Gov. Ron DeSantis is requesting the Legislature provide hundreds of millions of dollars for the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) in his proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget, but a Democratic state senator says that is woefully inadequate.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando made the remarks following a budget presentation by FDC Secretary Ricky Dixon before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on Wednesday.
Specifically, FDC is asking for $374 million to raise base pay for corrections officers, probation officers, inspectors, and non-uniformed staff from $22 an hour to $28 an hour.
Dixon told the committee that it’s “the most significant pay increase I’ve seen in three decades in this business,” adding that it will “make a major impact” on retaining corrections officers, who often leave the department to work for other law enforcement agencies that pay higher wages.
But, citing a 2023 report that found that the state’s prison agency path was “unsustainable,” Smith acknowledged that Dixon can’t ask for more than what the governor is asking for, but that his agency needs more funding to survive.
“He needs much more … and he’s not able to ask for that,” he said, referencing the detailed blueprint by global consulting firm KPMG, which estimated the department needs between $6 billion and nearly $12 billion to repair buildings and construct new facilities, with hundreds of millions more needed to pay for staffing.
“That doesn’t even include the cost of new dorms that are existing prison locations. It doesn’t include new construction for facilities to accommodate the growing prison population,” Smith said.
“We have to remember as we are looking at this large request, rightfully so, that there are young 20-something year-olds with no experience who are watching over hundreds of men by themselves. Because they have no staff. We have a whole fleet of vehicles at the Department of Corrections that is way below the DMS [Department of Management Services] standard. They’re breaking down full of incarcerated people. That’s dangerous.”
Dixon told the same committee in November that Florida houses more than 89,000 inmates, a population that has increased by more than 10,000 since 2021. He added that the number is expected to rise by another 4,100 over the next three years.
“If we’re going to be a ‘tough on a crime state’, we have to understand what that means dollars and cents on the back end of being tough on crime, with an aging and overflowing prison population,” Smith added.
The governor’s proposed budget for the corrections system includes:
- $56.7 million for an additional 500 full-time security positions.
- $56 million to fund construction of new housing units.
- $48 million for ongoing modernization of FDC’s data systems.
- $18.8 million for critical security equipment such as body scanners and body-worn cameras.
- $5.5 million to upgrade and replace aging state vehicles.
- $3.5 million for expanding FDC’s intelligence capabilities using modern technologies that help officers and staff identify and eliminate contraband from the state prison system.
- $3.3 million to replace radios, radio towers, and associated systems at multiple institutions.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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