FAC’s President Gail Colletta’s Input to OPPAGA’s 3-Year Report

(Weekly Update #170) Dear Members and Advocates, Gail Colletta, our FAC President, participated in an interview with the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), the research arm of the Florida Legislature.  OPPAGA supports the Florida Legislature by providing data, evaluative research and objective analysis that assist legislative budget and policy deliberations. The agency meets every three years to

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St. Paul cop on leave amid claims she lied to grand jury

An investigator with the St. Paul Police Department has been placed on paid leave after federal judges rebuked her for lying to a grand jury concerning a sex trafficking case.  The investigator also lied during a detention hearing. Prosecutors in St. Paul are now trying to determine what to do with other cases that the investigator was involved with, as

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Action Needed: Andrew Warren to chair Democrats’ new criminal justice reform task force

State Attorney Andrew Warren will chair the Florida Democratic Party’s new Safety and Justice Task Force with a goal of improving safety for Floridians while respecting individuals’ rights.  This task force will also be looking at ways to increase transparency and cut down waste. Florida Action Committee does not take a stand on politics but would like to see all

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Jurors don’t know what the penalties for a guilty verdict will be. They should.

Our jury system asks jurors to make decisions that have enormous consequences for citizens and their family members.  The tough-on-crime laws of the 1990s, which lengthened many sentences to decades in prison, were sold to Floridians as being for the worst-of-the-worst criminals.  What we have found, though, is that these harsh laws have caught up many people for whom they

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