Momentum!
FRRC Annual Recap of Florida’s 2023 Legislative Session
A Blog Post by FRRC Staff Member Chasman Barnes
Welp! The Sergeants at Arms for the Florida House and Senate have met one another in the rotunda in Florida’s Capitol Building and dropped their handkerchiefs, signaling “Sine Die!” The end of the 2023 Florida Legislative Session.
Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, president of the Senate, joined Rep. Paul Renner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and members of their respective chambers to applaud another completed year of legislating Florida’s direction for the foreseeable future.
The question is, “Which direction are we going in?”
I remain confident in the direction the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) is moving in: Forward!
Not leaning to the left. Not leaning to the right. But leaning forward into the issues that concern returning citizens and their families most.
The 2023 Florida legislative session ended on May 5th. Over the last two months, FRRC has advocated for policy priorities that reflect many of the most critical issues affecting people impacted by the criminal legal system.
Housing. Employment. Democracy. Opportunity. Justice.
During this year’s legislative session, FRRC worked directly with policymakers and partners to develop policies to address these issues.
Our coalition has sounded the alarm, making it abundantly clear that these are the issues at the heart of their pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
In the weeks and months leading up to session, we reached out to every legislator in the House and Senate to hold in-district meetings between these decision-makers and our members, leading to bipartisan support for our priorities.
While FRRC’s policy work on these issues is ongoing, we are uplifting the following wins, challenges, and takeaways from this year’s legislative session.
Housing and Employment
For every returning citizen, stable housing and employment are the foundation for successful reentry. For those who have completed a prison sentence, release can be frightening — many people who return home from incarceration worry about where they’ll lie at night. The prospect of being homeless after prison is a real one that affects thousands of previously incarcerated citizens every day.
Even if people reintegrating into our communities find a place to live — whether with family members or friends — they often struggle to secure work to provide income for themselves and their households.
During this legislative session, FRRC worked with legislators to introduce and advance legislation removing renting and job licensing barriers for people with past criminal records.
Our housing and job reforms got further in the legislative process than ever before, but much critical work is still needed. FRRC and our community of returning citizens are not waiting until the 2024 session to continue pushing for policy change and building political power around these issues. That is why we are launching a multi-city campaign across the state to advocate for housing reform and second-chance employment at the local level. We will continue to expand second-chance jobs throughout the state.
Democracy
Florida can only have safe and secure elections if people have clarity and assurances concerning their voting eligibility. That is why FRRC continues to work with decision-makers to fix our broken system — specifically on the front end of the elections process for returning citizens. Instead of arresting people caught up in a system that is not working, FRRC’s goals are for the Department of State to provide timely verification of eligibility before a person registers to vote and for voters who rely on that information to have legal protection in doing so. We advocated for these changes in 2019 and continued advocating for this approach as elections-related bills took shape throughout the legislative session.
Nowhere does the fight continue more than in our democracy. This session, Florida legislators passed an election bill (Senate Bill 7050) that will worsen our broken system. The bill shifts the responsibility of verifying voter eligibility away from the state, making it so the voter card that a person receives when they register “is for information purposes only” and “is proof of registration but is not legal verification of eligibility to vote.”
In part because of FRRC’s advocacy, the final version of the bill tells voters they may confirm their eligibility with the Department of State; however, the bill leaves in place an undue burden on voters to figure out whether they are eligible despite not having access to all the information needed to make that assessment.
Who can you rely on if you can’t count on the government to verify a voter’s eligibility?
This year’s election reforms result in barriers not only to democracy but also to employment for some (not all) returning citizens. In addition to changing processes for verifying voter eligibility, Senate Bill 7050 puts new requirements and restrictions on third-party voter registration organizations. These organizations must affirm that each person collecting or handling voter registration applications on behalf of the organization has not been convicted of certain felonies (not misdemeanors) related to the following:
- Violations of the Election Code
- The exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult
- Sexual offenses or murder as defined in the implementation of Amendment 4
- Fraudulent practices, false pretenses, and credit card crimes
- Forgery and counterfeiting
- Perjury
While FRRC believes that job-related convictions should be considered in employment decisions, we work to reduce barriers to employment for qualified and eligible individuals. We advocated against a previous version of the bill that included a $50,000 fine for third-party voter registration organizations that hired or otherwise allowed returning citizens with disqualifying convictions to collect or handle voter registration applications. It is a win for both job-seekers with records and employers that this penalty was removed from the final version of the bill.
