance abuse treatment on prison recidivism. Recommend more collaboration with universities to study the correctional system in Florida.
  
  
• Worked with Correctional Privatization Commission and FSU researchers to study the recidivism differences in inmates exposed to private prisons compared to DC facilities. The results showed that there were no significant differences and the report was the basis for a subsequent article in the journal Criminology and Public Policy.
  
  
• Participated in extensive testing of People First system, including the data warehouse. Worked with OIT and Personnel to convert reports, mainframe, and DCWeb applications to use new People First data warehouse information.
  
  
• During FY 2004-05, offenders supervised by the Department performed a total of 808,355 public service hours for non-profit agencies. (107,041 hours were performed by offenders on community control and 701,314 hours were performed by offenders on probation.)
  
  
• During FY 2004-05, offenders paid $37,361,281.42 to victims of crime as restitution, $18,940,723.09 in court costs and fines, $26,927,256.28 in cost of supervision, and $12,245,910.65 in other court ordered payments, for a total of $95,475,171.44.
  
  
• Jessica Lunsford Act: Preparations were made and training provided to staff in order to provide intensive supervision for offenders sentenced as Lunsford cases beginning September 1, 2005. Staff in Community Corrections is working with Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Office of State Courts Administrators, Research & Data Analysis, and Office of Information Technology to ensure other components of the act (re-registration requirements, CJNET prior terms of supervision and violations, automated sentencing, and fingerprint readers) are implemented as specified in the bill.
  
  
• Illegal Firearms Purchases: The Department of Corrections continues to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement when a person under supervision attempts to purchase a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer. A person purchasing a firearm through a licensed dealer is subject to an instant background check by FDLE. If that person's record reveals that they are under felony supervision with the Department, the purchase transaction is refused.
  
  
• Grant Opportunities: The Bureau of Probation and Parole Field Services was awarded a federal grant to help ensure that requirements of Florida Statute 944.607 are met which mandate that the department provide digitized photographs of designated sex offenders and sexual predators to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. During the past year, Probation and Parole Field Services has been able to use this grant funding to purchase over 60 desktop computers, 126 printers and an additional 32 digital cameras. In addition, this grant funding provided the opportunity to purchase software, laptop computers and projectors to help identified staff provide training and assistance to field staff who take photographs of supervised sex offenders, violent offenders and career offenders for placement on the department's website.
  
  
• Office of the General Counsel successfully defended the department in over 450 cases in FY 2004-05 in matters relating to sentence structure and gaintime. One such case was Gibson v. Florida Department of Corrections, where the Florida Supreme Court held for the first time that gaintime awarded during service of sentence imposed for one offense may be forfeited as the penalty for revocation of probation on a sentence imposed for another offense, as long as the offenses were scored together on one sentencing score sheet.
  
  
• Obtained rulings from the 2nd and 5th DCA in Department of Corrections v. Grubbs and Department of Corrections v. Harrison, respectively, holding that the Department is not required to pay for interpreter services for a deaf sex offender's sex offender treatment.
  
  
• Handled or assisted with processing at least 384 public records requests and 97 CMHI/Involuntary medication hearings. Reviewed over 3,031 nonappealable employee disciplinary actions and over 1,742 appealable disciplinary actions and handled any resulting litigation before the Public Employees Relations Commission and the District Courts of Appeal.
  
  
• Established the Inmate Teaching Assistant (ITA) Program. As of June 30, 2005, there were five operational programs and seven more being implemented. Inmate Teaching Assistants work under the supervision of a certified academic teacher to provide tutoring to inmate students.
  
  
• Library Services provided general library services to 1,170,783 inmates, and law library services to 542,372 inmates in FY 2004-05; trained 145 inmate law clerks in FY 2004-05; and, established general library and minor collection law library programs at Columbia Annex.
  
  
• During FY 2004-05, provided post secondary vocational training to approximately 611 youthful offenders.
  
  
• Maintained and updated Facility Access Secure Tracking (FAST) database for 15,589 volunteer entries.
  
  
• Provided volunteer training to 3,081 new volunteers.
  
  
• Successfully opened six new Contract Work Release Centers and two Contract Transition Centers with a capacity of 810 beds.
  
  
• Automated the Release Transportation process of ticket purchasing for Greyhound buses by allowing field staff to purchase release transportation tickets for inmates by phone, fax or email. This process has resulted in a savings to the department of over $100,000.
  
  
• Expedited identification of foreign born inmates at the South Florida Reception Center (SFRC). Release Management staff were able to identify and procure automation equipment and space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at SFRC which in turn has expedited the process of alien identification and the processing of these inmates into the department.
  
  
• Developed and presented standardized training to all Drill Instructors at Youthful Offender Institutions to better utilize the extended day program and basic training for youthful offenders.
  
  
• In accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 developed and implemented a process to identify, track and report all sexual incidents involving inmates and institutional staff.
  
