Community Programs
Victims' Assistance Office
 The Victims' Assistance Office assures the Department of Corrections (DC) is in compliance with Florida Statutes Sec. 944.605 (1), the notification of victims of crime and criminal justice officials (Law-Enforcement Agencies, Judges, and State Attorneys) prior to an inmate's release.
- The office notifies over 36,000 victims of crime each year of offender transfers and releases from prison.
- The office also distributes court ordered
obligations incurred by DC
inmates. Inmates working at paid
employment, such as Community
Work Release and prison industries
such as Prison Rehabilitative
Industries and Diversified Enterprises
(PRIDE), pay their obligations through
the department's Court Ordered
Payments database.
Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) Services
- The department offers a toll-free
automated inmate information and
notification service called VINE,
available 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. Victims can call 1-877-VINE-4-
FL (1-877-846-3435), to receive an
inmate's current location and tentative
release date or visit the website at
www.vinelink.com.
- Victims may also register to receive an
automated notification when an
inmate is released, transferred,
escapes, is placed in a work release
facility, transfers to another
jurisdiction, returns to the
department's custody, or dies while in
custody. The VINE Service is
anonymous and confidential.
10-20-LIFE Public Information Campaign
- DC, in conjunction
with the Governor
and the Legislature,
continues to inform
the public of the 10-
20-LIFE law. The
1999 law mandates
10 years in prison
for possession of a
gun, 20 years for discharging the
weapon and 25 years to life for
shooting/killing someone with the gun.
- Department staff routinely delivers
community presentations on gun
violence and distributes materials such
as bumper stickers, vinyl window
clings, posters and brochures in
English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole,
to schools and businesses.
Front Porch Florida Community Initiative
- DC develops partnerships to further
accomplish our mission through the
Front Porch Community Initiative.
This initiative helps communities
improve their neighborhoods through
assistance from public and private
entities.
- Through our efforts, neighborhoods
have been cleaned, community
awareness events were sponsored,
special projects conducted.
- Front Porch Florida was founded in
1999 to address the challenges facing
Florida’s urban communities.
- So far, 20 communities have been
designated as Front Porch sites. They
are Bartow, Bradenton, Daytona
Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Walton
Beach, Gainesville, Immokalee,
Jacksonville, Miami, Ocala, OpaLocka, Orlando, Pensacola, Sanford,
Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee,
Tampa, Vero Beach and West Palm
Beach.
- As part of the initiative, the
department:
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The Reichert House, built with inmate labor, deters at-risk youth from the criminal justice system and encourages academic achievement.
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DC employees volunteer at the St. Petersburg Front Porch Community "Clean Up Day." The Front Porch Initiative helps communities improve their neighborhoods through assistance from public and private entities.
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Corrections employees
donate supplies for
deserving children at their
local schools.
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A DC employee reads to
children as part of Leon
County’s Family Fun
Day.
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partnered with the Northeast
Gainesville/Duval Area
Neighborhood Front Porch Florida
Community, under the auspices of
the City of Gainesville and the
Black on Black Crime Task Force,
to provide inmate labor to develop and construct Phase II to include a
modular building of the Reichert
House, site of a Gainesville youth
program that tries to steer children
toward education and away from
criminal activity.
- partnered with Bartow Front
Porch Florida Community to
restore 11 homes that were
battered by hurricanes and tropical
storms. With the use of inmate
labor, the homes were repaired and
restored to allow for residents to
return after the storms.
- partnered with the Sarasota Front
Porch Community to build kitchen
cabinets for 10 homes in the
community.
- partnered with local, state, school,
community, law enforcement and
federal officials to promote Life
Inside, a crime prevention
videotape and curriculum booklet
aimed at keeping young people in
school and out of trouble.
Florida State Employees Charitable Campaign (FSECC)
- DC made contributions of over
$384,309 to this worthwhile
organization to provide valuable
assistance to deserving children and
families during the annual campaign.
Just Read, Florida!
- To support the "Just Read, Florida!"
initiative, the department
implemented a statewide plan to
collect new and used books to
distribute to deserving children in
Florida communities. Last year, the
department collected close to 89,000
books that were distributed to children
throughout the state.
Mentoring Initiative
- To promote and support the Mentoring
Initiative, the department recruited
mentors and mentoring coordinators
from each facility throughout the state.
- 1,759 DC employees donated 15,549
hours to assist Florida youth in the
mentoring program. These numbers
represent a significant increase from
the previous fiscal year when 1,071 DC
employees participated, while donating
6,913 hours.
- For more information about the
department’s Mentoring initiative, you
may go to our website at
www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/mentoring/.
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