Latest news with #FloridaJusticeInstitute
Miami Herald
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Three residents sue Miami over anti-panhandling law, argue it's unconstitutional
In 2023 and 2024, Miami police officers made nearly 400 arrests of people 'aggressively' panhandling in city limits, according to a new lawsuit. The suit, which hopes to overturn the law, argues that the city's ordinance violates the First Amendment and does not apply to other forms of speech, like a political candidate asking for support or a church member proselytizing. The city of Miami enacted the ordinance prohibiting 'aggressive' or 'obstructive' panhandling in 2000, according to the lawsuit. Violators can be fined $100 or jailed for up to 30 days for a first offense, or fined $200 and jailed up to 60 days for subsequent offenses. The Florida Justice Institute, a coalition of civil-rights attorneys, filed its lawsuit against the city last week, arguing that the ordinance infringes on residents' constitutional rights, including the First Amendment right to free speech, and targets marginalized groups such as the homeless. 'As far as we can tell, it's only been enforced against poor and presumptively homeless people who've been asking for money,' said Dante P. Trevisani, an attorney with the institute. The lawsuit adds that the ordinance's definition of 'aggressive' is vague and therefore unconstitutional. The city has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, and a city spokesperson did not provide a response to the allegations when contacted by the Miami Herald. The plaintiffs in the case, Patrick Mazzone, Albert Steve Sandlin and Andrew Biess, have all been arrested for violating the ordinance. Several arrest reports cited them as 'disrupting the flow of traffic' by panhandling. The three men are all longtime Miami residents who have experienced homelessness and rely on donations to make a living, according to the complaint. The city's 'punitive measures … perpetuate a cycle where homeless persons accrue fines they cannot pay, often leading to arrest and further barriers to stable employment and housing,' Florida Justice Institute attorneys argue in court documents. Each of the plaintiffs said they wish to continue to request donations but have 'been continually harassed and threatened by the police with arrest' and fear being arrested again under the ordinance. The legality of panhandling has been debated heavily in recent years. Several lawsuits have been filed across the country regarding similar laws, including in New Mexico, Alabama and New Hampshire. Lawsuits have also been filed across Florida in places like Seminole County, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville. While courts have allowed cities to put certain regulations on panhandling, they have also blocked laws that inhibit the right to free speech, according to the nonpartisan Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. Previous cases This is not the first time the city of Miami has been sued by the Florida Justice Institute. In December 2023, the organization sued the city over another panhandling ordinance that applied to the downtown core — an ordinance that had been declared unconstitutional in 2017, according to a press release from the institute. The city ultimately repealed the ordinance. Willie White, who was 65 at the time of the 2023 lawsuit, served as the plaintiff in that case. He had been arrested twice for panhandling in the span of a month. The city eventually settled with White for $45,000. In a different case, four plaintiffs experiencing homelessness sued the city in 2022 after city workers trashed their personal belongings, which included government identification, medication, family photos and an urn with a parent's ashes, the Herald previously reported. The city eventually paid a $300,000 settlement for that case in 2024.
Forbes
21-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
From Incarceration To Incorporation: The Economic Case For Second Chances
In the United States, the road to entrepreneurship is often paved with resilience—and blocked by bias. For the more than 600,000 individuals who return home from prison each year, business ownership isn't just a career choice. It's a strategy for survival. By 2030, an estimated 100 million Americans will have an arrest or conviction record. With 90% of incarcerated individuals eventually returning to society, nearly 90 million people will face barriers to housing, employment, and credit—barriers that can last a lifetime. For these returning citizens, entrepreneurship offers an essential path forward. According to our new data at the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, formerly incarcerated individuals are more than twice as likely to become entrepreneurs than their never-incarcerated peers. An estimated 3.5 million U.S. business owners—10.6% of all entrepreneurs—have spent time behind bars. These business owners not only rebuild their own lives—they create jobs for others, employing more than 2 million people nationwide. 'Entrepreneurship is often a lifeline for returning citizens—many times out of necessity,' says Michael Langley, Executive Director of the Florida Justice Institute. 'But institutional trust is already low with this population. It's important that we talk about the power of entrepreneurship as an anti-recidivism tool. Smarter approaches to criminal justice reform are both moral and economic imperatives.' The return on investment for second-chance entrepreneurship is clear. According to AEO, returning citizen entrepreneurs earn 11% more than formerly incarcerated individuals in traditional jobs, and experience 33% lower recidivism rates. Programs like Defy Ventures and the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) in Texas demonstrate the potential. Both report recidivism rates under 8%—dramatically lower than the national average of nearly 50%. These results mirror research from Wharton and Kellogg showing that entrepreneurship delivers better financial outcomes and long-term stability for justice-involved individuals. Yet despite their proven performance, many of these entrepreneurs remain shut out of the financial system. Formerly incarcerated individuals face unemployment rates that are five times the national average, driving many to entrepreneurship out of necessity. But systemic barriers persist—especially when it comes to capital. 'Access to capital remains an ongoing issue,' says Andrew Glazier, President and CEO of Defy Ventures. 