Section 3: Property Crimes

Property offenders who have been sentenced to prison under the current minimum 85% of sentence served policy will, on average, serve a significantly longer period of time in prison than at any time over the past 25 years.

The average prison sentence under this policy has resulted in 2.9 years of incarceration compared to 2.0 years under the parole system of the early 1980's and 1.3 years during the early prison release policy of the late 80's and early 90's (chart 21).

Property offenders sentenced to prison in the latest fiscal year (2003-2004) will serve 2.8 years compared to 0.9 year in FY1987-1988 (chart 22).

Chart 21 All Property Crimes Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions Under Different Sentencing Policies: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Chart 22 All Property Crimes Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions By Fiscal Year: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Burglary

Offenders who commit a burglary crime will serve significantly more time in prison today (4.3 years in FY 2003-2004) than at any time over the past 25 years. This current 4.3 years average time served for burglars is 290.9% higher than the low of 1.1 years in FY 1987-1988 (chart 24).

Armed burglars will serve an average of 8.4 years in prison under the minimum 85% of sentence served policy in FY 2003-2004 compared to an average of 2.6 years in FY 1988-1989 when Florida was forced to invoke early prison release (chart 25).

A prison sentence for auto theft in FY 2003-2004 resulted in an average of 1.9 years of incarceration compared to less than 0.8 year in FY 1987-1988, a 137.5% increase (chart 27).

Chart 23 Burglary Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions Under Different Sentencing Policies: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Chart 24 Burglary Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions By Fiscal Year: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Chart 25 Armed Burglary Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions By Fiscal Year: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Chart 26 Theft/Forgery/Fraud Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions By Fiscal Year: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004

Chart 27 Auto Theft Average Prison Time Served in Years for New Admissions By Fiscal Year: FY 1979-1980 to FY 2003-2004