Florida inmates looking for early release from prison were going to get a reprieve from the Florida Legislature, but Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed the bill from becoming law.
State Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa, introduced HB 181, which was passed unanimously by the Senate and House. It gave prisoners some benefit for early parole for those undergoing vocational training, substance abuse treatment, educational programs, and other self-help programs, Florida Politics reported.
Hart argued her bill gave prisoners "a fair shot at the second chances they deserve," but DeSantis wanted to keep the discretion to the parole board that weighs the cases, the Florida Commission on Offender Review.
"Current law does not bar the consideration of these factors," DeSantis wrote in his dissent against the law. "The proposed legislation appears to require FCOR to assign weight to these factors. Therefore, this likely would result in making Florida's parole system more lenient."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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