NCJ Number
173552
Date Published
1997
Length
47 pages
Annotation
Surveys of Floridians and Florida news media in 1997 examined views of the status, operations, and effectiveness of the Florida Department of Corrections and some of its personnel.
Abstract
The survey of citizens was conducted in March 1997, and the survey of the news media was conducted in June 1997. Both surveys covered the public's and news media's knowledge and opinions of time served in prisons and prison overcrowding, inmate work and unstructured time, programs and health care, correctional officers, probation officers, and the effectiveness of Florida's corrections policies and operations. Respondents' knowledge and perspectives on each survey question are compared with actual data and facts. Regarding prison overcrowding, 28.5 percent of the public and 40.1 percent of the news media believed that prison overcrowding is the Department of Corrections' most pressing issue. In reality, the Department of Corrections has a sufficient number of prison beds to serve its needs. Overall, survey results show that many Floridians and news media representatives have a limited understanding of numerous issues that pertain to the Florida Department of Corrections; in addition to the overcrowding issue, respondents were misinformed on the percentage of sentence served, gain time, early release, and whether correctional officers are armed. Overall, Floridians believe the Department of Corrections is doing a fair job; it believes it is doing a good job of preventing escapes, a fair job of rehabilitating criminals, and a poor job of making criminals pay back their victims. Most respondents did not know that probation officers collect victim restitution. Extensive tabular data