After the escape of two convicted murderers from a prison in Orlando about a month ago, and the looming threat of more escapes, Florida’s justice system is forced to consider a new way of transmitting court orders. Although most Department of Corrections officials admit that they always knew that paper court orders had their downfalls, Florida lawmakers are now aware of the problem and want to take action.
Not only are lawmakers looking to implement an electronic system for court orders, but they also are talking about making it a policy for both the courts and the Department of Corrections to be aware of orders. This way, both parties will know what is going on and hopefully criminals won’t be able to slip through the cracks.
For example, one Corrections official said that they will now ask judges to affirm that court orders are indeed valid before releasing any inmates. The state is also beginning to have hearings to discuss what exactly happened and brainstorm new ways to ensure that such a mistake does not occur again.
The situation worries some Department of Corrections officials, since the false court order documents in this most recent incident looked very professional and authentic. This is alarming, since the Department of Corrections had encountered false court order documentation before, and were able to easily realize that they were fake. The case of the two escaped Orlando killers shows that there is a real danger now, since obviously their fake documents were good enough to work. Hopefully the new electronic system will prevent such breaches in the future.