CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — The ABC Action News I-Team's investigation into the state's "pay to stay" law is getting the attention of lawyers and lawmakers after revealing the state can charge inmates $50 a day for the length of their prison sentence, even if they are released years early and regardless of their ability to pay.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Pay to stay: Florida inmates charged for prison cells long after incarceration
In April, the I-Team shared Shelby Hoffman's story. She spent 10 months in prison on drug-related charges, but her original sentence — was seven years. That's significant because that is the timeframe when she was charged $50 a day: $127,750.
Hoffman is expected to graduate with her Bachelor's Degree in September. She wants to pursue a career helping people struggling with addiction like she once did. But the state says she must pay off her $100,000+ bill in order to qualify for an exemption that would allow her to enter the field.
“I literally felt like my entire past just punched me in the face," Hoffman said when she received the denial. “I have a family now, I have a daughter, a wonderful husband, I have a home, I have all of these accomplishments I have worked so hard, so hard to maintain. And to not be given the opportunity to have a realistic, reasonable, obtainable goal, to rectify all of that, that is why this is important.”
Hoffman's case is just one example of how the law is being used in a way that critics say is unconstitutional.
"I was shocked"
Former Republican State Senator Jeff Brandes, St. Petersburg, founded a new non-partisan think tank focusing on criminal justice reform, the Florida Policy Project.
"I was shocked," Brandes said of the I-Team's story. “Listen, I was on the Criminal Justice Committee for years, chaired the Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee. I did not know this was the law."
Brandes said he had not heard of the law used in this way.
"She’s probably not the only one that this applied to, she’s just the only one we’ve really heard about," Brandes said.
Institute for Justice
Hoffman's exemption from disqualificationdenial came from the Department of Children and Families. DCF told the I-Team it "does not track" how many people it has denied due to incarceration costs.
“What was most outrageous to me, other than the fact that the Government is expecting citizens to pay for the cost of their own incarceration, is the fact that they’re imposing these fees up front," Ari Bargil, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justicesaid.
The nonprofit is now looking into Hoffman's case after seeing the I-Team's investigation.
“Most people who go to prison or jail do not end up serving 100% of the sentence imposed," Bargil said.
In Florida, prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.
"So the Government is knowingly, in most instances, forcing you to pay a fine, an absurd fine, for something that you’re unlikely to ever — for a service you’re unlikely to consume or take advantage of," Bargil said.
The "pay to stay" law was meant to shift prison costs to the incarcerated. The reality is that not many people are paying or can.
Low collection
The I-Team found, over a 3-year time period, Florida collected roughly $80,000 across the entire state.
“That’s not very much money," Lisa Foster, with the Fines and Fees Justice Centersaid. “The state gets to selectively enforce these liens and that is yet another problem."
In a recent court filing, the Department of Corrections acknowledged that "...it has more than 80,000 convicted prisoners, but has filed approximately only 142 motions for imposition of civil restitution lien judgments since 2002."
Retaliation
After looking further into the law, Brandes told the I-Team, "What my understanding is, is this law is used for when inmates in the prison system actually bring charges or sue the state prison system. So they say listen, you may win, but we’re going to charge you $50 a day for all the days you’ve been here. And so it’s really used as a hammer by the state to keep people from filing litigation against the state for potential abuse or things that happened while they were incarcerated.”
Bargil said that is likely to have a "chilling effect" on someone who would otherwise file a lawsuit.
"That’s constitutionally problematic," Bargil said.
Dante Trevisani, with the Florida Justice Institute, told the I-Team, in his experience, "If you bring a state law claim, absolutely they will counterclaim against you.”
The Florida Justice Institute represented former inmate Jeremy Barrett, who won a negligence lawsuit and was able to walk away with something from the $150,000 settlementgiven for when he was put in a cell with a man who gouged out one of his eyes because he was only in for three years at $50 a day.
Reviewing court records, the I-Team found a Hillsborough County Judge recently denied the Department of Corrections' motion to collect $50 a day from an inmate who is still in prison, calling it "retaliatory and filed in response to a civil rights complaint."
The I-Team contacted the Florida Department of Corrections for comment but had not heard back before this story was published on Thursday. On Friday, the communications office emailed back and said, "The Florida Department of Corrections does not comment on pending litigation."
"People have a hard enough time when they leave prison. They’re going to be a felon the rest of their life, they’re not going to be able to qualify for most mortgages, most people are going to take a hard look at them when they apply for a job. And the people that are able to overcome those challenges? And still move forward? Should not then have to have this burden of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars as a lien or a liability against them for the rest of their lives," Brandes said.
If this is an issue you want your lawmaker to look into, here's how you can contact your state legislators:
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Last month, weintroduced you to Jimmy Klass, a Floridian who learned he was not a U.S. citizen after living here for 64 years. ABC Action News reporter Katie LaGrone is following through with updates to his story, while also sharing the story of another Floridian who learned she was not a U.S. citizen after 60 years in the U.S.