Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

The Florida Department of Corrections is charged with managing the state’s penal system, says Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer William Moore. Statewide, there are 146 “prison facilities,” according to the DOC. Well over 80 percent are housed in the major institutions throughout the state. All together, there are 63 state prisons and over 100,000 inmates at any given time. Offenders who are awaiting trial or pre-trial release, or those who have been convicted and sentenced to less than one year in custody, are detained in local jails. The prison system only holds offenders who have been convicted and are sentenced to at least one year of confinement, says Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore.

Seven Florida prisons are operated by private companies who are contracted by the state. Interestingly, all of the private prisons are air-conditioned, while few of the others are. Of those who go to prison in Florida, about a third will return to a prison in this state within three years. Others may return at a later time, serve time in another state or in the federal system, only spend time in county jails, or they may steer clear of criminal troubles entirely, notes Broward criminal lawyer Moore.

Prisoners held in Florida do not have access to cable television. Most live in dorm-style housing, rather than in individual cells, and donated televisions serve approximately 75 inmates per TV. (Those held on death row generally have one 13 inch television per person.) The vast majority of inmates work in some capacity, whether it is on site in the kitchen or doing cleaning and laundry, or off site as part of a work crew. The work crews serve a variety of agencies, including the Departments of Transportation and Forestry, as well as non-profit organizations and local governments.

The most common criminal offenses for inmates are as follows:

1. Drug charges (sale/manufacture) -- 9.4%
2. Armed robbery -- 8.6%
3. Burglary of a dwelling -- 8.0%
4. Capital murder -- 6.5%
5. Trafficking in controlled substances -- 6.5
6. Lewd and lascivious behavior -- 4.4%
7. Second degree murder -- 4.4%
8. Robbery (no weapon) -- 3.7%
9. Aggravated battery -- 3.2%
10. Possession of drugs or other -- 3.0%

Just 7 percent of inmates in the state of Florida are women. Broward County sends the largest number of total inmates in the state at 8.4 percent, with Miami-Dade a close second at 8.2 percent.

Broward criminal lawyer Wiliam Moore says that for the past 44 years, juveniles have been subject to a different set of rules. In Florida and throughout the nation, juveniles accused of committing crimes (known as delinquency cases) are afforded a process that differs from adult criminal cases. In all but the most serious cases, children are tried in a separate courtroom with rules that differ from those applied to adults. Also, the records do not follow them into adulthood. The primary goal of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate delinquent youths so that they will grow into productive adults, not to punish them as the adult system tends to do. The exception to this general rule is where cases are “direct filed” within the adult system, known as charging juveniles as adults. This is rare except in serious felony cases, particularly murders, and is more common generally with older teenagers and those who have significant delinquency history, according to Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore.

Graham v. Florida was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in the 2010 term. The Court found that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole with the sole exception of homicide. Therefore, a youthful offender who is convicted of rape, burglary, or other felonies cannot receive such a sentence, notes Broward criminal attorney Moore.

The Graham case is in the same vein as the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, in which the Supreme Court held that youthful defendants cannot be sentenced to death for their crimes. This decision is in keeping with the differing standards for children. After In Re Gault, a 1967 Supreme Court case that led to the widespread establishment of a completely separate system for juveniles, courts began to handle juvenile matters much differently. Gault was a 15-year-old accused of making a harassing phone call to a neighbor, but did not have the opportunity to be notified of the specific charge against him nor to confront his accuser. Nonetheless, the trial court judge ordered that he be held in juvenile detention for as long as was necessary, including until he reached the age of majority (then 21 years). The Supreme Court ruled that juveniles have constitutional rights such as confronting witnesses, being notified of the charges the state has brought against them, and the right to have an attorney.

These rights have been implemented in the juvenile justice system in Florida. Children have the right to be represented by counsel and proceed in hearings very similar to bench trials in adult criminal court. There is no right to a jury trial, so the judge makes determinations of delinquency as well as sentencing.

Motions to vacate plea agreements are an increasingly common option in a Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney’s toolbox. Plea agreements allow a criminal defendant to plead guilty or, in some instances, no contest to allow him or her to accept a set punishment and avoid a trial by a jury or judge. Plea agreements are often favorable because they can guarantee a smaller amount of time (or no time whatsoever) in jail, notes Broward criminal attorney Moore.

A subsequent motion to vacate the previous plea agreement can occur for a number of reasons. Most commonly, a criminal defendant is not advised of possible direct or collateral consequences of taking the plea agreement. There is also the possibility that the defendant is not fit to accept a plea agreement; if he or she is under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time the parties entered into the plea, for example, the defendant may be rendered unable to agree to its terms, according to Broward criminal lawyer Moore.

Other problems can occur when the criminal defendant is unaware of potential consequences, such as a convicted felon who will then lose the right to own firearms and other types of weapons. Felons also lose the right to vote.

Immigration consequences are another important reason why a person may want to vacate a prior plea and conviction. If the defendant was not a U.S. citizen and was not advised of the possibility of deportation associated with many pleas (such as domestic violence, theft, drugs, and numerous other charges).

An experienced Broward criminal attorney can explain, in relation to the facts of your particular case, the merits of vacating a prior plea agreement and the resultant conviction. A clean or relatively uneventful post-conviction record makes it more likely that the motion will be granted, although constitutional deficiencies during the plea process should generally result in the vacating of the plea. Even so, the prosecution may still go forward with the case. Sometimes, however, due to the passage of time, the State Attorney’s Office may elect to nolle prosse (dismiss) the charge.