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Julie Jones

Pam Bondi just saying ‘no’ to O.J. Simpson’s return to Florida

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O.J. Simpson won’t return to Florida if Pam Bondi has any sway over his homecoming. The state’s Republican attorney general sent a 2-1/2 page letter to Corrections Secretary Julie Jones on Friday, saying she objected to Simpson’s return on behalf of the state. He previously lived in Kendall, Miami-Dade County.

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How Julie Jones got it completely wrong with GEO Group ‘Continuum of Care’

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It was a moment Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones remembered clearly — even though she got it completely wrong.

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Florida prison chief: State losing corrections staff to ‘Wal-Mart,’ creating insecurity in system

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More than three-quarters of Florida’s corrections officers have less than two years’ experience. In some state prisons, a single CO will be left alone to supervise 150-200 inmates in a jail block. Contraband has become so bad, one random search of (just half) a Dade facility turned up $15,000 in street value of cocaine, seven knives, 46 cellphones and an array of other drugs and illicit materials, said Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones Thursday. The state’s prisons chief was in…

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Sean Shaw, Darryl Rouson file bill to end Florida’s ban on ex-felon voting rights

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Under current Florida law, those who are convicted of any felony lose the right to vote, the right to sit on a jury, the right to hold public office, and the right to possess a firearm, unless they are granted the restoration of their civil rights by the state Office of Executive Clemency. Legislation sponsored by Tampa Bay-area Democrats Darryl Rouson and Sean Shaw would end the automatic suspension of civil rights for those convicted of a nonviolent felony. “Even if the sentence has…

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Rick Scott calls for widespread pay raises for corrections officers

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Gov. Rick Scott is looking to give Florida corrections officers a pay raise, including $38 million for the state’s prison system in his proposed budget. Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald reports that the increase, part of the budget Scott will announce Tuesday, is for “officers up to and including the rank of captain.” Also, Scott wants to offer a $1, 000 signing bonus to new officers at certain understaffed prisons, and boost pay for officers at prison mental-health…

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There oughta be a T-shirt for the David Richardson Tour

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State Representative — and glutton for punishment — David Richardson (D-Miami Beach) brought his lonely crusade for improved prison infrastructure to the Columbia Correctional Institution on Thanksgiving Eve, giving inmates and guards the rare gift of something to be grateful for. Florida’s correctional facilities have been decaying for decades, out of sight and out of mind except when there’s a riot, or bad publicity, or bad publicity caused by a riot. Self-styled “one-man band” Richardson has taken it upon himself to…

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One reason to support Bridges of America in its latest dust-up with the Department of Corrections

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Bridges of America and the Department of Corrections are at it again. As Florida Politics’ Jim Rosica reported Monday, Bridges and the DOC are once more warring over transitional programs for the state’s inmates. This isn’t the first time Lori Costantino-Brown, president and chief executive officer of Bridges of America, and Corrections Secretary Julie Jones had a high-profile scuffle. A similar battle broke out earlier this year over Broward Bridge, a residential program offering transitional counseling, drug treatment, and other services to inmates on work…

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