Of Note this Month...

• In September, Florida’s Department of Education (DOE) reported at the statewide Florida Adult and Community Education (ACE) Conference on the GED passing rate for the 2002 calendar year. Excluding the private facilities, DOC had a passing rate of 97.3% (931 inmates out of 957 passed the test), while the rest of the state had a passing rate of 79.2%.
  
  
• The US Justice Department has awarded the state of Florida, nearly $9.2 million in compensation for 4,811 qualified alien inmates housed in DOC facilities during fiscal year 2002-03. This brings to $160.2 million the amount that Florida state government has received through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program from 1994 to present—a benefit in part due to our agency’s superior electronic record-keeping.