TAMPA, Fla. — Ending the school-to-prison pipeline and justice reform were the key topics discussed at the Tampa Bay Criminal Justice Summit. 

According to St. Petersburg Sen. Jeff Brandes, a study of Florida’s prison system was also commissioned this week. 

The study will look closely at each facility, what rehabilitation programs are being offered and what is needed to improve them. 

“So many pieces of Florida’s justice system are broken,” said Brandes. “We really don’t have a Department of Corrections. We have public warehousing. We have inmate violence on officers, we have inmate on inmate violence. Idleness is at an all-time high inside the prison system, and again most of these individuals are getting out and so the question is, when they get out do we want them to prepare to re-enter society or are we just going to give them $50 and a bus pass?” 

Families with loved ones that are incarcerated attended the summit to engage in dialogue about commuting sentences.

School-to-Prison Pipeline

Michelle Rothwell says visiting Fossil Park in St. Petersburg always brings back great memories of her son, Danny. 

“We had great times. He played a lot of the sports with his brothers and sisters,” she said.  

She says that all quickly changed when she and Danny’s father went through a volatile divorce. 

Rothwell says her son started skipping classes, hanging out with the wrong crowd and was kicked off his sports teams and sent to a secondary school. 

Rothwell’s son was convicted for stealing and selling hydrocodone pills at 17 years old. He’s now serving a 25-year sentence. 

Rothwell says her son is an example of the school-to-prison pipeline.

“They are going the wrong way and going to prison,” she said. 

Rothwell says because her son had no criminal history or prior arrests, a rehab program would have given him a fair chance at life.

“Danny qualified for youthful offender or downward departure and with that Danny would have done a 6-year sentence,” she said. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be punished for what he’s done, but the sentence doesn’t fit the crime." 

Rothwell has been lobbying to have laws changed in cases just like her son’s. 

She joined a number of families with incarcerated loved ones at the Tampa Bay Criminal Justice summit. 

“It’s not only the incarcerated that are suffering, it’s their families as well,” said Rothwell. “It affects us financially and emotionally. My mom just passed away six weeks ago and my son couldn’t be there and he was so close to his nana.”  

Since the laws on trafficking hydrocodone have changed and been reduced to a 7 year sentence — Rothwell is hoping that new minimum can be retroactively applied to her son’s sentence. Rothwell says a judge granted Danny a re-sentencing hearing four years ago, but that has been put on hold. 

She hopes the state legislature will do more to fight the school-to prison-pipeline by providing youth programs that were not available to her son when he needed it most.