House, Senate sign off on major boost to inmate trust fund, budget talks will set the cap

There’s a bi-partisan effort to significantly increase the spending power of a historically obstructed fund meant to benefit those behind bars this year, but just how much support will become clearer after budget negotiations.

On Tuesday, the House took up a Senate bill that establishes a $32 million cap on the amount of money set to stay in the Inmate Welfare Trust Fund, which is generated from profits made off of canteen sales and telephone commissions paid by the incarcerated population and their families.

In an email response to the Orlando Sentinel, Republican state Rep. David Smith said that that threshold may come closer to $20 million during budget negotiations, but he’s working to ensure the maximum cap of $32 million remains a possibility.

Negotiations during the budget conference will ultimately decide how much is actually funded, he added.

In March, the House lowered the cap to $12.5 million in Committee Substitute for House Bill 1219, less than $19.5 million than the Senate’s version of the bill (SB 7018), but the two settled on the amount in the Senate version which was passed unanimously on Tuesday.

The Senate’s version of the state’s next spending plan ensures $32 million remains in the fund for things like expanding educational programs and restoring the areas that provide those services.

Last fiscal year, the fund generated more than $33 million, according to the FDC. The year before that, it generated more than $32 million.

The Inmate Welfare Trust Fund was established in 1979, but over the last two fiscal years, it was capped at $2.5 million — meaning excess funds were not used to pay for activities to keep people serving time in prison occupied. Instead, that money went into the state’s general operating fund.

Before that, between 2003 and 2020, the trust fund was repealed and all proceeds were diverted to pay for public services.

“It’s like putting money into a college trust fund and then coming to find out that money is being used to fund the state that the college is in,” said Chelsea Murphy, the Right on Crime state director for Florida. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

The national campaign promotes conservative criminal justice reforms.

She said it’s not just prison reform activists who want to see the Inmate Welfare Trust Fund utilized for all or , if not most of what it’s worth: FDC staff members support it too.

“They want programming, they want more substance use treatment services,” she said. “Inmate idleness is a recipe for disaster. They want their guys engaged on getting better and when they can’t do that, it puts correctional officers’ lives at risk.”

The Senate’s proposed budget (SB 2500) passed unanimously on Monday and sits at about $113.6 billion.

In it, lawmakers set out much of the Inmate Welfare Trust Fund into funding educational programs and improving the spaces where services are utilized.

According to the proposed budget, the money will pay for things like purchasing portables and expanding career and technical education programs within the Florida Department of Corrections.

The Senate’s proposed budget also plans to use $1 million of Inmate Welfare Trust Fund money to run a pilot program that assists the families of people who are incarcerated. According to the budget, inmates that remain discipline free for a certain period of time are eligible to make one, free 15-minute call per month at no cost to the eligible person’s family.

The appropriation of funds to the FDC will need to be hashed out before the end of the legislative session on May 5.

arabines@orlandosentinel.com