'Lenders need to apply clear, data-informed risk assessments rather than relying on unfounded assumptions built on emotion and outdated perceptions with no basis in fact.' Traditional credit models fail to account for the challenges of incarceration—such as damaged credit, disrupted income, and limited savings. Some lenders still impose outright restrictions on formerly incarcerated applicants, and until recently, even government programs like the SBA's loan system imposed blanket disqualifications for those on parole or probation. The landscape is beginning to shift. Congress is considering bipartisan legislation like the NEW START Act and the Prison to Proprietorship Act, which would expand entrepreneurial training and SBA-backed resources. At the same time, the SBA recently finalized a rule eliminating the ban on loan eligibility for people on probation or parole and removing the standard criminal history question from SBA loan applications. States are advancing reentry reforms as well: Protecting Credit During Incarceration: California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation offers tools for incarcerated individuals to freeze their credit and mitigate identity theft—efforts aimed at preserving credit scores and financial stability upon release. Expanding Clean Slate Laws: Since 2023, over a dozen states have adopted automatic record-sealing policies. New York's Clean Slate Act also prohibits lenders and insurers from discriminating based on sealed convictions, improving access to credit, jobs, and housing. Occupational Licensing Reform: States like South Dakota and Nebraska recently passed legislation limiting how licensing boards can deny applicants based on criminal history. South Dakota's 2024 law requires a direct link between the offense and the occupation and offers early determinations for applicants before they begin training. To fully unlock the potential of second-chance entrepreneurs, policymakers and industry leaders must rethink how we define risk, reward, and reintegration. That means reforming capital access through fair chance lending programs, while updating underwriting standards to rely on actual data—not outdated perceptions. States should continue to scale Clean Slate laws that prohibit credit discrimination based on sealed records, and licensing barriers that prevent qualified individuals from entering regulated industries must be removed. At the same time, reentry support must go beyond job placement to include mentorship, credit restoration, and technical assistance as core components of any inclusive economic development strategy. Taken together, these shifts can transform not only individual lives, but the broader economy—proving that entrepreneurship is one of our most powerful tools for public safety, workforce expansion, and wealth creation.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inmate advocates work to air-condition some Florida prisons this session
Dade Correctional Institution (photo from Florida Department of Corrections) Extreme heat at a Miami-area prison without air conditioning has subjected prisoners to cruel and unusual punishment, according to a federal lawsuit filed in October by the Florida Justice Institute. Nearly three quarters of Florida prisons lack air-conditioning, and that isn't going to be resolved during the sitting legislative session. But a pilot program proposed in the pending Florida Senate's budget bill would provide much-needed cooling in wings of several South Florida correction facilities that provide re-entry programs for inmates. Specifically, the $300,00 appropriation would go towards air conditioning units in dorm rooms of institutions where Horizon Communities Corp. provides its Faith & Character program, which teaches basic life skills and faith principles to inmates in several prisons in Miami-Dade County. The idea started with prison rights advocate Connie Edson, who has worked for five years to try to give inmates relief from the scorching Florida temperatures. In 2022, she teamed with Gainesville Democratic Rep. Yvette Hinson to implement a pilot program that tested large portable evaporative coolers at Lowell Correctional Institution in Marion County, Florida's largest state prison. The project ultimately ended, with Department Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon telling a legislative committee in fall 2023 that they weren't the solution. 'These portable units and some band-aid approaches we've tried … even the [inmate] population doesn't like them,' he said, referring to the noise and moisture that they create. But that hasn't discouraged Edson, and over the past year she connected with Horizon executive director Nathan Schaidt to work with legislators on creating air-conditioning units in the dorms where Horizon provides instruction. The appropriation was offered by Miami-Dade Republican Ana Maria Rodriguez in the Senate and Republican Jim Mooney in the House, who represents Florida's southernmost district encompassing parts of Miami-Dade and all of the Keys. Horizon relies heavily on volunteers who average between 60 and 80 years of age and who could contribute more if it weren't so hot in those facilities, Schaidt said. 'The issue is that we don't do that work in the chapel, we don't do our work in education, we go down to the dorm where the men and women live. And so when you start hitting the summer months, a lot of our volunteers, they have to bow out. They can't go and sit for two hours in that heat trying to teach these classes,' he said. Schaidt compares what takes place on a regular basis at least eight months of the year to a college class in which the air-conditioning was broken on a specific day. 'What would they do?' he asks.'They're probably going to cancel class. It's very unlikely that they're going to say, 'Well, you paid for this and you need to sit through here, even though it's a one-day thing and we're working on the air conditioning but you need to be in class today.' 'We don't have that option. They're going to be there. And this isn't just classes, this is their daily life, right? The issue we run into is, if you add to their inability to regulate their emotions to their inability to focus, their inability to sometimes learn and just the basic environment. Now add to that the heat. It's a battle. It's something that you're fighting with over and over again.' Since it was created in 1999, Schaidt said, Horizon has worked with thousands of men and women who have subsequently left the Florida prison system and boasts of a 5% recidivist rate. He says that if those inmates could study in a more comfortable environment with air-conditioning, those numbers might be even better. Meanwhile, Edson has her fingers crossed that what she considers a relatively modest proposal will make it over the finish line when lawmakers unveil their 2025-2026 FY budget later this month. A report by the global consulting firm KPMG that was released in the fall of 2023 put the costs to add air-conditioning to all of the state's prisons at $582 million. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
