HB 43 - Inmate Reentry Summary

• Waives fees for state identification cards and birth certificates issued to inmates preparing for release, requiring the Department of Corrections to work with the Department of Health and Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to provide these documents.

• Requires the Department of Corrections to assist inmates in obtaining social security cards and to provide support to inmates born outside Florida in completing applications for identification documents, with annual reporting on implementation.

• Authorizes the Department of Corrections to operate male and female faith- and character-based institutions and to allow peer-to-peer programming such as Alcoholics Anonymous within these facilities.

• Creates a reentry program for nonviolent drug offenders sentenced with conditional split sentences, requiring a minimum 180-day in-prison substance abuse treatment program followed by community-based aftercare and drug offender probation.

• Program participants must serve at least 85% of their incarceration portion before release to probation; establishes grounds for termination including violent acts, medical inability, or sentence modification; clarifies inmates have no legal right to program participation.