The Burglary Bill
Melvin Evans
CJA 314
October 30, 2012
Abdul Roux

The Burglary Bill
The purpose of this paper is to advisor my supervisor who is a state legislature about an upcoming vote on a bill that, if passes, would double the maximum prison term for anyone convicted of armed robbery. The legislature understands the popularity of the bill, but wonder if it will do much good. This paper will highlight the recommendations, also give the reason for the recommendation, inform the legislature weather is a good bill or a bad bill, and finally is this bill effective?

Effects of the Bill
The first question is will this bill be effective? The way that question can be answered is the extra cost for a person convicted of armed robbery spending double time in prison, will the cost of lowered crimes supplement the cost of the extra time. According to the Florida Department of Correction it cost approximately $19,469 a year to house, feed and provide clothing for an inmate (Tucker, 2012). Shawn Arnold a Florida defense attorney says the minimum sentence for armed robbery is three years and ten years if a firearm is discharged, the maximum sentence is twenty years(Arnold, 2012). The present cost for a convicted armed robber to serve the minimum is from $58,407 to $194,690. If the bill passes that mean the cost of take care of a convicted armed robber could cost a state a half of a million dollars over a twenty year period. The state of Florida had over 25,000 armed robberies in 2011. That means if the state of Florida convicted 10% of the criminals who committed this crime, they would have to pay over 40 million dollars a year to incarcerated these criminals. If you multiply that by an additional six to ten years the state would be broke in five years. The cost of the bill is overwhelming, the next problem is the state of Florida prisons are already overcrowded this will increase this problem (FDLE, 2012).
Recommendations
Under the present prison system the taxpayer is left to foot the bill for a prison who commits a crime, the victim receives no compensation for their losses and most of the time the criminal sentences is reduces. Another course of action is to send the convicted robber to work camps; this work camp would be the jobs that at the present time are being filled by undocumented workers. The prisoner will have a minimum time to serve, but they would not be released from the work camp until they debt has been repaid. The debt would include the amount owed to the state for their housing and also compensation to the victim. The rate paid to inmate would be minimum wage, with no additional compensation for overtime; this would give the inmate a salary of $23,400 a year if the inmate worked sixty hours a week. The addition four thousand dollars a year would be divided between the victim and a saving for the inmate, the inmate would be giving a