criminal justice

The Florida Legislature formally sent five bills focused on criminal-justice issues to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Listen: Each year, thousands face misdemeanor cases related to driver’s licenses. Tampa religious leaders gathered in a park across from the Sheriff’s Office Thursday to advocate for reduced penalties for first-time traffic offenders. Bernice Powell...

Hillsborough Public Defender Julianne Holt plans to challenge a new state pre-trial detention law that she says has created “a tremendous, chaotic impact” on the local court system. “There are some provisions in there we...

Listen: Hernando County is the first of about a dozen Florida Sheriff’s offices to integrate Rapid DNA testing during the booking process. But, there are some red flags over the system’s reliability. The new technology...

As Hillsborough County has nearly 3,000 inmates booked in county jails on any given day, once an inmate is released they face a number of obstacles on their path back to a normal life. I...

In Eastern Hillsborough County, Progress Village is claiming the title of the first Black community in Florida to adopt a solar microgrid. A coalition of community leaders met yesterday at Simmon’s-Bowers Park to unveil the...

Orange County prosecutor suspended Orange County State Attorney Monique Worrell railed against Gov. Ron DeSantis in a press conference yesterday. DeSantis accused Worrell of “neglect of duty and incompetence”. U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, whose district...

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed two criminal-justice bills passed during the 2023 Florida legislative session.

  Listen: A University of South Florida criminology professor is featured in a new true crime docuseries. WMNF reports that the Tampa professor wants to shed light on why killers kill. The Lesson is Murder...

Barbara Rhode, founder of the Red Tent Women’s Initiative in St. Petersburg, talks about the non-profit's trauma-centered program that gives women at the end of their incarceration counseling, education and the tools for a successful...

Florida Commission on Mental Health issued its interim report calling for major changes in the accessibility and delivery of mental health services and changes to legislation affecting the criminal justice system's response to arrestees with...

Thad Bereday, host of the Redemption Radio podcast, a former lawyer and former prison inmate, and his pastor, Rev. Justin LaRosa of The Portico, a non-traditional, social justice-focused church in downtown Tampa, both join Shelley...