Despite the final bill not including financial risk, third-party voter registration organizations must know which felony convictions pose a barrier to a prospective employee collecting or handling voter registration applications.
FRRC is committed to ensuring that these organizations and our partners have accurate information on the new requirements so that eligible returning citizens can be considered to register voters. Connect with us to learn more about the rules for third-party voter registration organizations in employing returning citizens.
Opportunity
Record-clearing is life-changing for people with records, opening doors to housing, jobs, education, and other opportunities. FRRC has long advocated for policies that make more people eligible for record-clearing and streamline the process of getting this relief.
We celebrate that Florida legislators have recognized the power of a second chance and passed legislation to remove barriers to record clearing. These reforms (Senate Bill 376 and House Bill 605) are a win for all of us, strengthening our economy and reducing reincarceration as people can move forward with their lives and provide for their families with a clean slate. If the governor signs these bills, the following reforms will go into effect on July 1, 2023.
- Senate Bill 376 improves the process and impact of automatic record-sealing. Sealing a record means the record is now confidential, exempt from public records requests, and available only to certain people. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement must seal a criminal history record eligible for automatic record sealing. Still, there is no law to make the court records from the criminal case private too. As a result, even if a criminal history record has been sealed, the court records are still accessible. SB 376 closes this loophole by requiring clerks of court to automatically keep the court record confidential and exempt from public records requests once the related criminal history record has been sealed.
- House Bill 605 makes more people eligible to have their records expunged. Expunging a record means it is physically destroyed by any criminal justice agency that has it except the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which must keep the record confidential and exempt from public records requests. Under current law, a person is not eligible to have a record expunged if they have had an expungement before; you can have only one record expunged in your life. HB 605 makes people eligible to have a second record expunged if the first record they had expunged was for an offense in which they were charged as a minor (rather than as an adult).
Justice
We believe administering Florida’s criminal legal system should be a top priority for every Floridian. This is especially true when it comes to the state taking action to deprive people of their life or liberty. During the legislative session, FRRC opposed legislation eliminating unanimous jury requirements in the state’s death penalty cases.
Legislation passed on death penalty cases makes judges and judicial elections all the more important. Florida legislators passed, and the governor has signed Senate Bill 450, which changes the number of jurors required for the jury to recommend the death penalty in a court case. Previously, it was only if all 12 members of a jury determined that a person should be sentenced to death that the jury’s recommendation would be the death penalty.
Under the new law, a jury does not have to be unanimous to recommend the death penalty. If eight or more jurors determine that a person should be sentenced to death, the jury’s recommendation must be the death penalty. Judges retain the authority to sentence a person to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole despite a jury’s recommendation of the death penalty. FRRC is building on our past education efforts to inform our members on this issue and the role of judges in death penalty cases.
Our Work Continues
This year, FRRC gained momentum in passing legislation that reforms the barriers most important to our Coalition members and the returning citizen community we advocate for. The strides we took in this session reminded me of a unique leadership principle I’ve learned: The Law of Momentum.
John Maxwell, America’s premier leadership guru, calls it the Law of the Big Mo in his definitive book on leadership, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:
Momentum is a leader’s best friend because often [momentum] is the only difference between losing and winning. When you have no momentum, even the simplest tasks seem impossible. …On the other hand, when you have momentum on your side, the future looks bright, obstacles appear small, and troubles seem inconsequential.
FRRC is leading the way in the fight against discrimination towards and the disenfranchisement of people with past felony convictions. Our presence in Tallahassee was the same this year. Where we gained ground, we’re grateful. But there’s so much more to be done.
We’ll need your continued support every step of the way. Join our movement by becoming a member or volunteer. Let’s keep up the momentum!
About the author:
Chasman is a Policy Professional, Advocate for Returning Citizens in Criminal and Social Justice Reform, TEDx Speaker, and sought-after Communicator.
