I would like to clarify your assumption.  Florida is NOT SPENDING A CENT on playing cards for inmates – the inmates are paying for the cards themselves.

I am President of the Florida Association of Crime Stoppers, an association of the 28 Crime Stoppers programs in Florida covering over 50 of Florida’s 67 counties.  

The Crime Stoppers mission is to encourage citizens to provide information about criminal activity, without fear of retribution through guaranteed anonymity, coupled with the incentive of an available monetary reward for their actions.

Funds for Crime Stoppers rewards are generated through local program fund raising, supplemented by locally collected criminal court costs deposited into the Crime Stoppers Trust Fund, which is administered through the Office of the Attorney General.

In 1998, the Florida Legislature passed into law the Florida Crime Stoppers Act. The Act established the Crime Stoppers Trust Fund by imposing as a court cost an additional surcharge of $20 on fines for criminal offenses collected by the clerks of the courts for all county and circuit courts.  The funds available in this Trust Fund were used to produce the playing cards distributed in this program.

In short, the operating costs of the Crime Stoppers programs in the State of Florida (including the publication of Unsolved Homicide/Missing Persons Playing Cards) are either funded by community donations or from fines collected from Florida’s convicted criminals - not from any tax dollar.  Crime Stoppers programs are an excellent example of Private Citizen / Public Agency partnerships.

As Crime Stoppers programs are not dependent upon any tax revenue, they are able to continue to operate at full levels regardless of state or local taxing changes, including the current rollbacks and adjustments proposed by the legislature.

We certainly could not have brought together this playing card program without the cooperation of the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Corrections and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.  It is our sincere hope that the publication of these playing cards can help bring closure to the 104 affected families.

Who is paying the inmates DA?

$80,000 UNREAL!
Since when did the prison system shut down it's print shop?  

Only in Florida, the countries most back asswards state.

Whoever supplied these facts are idiots and do not know anything.  The inmates pay for the cards and obtain them through commisary.  And for the idiot who posted above about the DA paying the inmates, well you're wrong.  The money they have on them when they get booked goes on their commisary or if anyone sends them money.

Inmates don't need cards.
They need to be punished for their crimes and not have "Game Time"

I say we stop bombing Iraq and start bombing our Jails and Prisons!

No more prisoners = Reduced government spending!!!!

I see the pros and cons. But again they shouldn't have "game time" so the can gamble with cigs or whatever they use these days. They could have just posted one big poster with the pics on it. WOW what a thought. That $80k could have gone to some better cause then cards for inmates.

Steve Rowland, your points are well taken and I think the program is worthwhile. However, I'm correct in saying Florida spent the money. I chose that phrase carefully understanding that taxes, levies, fines, fees and court costs are all government money that belongs, in essence to the people of Florida.  The State collected the money. The State spent the money.

Keep up the good work.

Brendan McLaughlin

Thanks for the reply, Brendan.  I would only offer that the Crime Stoppers programs in Florida were around long before the Legislature took the action to initiate the Crime Stoppers Trust Fund.  Many of our smaller programs only receive small awards from the Fund each year and continue to rely on funds raised from bake sales, barbeques, golf tournaments and other fund raising efforts to succeed.  And of those, some have purchased decks for their county jails from their hard earned funds.

And to clarify for the other posters, each inmate will be issued a deck of cards along with their jail uniform and toiletries.  They are not purchased directly in the commissaries.  

When you look at the cost spent on these decks of cards and compare it to what the cost would have been to purchase billboards, print advertising and television commercials to present the details of over 100 unsolved murders or missing persons, every day, for the next several years, the number could reach well into the tens of millions of dollars.  Plus, as FDLE Special Agent Tommy Ray put so well, the jails and prisons are the "internet" of crimes.  Prisoners talk to each other, sometimes brag about or at other times repent and confess of their crimes to each other.  Sad to say, but the incarcerated are a target audience when seeking knowledge of criminal activities.

Finally, we all hope inmates have knowledge to solve these cases.  However, we have been fortunate to have received media coverage worldwide.  Perhaps an inmate's relative or significant other has knowledge of a case.  Maybe their old neighbor or employer.  Possibly someone who fears retribution if they provide sworn testimony to the police.  Crime Stoppers is the ONLY guaranteed anonymous method a person can provide information about a crime.  We do not trace calls.  We do not trace internet addresses.  We never ask your name.

Thanks for this opportunity to share!

If you want to get upset about the state spending money on non-essentials for inmates look at the over the counter medications given for free to inmates when they ask for them. They get free generic tylenol, alamag for upset stomachs and throat lozenges for sore throats. All they have to do is ask the dormitory officers for them.

Frank, are you suggesting that inmates should be denied basic medical care?