The Florida Legislature has signed a bill that aims to reduce the prison population of the state and reverse some mandatory minimum sentences to drug laws. Florida has a 134-year history of not making retroactive changes to sentences. However, this new bill would change that and make future reforms retroactive. 

While there is not an official count of those who would be impacted, the estimate is currently 200 or more prisoners.

Until April 2022, Florida was the only state with a constitutional ban on the amendment of criminal statutes retroactively; it is sometimes referred to as the savings clause. In 1885, Florida enacted this ban on retroactive sentence reductions, and it is responsible for preventing the decrease of the enormous prison population.

Florida has a large number of opioid-related deaths. Recent laws have been put into place to help curb the opioid pandemic.

The debatable question is, should inmates serving time for painkiller crimes have their sentences reduced to reflect current laws?