Once connected, tell your state representative why you support SB 1102, the bill that would revise monetary thresholds for property crimes.
Should someone who shoplifts a video game console spend five years behind bars? Is it fair for Florida taxpayers to pay tens of thousands of dollars to incarcerate someone who stole something worth $300?
Under Florida’s current system, a person convicted of third degree felony for stealing something worth $300 can receive up to five years in prison, costing taxpayers upwards of $20,000 a year to house them in a Florida prison — that’s $100,000 over a five-year period. .
TALKING POINTS
SB 1102 would raise the minimum monetary threshold for property crimes. This is good for Florida because:
- Since 2001, over thirty states have updated their minimum monetary thresholds, but Florida has not done so since 1986.
- Raising the felony theft threshold has no impact on overall property crime or larceny rates.
- Raising monetary thresholds for crimes save taxpayers money.
- States that increased their thresholds reported roughly the same average decrease in crime as the 27 states that did not change their theft laws.a