  
• In April 2005, Central Records completed the entire conversion of the original 200,000 hard copy records maintained in Central Office to digital image in IRIS. The Inmate Records Imaging System, often referred to as IRIS, contains approximately 20 million documents of approximately 600,000 inmates. These records can be accessed by designated agency staff throughout the state 24 hours a day.
  
  
• Provided records management training to 58 Central Office staff and to 510 staff assigned to institutions/facilities, four Service Centers, Community Corrections, and four Region Offices.
  
  
• The Records Management Program produced 300 tons of recyclable paper processed through the Department's recycling facility creating revenue in excess of $20,000.
  
  
• During FY 2004-05 the recycling facility at New River CI processed, for sale to vendors, 582 tons of paper, 611 tons of cardboard, 401 tons of ferrous metals and nine tons of aluminum cans. The material volumes will increase significantly as the recycling initiative implementation phases in.
  
  
• Department of Transportation Work Squads: The work squads' work under the Master Agreement between the Department of Corrections and the Department of Transportation (DOT). Both agencies supervise these work squads. These work squads generate revenue for the Department of Corrections. In FY 2004-05, DOT work squads performed 1.9 million hours of work valued at $15.6 million.
  
  
• Public Works and Interagency Community Service Work Squads: The work squads performed under local agreements between correctional institutions and governmental agencies and non-profit organizations. These work squads do not generate revenue for the Department of Corrections. In FY 2004-05, the work squads performed 3.9 million hours of "free" labor at a value of $50.4 million dollars.
  
  
• Contracted Work Squads: The work squads under the authorization of the 1997 Legislature, an authorization that has continued to date and requires the governmental entity to pay for the services of the work squad. These work squads generate revenue for the Department of Corrections. On June 30, 2005, the Department had 52 active contracts involving 56 positions supervising contracted work squads. In FY 2004- 05, the contracted work squads performed 670,036 hours of work valued at $8.6 million dollars.
  
  
• Facility Environmental Health and Safety Officers completed fire extinguisher training at the State Fire College and were licensed to conduct annual fire extinguisher inspections at agency facilities resulting in an annualized cost savings of more than $30,000.00.
  
  
• Regional Safety Consultants participated in Operational Reviews and annual facility Environmental Health and Safety inspections of approximately 150 facilities.
• Installed Stun Fence at Union CI's Death Row Unit.
  
  
• Opened Franklin CI with a perimeter Stun Fence. Washington CI Annex is under construction and will also have a Stun Fence.
  
  
• New software upgrades included AutoCAD 2005 and Architectural Desktop 2005 (ADT). With the upgrade of the new software, Facility Services was able to elevate our capabilities to the industry standard. Prior to this upgrade we were drafting with software called DataCAD which limited our conversion capabilities to transfer files to outside consultants. Now that we are using AutoCAD we are able to eliminate delays in file transfer. AutoCAD 2005 and ADT have also allowed us the utilize several built-in tools that will make our Department much more efficient and productive. We now have the capabilities to organize our project sheets in one place which allows for batch plotting which will greatly reduce the previous time spent on plotting single sheets. Also ADT is an interactive tool which will allow for more accurate building drawings.
  
  
• New Construction:
  
  
  • Completion of construction of Franklin CI
    
    
  • Completion of construction of Columbia Annex
    
    
  • Continued with construction of Santa Rosa Annex
    
    
  • Started construction of Washington Annex
    
    
  • Started construction of expansion of Lowell Annex
    
    
  • Started construction of additional 3 Open Bay Dorms at Lowell CI
    
    
  • Started construction of Taylor Work Camp
    
    
  • Started construction of RMC Work Camp
    
    
• Processed 80,289 new sentence audits.
  
  
• Successfully eliminated a backlog of 250 duplicate/erroneous inmate number assignments by consolidating records or monitoring compliance to ensure duplicated records were merged.
  
  
• Coordinated over 187,000 institutional transfers. During this reporting period over 13,000 emergency evacuations were conducted.
  
  
• Provided 32,789 offenders with community based residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment services: 17% received residential substance abuse treatment services; 83% received outpatient substance abuse treatment services. These services were provided through more than 95 contracts with private providers in the community.
  
  
• Provided approximately 10,740 offenders with community-based ancillary mental health treatment services. These services were provided through more than 23 contracts with private providers in the community.
  
  
• Conducted approximately 532,487 drug tests on offenders under community supervision.
  
  
• A study by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) titled "Predicting the Effect of Substance Abuse Treatment on Probationer Recidivism", published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology (2005) examined the effectiveness of the department's community based non-residential (outpatient) drug treatment program. The findings of the researchers supported the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment and its impact on reducing recidivism.
  
  
• Established an Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of Children and Families for enhancing Post-Release planning for inmates with serious mental illnesses.
  
  
• Office of Health Services was awarded a Davis Productivity Award for implementation of a Compassionate Care Unit at Wakulla CI for terminally ill inmates. This program continues with strong intra-institutional cooperation, especially between Security, Classification and Food Services.