Florida prisons

The lawsuit claimed the department’s use of solitary confinement violated the constitutional rights of inmates, including inmates with disabilities.

Among the titles that prison staff deemed were too inflammatory for incarcerated Floridians to read include cook books, French and Arabic language dictionaries, and a guide on how to survive solitary confinement.

Lawmakers approved a request from the Department of Corrections to free up $31.25 million to be used to pay up to 300 guard members who will be deployed to prisons until July.

A legislative panel will consider a plan that would activate Florida National Guard members to help at prisons, facing staffing shortages.

The campaign's photos on Twitter show wives, children and parents posing and smiling with inmates in blue prison uniforms.

The FBI says the inmate left behind his DNA after licking the envelope to seal it, along with a palm print.

Under Florida law and court rulings, most felons — except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses — can register and vote after they completed their prison terms and no longer owe any unpaid fines or court fees.

An investigation revealed a flawed voter registration system in Florida, nearly two years after dueling court battles over how to implement a state constitutional amendment that allowed felons to vote legally without going through a complex process to have their rights restored.

Each owed a few hundred dollars in unpaid court fees in prior felony cases when they registered as voters or cast ballots in the last presidential election, according to court records, which would have made them ineligible under Florida law.

They range from proposed funding for public schools to money that would go toward cancer research.

The Department of Corrections says the change will reduce the amount of contraband coming into prisons.

They spent more than seven months — including filing a federal lawsuit that is still pending — trying to get permission for an in-person ceremony.