The Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice is hearing a familiar message of recurrent resource deficiencies in Florida’s prison system. And the gap between needs and money to address them will present problems for the foreseeable future.

Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon told Senators of “staffing challenges” even amid “historical support in the last few years.”

“Massive turnover” is an issue, with roughly 27,000 inmates coming in and out of the system annually, Dixon said.

The 88,000 inmates in the system are up 8,000 since January 2021, but staff levels are roughly flat at 24,000, leading to the opening of 53 housing units “on the backs of existing officers and additional overtime,” supplemented by National Guard troops that will be repurposed later this year.

Another 3,000 inmates are expected in the next couple of years, further exacerbating overtime issues.

Education buildings have opened up, Dixon said, but with security brought over from housing units. The problems are especially acute in North Florida and the Panhandle, with traveling staff brought in to deal with shortages.

Tenure, or lack thereof, is also an issue.

“Fifty-eight percent of our staff have less than two years experience. Seventy percent have less than three years. The inmates have more experience than the officers,” Dixon said.

Post-COVID offenders are more violent than those from before the pandemic, which requires a more “intense” staffing, Dixon said.

And man hours are up 93% since 2019 for hospitalization of inmates, further increasing overtime hours.

“We are at a fork in the road,” Dixon added.

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Jacksonville’s top lawyer has sided with Mayor Donna Deegan in a spat with the City Council over how much of a raise to give Meridian Waste.

And some members of the legislative branch that confirmed him unanimously less than two years ago now express deep disapproval of General Counsel Michael Fackler, suggesting he’s more aligned with the executive branch.

Deegan vetoed the attempted 29% raise approved on Dec. 10, 2024.

And while the Council overrode that veto, Fackler contends that the ordinance that allows the Council to set rates “violates the principle of separation of powers explicitly stated in the Charter.”

Less than 24 hours after the Council approved a garbage fee increase raising the fee from $151.80 annually to $324 this year and $384 two years from now in an attempt to rectify a fund in deficit for years, many members expressed discomfort with Fackler’s handling of the Meridian morass.

“We have walked into a lawsuit by that vote,” said at-large Republican Ron Salem, saying Meridian would sue for redress.

In response, Fackler (the subject of a no-confidence resolution from Salem and Rory Diamond) noted the “separation of powers” was in discussion in his office since October, well before the vote.

“The message to me was don’t stick my head up” and “offer unsolicited advice,” he said, adding that he did not know if she would veto the bill and was not “authorized to reveal her plans.”

Salem said Fackler told him “the Mayor was (his) client,” and in that context, he wondered who the City Council lawyer was.

“You didn’t advise us,” Salem said.

Fackler offered to provide preemptive legal advice in the future, but it didn’t mollify Salem, who believes Fackler didn’t offer the Council “adequate representation” and that as a result, Meridian could win a lawsuit and several hundred thousand dollars as a result.

Salem also expressed concern that Deegan has line-item veto authority on the budget passed by the Council, saying he’s worried the legislative branch “won’t be controlling the budget.”

He also took issue with Deegan’s claim that Fackler calls “balls and strikes,” saying the lawyer had never sided with the Council; Fackler disputed Salem’s read.

Diamond, a lawyer by training, expressed his own concerns about the “tense” situation, saying he didn’t believe he could do his job “well” without a General Counsel he has “trust” to represent him and not “break confidences.”

“We’re getting live grenades coming at us now that we’re in a lawsuit,” the Beaches Republican said, noting that Fackler had called him once in the last 15 months, a contrast from regular communication from previous General Counsels.

“I don’t reach out affirmatively on every issue,” Fackler said, urging Diamond to see if they could “work together as best (we) can.”

Diamond also suggested “trust wasn’t there” between Fackler and his deputy lawyers.

Southside Republican Joe Carlucci pressed Fackler on how ordinances became law if they didn’t comply with the city charter.

“If the Mayor doesn’t object, then you guys can do whatever you want,” the city’s chief lawyer said, adding that the Mayor in 1976 (Hans Tanzler) signing off on legislation letting the Council set fees wasn’t binding on this one.

“Don’t change the rules of the game,” Carlucci would say later on in the discussion, after colleagues expressed frustration over the lawyer and opinions they believe are tailored to the Mayor’s agenda.

At-large Republican Nick Howland worried about “further breakdown” between the Mayor and City Council in light of Fackler’s opinion.

