Speaking to reporters before Friday’s meeting, incoming House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said the corrections agency sought the emergency relief as the governor travels throughout Florida boasting about the state’s record budget reserves. The plan drew harsh criticism from Democratic lawmakers and criminal-justice reform advocates. The prison staffing shortage is resulting in “extensive correctional officer overtime,” and guard members will be used for nine months or until the corrections department “determines it no longer needs National Guard assistance,” the proposal said. In addition to the use of the National Guard, the budget item approved Friday will allow the Department of Corrections to “contract with Florida county facilities for additional staffing that may become available, if necessary.” “What all this will allow the department to do is take the staff that currently do this that are certified correctional officers and move them into the compound into direct inmate-contact positions, therefore reducing stress on the compound, stress on our current officers and helping reduce overtime,” Tallent said. Members will be deployed to the Northwest Florida Reception Center, the Reception and Medical Center and the Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Mayo, Santa Rosa and Union correctional institutions, according to the department. The guard will assist with perimeter security, entry and exit security and issuing supplies to inmates from secure stations, among other things. Mark Tallent, the department’s chief financial officer, told the Joint Legislative Budget Commission that the money would be used to pay up to 300 guard members to be deployed to prisons until July. Lawmakers on Friday approved a request from the Department of Corrections to free up $31.25 million that, at least in part, will be used to cover the costs of deploying guard members to prisons. Ron DeSantis’ administration is calling on Florida National Guard members to work at correctional facilities, a dramatic step meant to alleviate a staffing shortage that has plagued the prison system for years. "All of our volunteers desire to help this community, to give people a safe place to go where they will be treated with dignity.Pay hikes, shorter shifts and shuttering facilities are some of the strategies Florida has employed to try to rehabilitate a prison system that leaders have said is in crisis.īut despite the efforts, Gov.
"We need to be in this community," she said. And, Brandes said, the mission would prefer to be along U.S. Joining Hands is searching for a facility with at least 10,000 square feet that would include large common areas, a full-service kitchen and rooms for a church youth group and a pastor's office. "And it has come time for Joining Hands to find its own space." "Metropolitan needs this space," said Maria Brandes, who started the Joining Hands mission with her husband, Randy, as an offshoot of the now-closed Community United Methodist Church. Through the years, both Joining Hands and Metropolitan Ministries-Pasco have expanded their missions and scopes of service, and later this year a new transitional housing shelter for disadvantaged families will open on the Metropolitan Ministries campus. "People have told us that the food they get here lasts them the entire day." "A lot of people today don't have money to buy food," said Cameron Burns, 16, a mission volunteer. sharp each Sunday, with meals followed by Pastor Mary Ashcraft's worship service, which includes a sermon, music, inspirational videos and a children's service. The mission, a United Methodist Church, spends at least $350 to prepare and serve 200 to 250 meals at 9 a.m.
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