Sen. Jason Pizzo

Most people replace stoves and toilets more often than the Florida Legislature has seriously reviewed the process of handing out criminal sanctions, according to Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

It was in 1998 that the Legislature passed the Florida Criminal Punishment Code, which changed sentencing guidelines, focused on punishment more than rehabilitation especially for violent offenders, gave more judicial discretion for upward and downward departures from the sentencing guidelines, and also lowered mandatory prison sentence guidelines, Pizzo said.