Northside Republican Mike Gay likewise said he felt the Council had been “hung out to dry” from the lawyer’s novel interpretation of long-standing law.

“This whole thing was a set up,” added Southside Republican Kevin Carrico, the Council Vice President.

Former President Randy White wondered if the Council could appeal to the Florida Attorney General for an opinion on separation of powers. Fackler advised that he didn’t believe they could.

Westside Democrat Dr. Rahman Johnson said it was “almost dysfunctional” that the General Counsel could represent the Mayor’s Office and City Council simultaneously during conflicts like this. Told of the Office of General Counsel process in arriving at decisions, Johnson wondered if the Council would have access to those deliberations where city lawyers figure out strategy and binding opinion.

“I think what I would say is no,” Fackler said, saying the interest was in his lieutenants being “candid” with him.

The hits kept coming.

“I just don’t believe we have an overall General Counsel for the City Council,” said at-large Republican Chris Miller.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and in sweeping remarks suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.

Hours later, President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin “negotiations” on ending the Ukraine war. In a social media post, the Republican disclosed a call between the two leaders and said they would “work together, very closely.”

Addressing allies eager to hear how much continued support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government, Hegseth indicated that Trump is determined to get Europe to assume most of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine, including a possible peacekeeping force that would not include U.S. troops.

The Defense Secretary, making the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration, also said the force should not have Article 5 protections, which could require the U.S. or the 31 other nations of the NATO alliance to come to the aid of those forces if they end up in contact with Russian forces.

Hegseth’s stark message, and his insistence that Russia should keep some territory that Ukraine wants back, offered the closest look yet at how the administration might try to end the war.

The Secretary’s comments were also sure to dim Ukraine’s hopes of making itself whole again and to complicate talks later this week between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other senior American officials at a major security conference in Munich.

“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said, as Kyiv’s backers gathered at NATO headquarters for a meeting to drum up more arms and ammunition for the war, which will soon enter its fourth year.

All 32 allies must agree for a country to join NATO, meaning that every member has a veto.

“Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” Hegseth said. “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine.”

Hegseth insisted that NATO should play no role in any future military mission to police the peace in Ukraine and that any peacekeeping troops should not be covered by the part of NATO’s founding treaty that obliges all allies to come to the aid of any member under attack.

Article 5 has been activated only once, when European allies and Canada used the collective security guarantee to help the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington.

Hegseth also said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.” Ukraine currently relies equally on Europe and the U.S. for about 30% each of its defense needs. The rest is produced by Ukraine itself.

Speaking with the allies of Ukraine known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, he also insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must abandon the “illusionary goal” of returning the country to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and seized parts of eastern Ukraine.

“Members of this contact group must meet the moment,” Hegseth said to the approximately 50 member countries that have provided support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said Hegseth’s words would not go unheeded.

“We heard his call for European nations to step up. We are, and we will,” he said.

Healey underlined that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. That is a process that will take some time.”

He also announced that Britain would provide Ukraine with a fresh $187 million “firepower package,” including drones, tanks and air-defense systems.

Over nearly three years, those 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the U.S., which has served as the Chair of the group since its creation.

Hegseth’s trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Most U.S. allies fear that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine’s borders if he wins, and that Europe’s biggest land war in decades poses an existential threat to their security.

Trump has promised to end the war quickly. He’s complained that it’s costing American taxpayers too much money and suggested that Ukraine should pay for U.S. support with access to its rare earth minerals, energy and other resources.

Hegseth in his remarks said that NATO member nations also need to significantly increase defense spending to 5% of their budgets — a high mark that the U.S. does not presently meet either.

“The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependence. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security,” Hegseth said.

European allies have hiked their military budgets since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, and 23 of them are estimated to have reached or exceeded last year’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product, but a third still fall short.

Some U.S. allies worry that a hasty deal might be clinched on terms that aren’t favorable to Ukraine.

Before Hegseth spoke, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told The Associated Press that Putin will only negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine if its backers continue to provide enough weapons and ammunition.

“We have to make sure that he has no other option, and that means to force him to the table,” Rutte said. “He needs to understand that we will not give up on Ukraine. We have to make sure that we have maximum economic impact on Russia.”

Hegseth’s remarks come a day after American history teacher Marc Vogel returned safely to the U.S. after three years in a Russian prison. The White House suggested that his release could help to advance negotiations on ending the war.

Trump said another American, someone “very special,” would be released Wednesday, though he declined to name the person or say from what country.

___

Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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