The Florida Senate

944.472  Drug-free corrections; legislative findings and purposes.--

(1)  FINDINGS.--The Legislature finds that:

(a)  Inmate substance abuse can cause a multitude of security and programmatic problems, including staff corruption, development of an unsafe and unproductive workplace, and the inability of inmate substance abusers to profit from vocational, educational, and substance abuse treatment programs.

(b)  Maintaining a healthy and productive corrections workforce with safe conditions free from the effects of substance abuse is important to correctional employers, employees, inmates, and the public.

(c)  Certain substance abuse testing standards are necessary to ensure uniform and economical application of policy throughout the state's institutions and to protect both inmates and employers participating in random and reasonable suspicion substance abuse testing programs.

(d)  In balancing the interests of correctional employers, employees, inmates, and the public, it is in the best interest of all concerned to establish standards to ensure uniform, fair, economical, and accurate substance abuse testing in the state correctional system.

(2)  PURPOSES.--The purposes of the Drug-Free Corrections Act of 1992 are to:

(a)  Promote the goal of a drug-free correctional system through fair, economical, and reasonable methods of random and reasonable suspicion substance abuse testing of inmates for the protection of inmates, employees, employers, and the public.

(b)  Establish an aggressive, routine random substance abuse testing program and a reasonable suspicion substance abuse testing program to identify substance-abusing inmates, determine appropriate treatment, and provide a strong deterrent to future substance abuse.

History.--s. 19, ch. 92-310; s. 16, ch. 97-78.