Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 1-21-22

Feature
Conference Planned To Discuss Prison Reform And Sentencing Laws
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) is the third largest state prison sys- tem in the country with ap- proximately 80,000 inmates incarcerated and nearly 145,000 offenders on active community supervision (probation).
Currently, 13,655 of Florida’s inmates are serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences. This represents 17% of Florida's prison pop- ulation. The number is greater than thirty other states combined. Black men are incarcerated more than other racial group, so are im- pacted the most.
One of the main causes for the high rate in Florida was the passing an unusual “two strikes” law known as the Prison Releasee Reof- fender Act.
The law gives prosecutors the power to seek the maxi- mum sentence for someone who commits a felony within three years of leaving prison, which often means life be- hind bars. The law also takes sentencing discretion away from judges.
On Sunday, January 23, 2022, Society-First, a Florida-based 501(C)(3) non-profit organization, will
DENISE CAFFO and ALFRED RHINER ... Co-founders of Society-First.
STATE REP. DIANNE HART ... Speaker at Conference
First and the Road to Restoration Conference is to promote a system that fo- cuses on preventing future victimization rather than a system based on punish- ment.
The conference also aims
to focus on the lack of parole, arguing that the lack of pa- role for life sentences equates to a slow death sen- tence.
Society-First encourages anyone with a loved one serving a sentence in the Florida Department of Cor- rections to attend this con- ference to help bring awareness to lawmakers and citizens about the need to re- form the problem of mass in- carceration in Florida.
To learn more about Soci- ety-First visit https://soci- ety-first.com.
To register for the vir- tual conference, register at EventBrite - https://www.eventbrite. com/e/road-to-restora- tion-conference-tickets- 218585042747.
hold a conference to bring awareness to lawmakers and citizens about the need to re- form the problem of mass in- carceration in Florida. The conference will be in Talla- hassee, FL from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. There will be in- person attendance, but the majority of the audience will be virtual.
The event, titled The Road to Restoration, will host some of the most promi- nent speakers in the criminal justice reform community from across the country, ed- ucators, including State Rep. Dianne Hart.
Founded in 2018, the idea for creating Society- First was discussed by two
incarcerated men, and then brought to life by creating a website from conversations between the two co-founders Alfred Rhiner and Denise Caffo.
Alfred Rhiner has been incarcerated with a LWOP (life without parole) sentence after the murder of a German tourist in 1996. He met Denise Caffo, a prison re- form advocate, and the two cofounded Society-First.
According to Kristina Hodgdon, Director of Oper- ations for Society-First, “We hope to bring social and criminal justice reform by changing the culture of soci- ety.”
The mission of Society-
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