FL prison privatization moves forward

Skelator Gov. Rick Scott’s administration is moving forward with prison privatization, despite a recent court ruling halting it.

Last month, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford ruled lawmakers violated the state’s constitution by using budget language to allow prisons in 18 South Florida counties to privatize.

Scott, who suffers from one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor--perhaps because he doesn't even know his own state--said he agreed with the decision and would not appeal. However, Slick Rick made it clear he still wanted to privatize the prisons, indicating some last-minute maneuvering would take place to keep prison privatization alive.

Attorney General Pam Bondi cleverly appealed the decision yesterday“at the request of the Legislature” and said the appeal “had the effect of staying the circuit court’s order…” The prison system’s general counsel approved the action, and now companies are continuing to submit proposals for how they are going to gut communities and taxpayers privatize once all the legal wrangling is over.

Proposals for the operations of Florida prisons are due next Thursday, Nov. 10. The top contenders will likely be predatory prison privatizers CCA and Boca Raton-based Geo Group. Both are key players in ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which uses its influence to incarcerate as many people as possible.

The ACLU released a timely report this week called, “Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration”, which echoed the findings of all research on prison privatization:

The time to halt the expansion of for-profit incarceration is now. The evidence that private prisons provide savings compared to publicly operated facilities is highly questionable, and certain studies point to worse conditions in for-profit facilities. The private prison industry helped to create the mass incarceration crisis and feeds off of this social ill. Private prisons cannot be part of the solution — economic or ethical — to the problem of mass incarceration.

There are 20,000 officers in the FDOC system. About 4,000 officers’ jobs are threatened by the current privatization plan. FDOC correctional, probation and parole officers are seeking aggressive Teamster representation by voting in the Teamster election now. Ballots will be counted Nov. 16.