Carson v. Miller
| Decision Date | 12 April 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 55220,55220 |
| Parties | Dale CARSON, etc., et al., Appellants, v. Richard Franklin MILLER, et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Gary L. Conover, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellants.
William J. Sheppard, Jacksonville, for appellees.
We have for resolution the following question certified from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals pursuant to section 25.031, Florida Statutes (1977), and Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.510:
We hold that this question must be answered in the negative.
Section 951.23(2)(b) provides:
The Department of Offender Rehabilitation is . . . directed to adopt rules and regulations prescribing standards and requirements with reference to . . . the number of county and municipal prisoners who may be housed therein per specified unit of floor space . . . .
Appellant Wainwright, Secretary of the Department of Offender Rehabilitation, asserts that rule 33-8.02(10) of the Florida Administrative Code satisfies the statute by requiring that
(t)he Secretary shall ascertain the maximum numbers of prisoners . . . that can properly be housed in any detention facility. . . . The Officer-in-Charge . . . shall thereafter insure that the actual prisoner populations do not exceed such maximum numbers; provided, however, that the Secretary may authorize exceptions or modifications when in his opinion there is good cause for such action.
The assertion is untenable.
Section 951.23(2)(b) requires that "standards and requirements" governing the density of detention populations be prescribed by rules adopted in the manner specified in section 120.54, Florida Statutes (1978 Supp.). The Department did not discharge its rulemaking duty by delegating to the Secretary authority to "ascertain" proper housing capacities of the state's detention facilities. We have consistently held that unambiguous statutory language must be accorded its plain meaning. Thayer v. State, 335 So.2d 815 (Fla.1976); McDonald v. Roland, 65 So.2d 12 (Fla.1953); A. R. Douglass, Inc. v. McRainey, 102 Fla. 1141, 137 So. 157 (1931); Van Pelt v. Hilliard, 75 Fla. 792, 78 So. 693 (1918).
In carrying out its rulemaking duty, the Department is not obliged to establish a single uniform square footage requirement for all existing county and municipal detention facilities, without regard for variables such as cell sizes, dayroom sizes, recreational area sizes, open cell block areas, individual cell block areas, or common open areas. Section 951.23(2)(b) requires the promulgation of "standards" which are determinative of population densities in varying...
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