Jameel McCline on Prison Reform

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - July 14, 2014 - PRLog -- Jameel McCline, candidate for Florida’s 20^th Congressional District, today addressed prison reform.  The Florida Democrat understands personally the quagmire of the American penal structure, and he favors treatment, education and other alternatives to the soaring incidents of incarceration.

“The reason I’m so passionate about this is because I was one of those people entangled in the criminal justice system,” said McCline, 44, who served five years in prison beginning as a teenager.

McCline has his sights set on reversing Florida – and America’s – unrelenting push toward incarceration.   He points out that since 1980, the prison population has climbed by about 800 percent while the country’s population has grown by only a third. The United States has five percent of the world’s population – but 25 percent of its prisoners.

Florida’s criminal justice system is one of the most prolific in the nation.

Florida sends more young people under age 18 to adult state prisons than any other state in the nation
Florida’s incarceration rate is 26 percent higher than the national average, and it has the third-largest correctional system in the nation after California (174,000) and Texas (155,000)
The Florida Department of Corrections houses 102,000 inmates in its 63 state prisons costing taxpayers nearly $2.4 billion. Currently, one in 31 adults is under some mode of correctional control
Florida's recidivism rate is about 33%, which means one out of every three inmates released from a Florida prison returns to prison in Florida within three years.
This 33% recidivism rate within 3 years of release increases to 65% after five years. It costs an average of $53.34 per day or $19,469 per year to house an inmate in a Florida prison.

McCline stresses the benefits of education over incarceration.  “I believe in prison reform that focuses on education as a deterrent.  It’s necessary to have more programs for Floridians to re-integrate themselves to being active, productive, tax-paying members of society.”

The McCline campaign proposes increased use of alternatives to sentencing. It condemns unnecessarily harsh mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and supports drug courts that divert addicts out of the penal system and into treatment.

Read more about McCline for Congress on prison reform at mclineforcongress.com (http://mcclineforcongress.com/clean-energy-environmental-...).