ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new report on the future of the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC), the third-largest state prison system in the country, says $2.2 billion is needed to address immediate needs.
The Florida Department of Management Services selected KPMG in October 2022 to develop a 20-year master plan for the Florida Department of Corrections.
When the ABC Action News I-Team launched its series more than two years ago, then-State Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) called out what he described as a “crisis in corrections.”
“The Department of Corrections is in collapse,” Brandes said at the time. “The problem is, when you have a prison crisis, it can lead to terrible, terrible outcomes.”
The I-Team caught up with Brandes, the founder and president of Florida Policy Project, who pushed for the creation of the master plan for Florida’s state prison system and said the longer lawmakers put these issues off, the worse it will get.