“It essentially shut down the system in many ways,” said Carlos Martinez, Miami-Dade public defender.
By pausing the speedy trial deadline, Florida’s Supreme Court has removed the urgency of a trial date that often prods inmates to plead guilty or force the state to drop charges if it’s clear at that moment they cannot prove guilt.
One result: the number of inmates in Miami-Dade County jails has returned to pre-pandemic levels. The census was 3,872 in February, down to 3,197 in June, then back to 3,963 last month.
“There are people in jail who would not ordinarily be currently in jail if we had the speedy trial actually working right now,” Martinez said.