CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — It's a common saying: You do the crime, you do the time. But when people are released from prison, freedom is fragmented. It marks the start of new hardships, impacting families and communities.
Part of that is due to a Florida law many people are unaware of, further punishing second-chance citizens, preventing them from truly moving on.
In-Depth:
It's called "pay-to-stay", charging inmates for their prison stay, like a hotel they were forced to book. Florida law says that cost, $50 a day, is based on the person's sentence. Even if they are released early, paying for a cell they no longer occupy, and regardless of their ability to pay.
Not only can the state bill an inmate the $50 a day even after they are released, Florida can also impose a new bill on the next occupant of that bed, potentially allowing the state to double, triple, or quadruple charge for the same bed.
Critics call it unconstitutional. Shelby Hoffman calls it a hole with no ladder to climb out.
Stopped by a dollar sign
"I work 12-hour shifts," Shelby Hoffman said, driving to work.
Hoffman is part of Tampa General Hospital Crystal River's clinical staff.
"The healthcare field has always been, you know, of great interest to me," Hoffman said.
She's worked hard to get to where she's at, but wants more. Hoffman is on track to earn her Bachelor's degree this year.
“At this point in my life with everything I’ve been through, all my experiences, my desirable goal is to work in case management," Hoffman said. "As somebody who is in recovery, doing case management is my way of being part of the solution. And now, where I’m at today, I’m truly being stopped by one single barrier and it is a dollar sign."
Florida has what's called an "exemption from disqualification" for certain employment opportunities. The state takes into consideration "the time period that has elapsed since the criminal incident, the nature of harm caused to the victim, and any other evidence or circumstances indicating that you will not present a danger working directly with children or vulnerable adults."
"They told me that you are not eligible. Because you owe over $127,000 for an incarceration fee from the State of Florida," Hoffman said. “I cried. I was hysterically crying. I literally felt like my entire past just punched me in the face.”
Shelby's story
“When I was 13, my parents split up, so it caused a lot of dysfunction," Hoffman said. "It was honestly just one of those — I need to find something to distract me. So I found a boyfriend that unfortunately got me hooked on opiates."
When Hoffman was a teenager, she said she was "snorting them, smoking them, and then eventually, you know, I started shooting them.”
After turning 18, she was charged for pawning a stolen item and burglary.
“Both of those charges are drug-influenced, ever since, you know, 10 years ago, I’ve never caught another charge," Hoffman told the ABC Action News I-Team.
She told the judge in her case, she couldn't overcome addiction on her own.
“I told him, 'Listen, your honor, if you put me on the streets, I’m gonna die. I need help,'" she said.
Hoffman was sentenced to The Phoenix House for a year.
"There was another girl in there that was something she shouldn’t have been doing and instead of getting involved and doing what they asked, the director kicked me out. So technically that’s failure to complete your terms of the courts," Hoffman said.
Because of that, the judge sentenced Hoffman to seven years in prison. She served 10 months after the judge allowed her to participate in a youth offender boot camp.
“To my knowledge, I had paid everything off, completed every term that was on that paper, I petitioned the courts to get off of probation, he clapped for me and said you out of anybody deserve this, congratulations, Ms. Hoffman," she said. "When I got released from prison, he wrote me a handwritten Christmas card, telling me he knew I could do it.”
Within three years, when applying for the exemption to work in case management, her dream job is when Hoffman found out that she — like thousands of others — still owes the state $50 a day for the seven years of her original sentence: $127,750.
"I was completely shocked that a judge could modify every term in my packet, in my court case, but you charge me for a cell I didn’t occupy?" Hoffman said. "I felt so tricked. And so fooled. There is no ladder with them. There is nothing that you can do. Apparently. That will ever truly allow you to be a second chance anything. There isn’t. And they make sure of it.”
Hear Shelby describe the process of learning about the fee
"It's not a mistake"
Hoffman's grandmother, Linda, helped pay off what she said was thousands of dollars in other fines and fees.
“So she can get a job, so she doesn’t violate her probation," Linda said. “It’s been years and years and years. We thought everything was taken care of. And she’s proved that she is a good member of society. So now, why is this tagging along behind her? I don’t understand it. I thought it had to be a mistake. It’s not a mistake.”
Hoffman hired an attorney in an attempt to modify her incarceration's costs to the 10 months she was in prison. The judge denied the motion, pointing to state law, saying, "A court may not modify a legal sentence imposed by it more than 60 days after the imposition," and, "incarceration costs are 'based upon the length of the sentence imposed by the court at the time of sentencing.'"
“I’ve been out of prison 7.5 years at this point. When I have trekked so hard to get a track record that I have now, and you are imposing something that I can’t pay off in a lifetime, so I am stuck," Hoffman said.
I-Team Series | Crisis in Corrections
Linda said her granddaughter is not alone.
“I had a mindset, because my dad was a federal prison guard, that you do the crime, you know, you do the time," Linda said. "But when I actually lived through this, I thought this is not the way it is, there is no compassion shown to anybody who makes a mistake and pays the price for it. And she did."
"We think it's unconstitutional"
The I-Team contacted the Fines & Fees Justice Center, based in Washington, D.C., to ask how state law can allow an individual to be charged for a cell they did not occupy if they were released earlier than the time they were sentenced.
Lisa Foster, Co-Executive Director of the Fines & Fees Justice Center, replied, "Well, we think it's unconstitutional."
Foster pointed to the excessive fines clause "because it’s not proportionate either to the underlying offense or to a person’s financial circumstances."
She said it's important for those who are unaware to know that the vast majority of people in the criminal justice system are poor.
"Roughly 80% quality for the services of a public defender. That means, by definition, they are indigent," Foster said.
Foster said the $120,000+ Hoffman owes to the state of Florida is "a life sentence."
"It will be on her credit history, it will make it difficult for her to get a job, for her to get housing, to buy a car, or do anything else that she needs to do, to be able to return to society," Foster told the I-Team. "They have a lien attached to anything you get in life.”
“I have a family now, I have a daughter, a wonderful husband, I have a home, I have all these accomplishments I’ve worked so hard, so hard to maintain," Hoffman said. "To not to be given the opportunity to have a realistic, reasonable, obtainable goal to rectify all of that and to be done with it, so I can have a career and I can do the things that I want to do, I can accomplish all the goals that I have, that is why this is important. And somebody needs to make these goals realistic for these people."
Since 2019, Illinois and New Hampshire have repealed their "pay-to-stay" laws for state prisons.
The Fines & Fees Justice Center said, this last session, it worked with state legislators on a bill that would have allowed judges to do an "ability to pay assessment" when imposing fines and fees. It failed.
This story started with a tip. If you have something you'd like the I-Team to investigate, email kylie.mcgivern@wfts.com.