Scott aims to shake up Florida prison system

[30ashopper]

Scott's proposals mirror a growing national conservative movement known as Right on Crime, which argues that too many prisoners are locked up for nonviolent crimes or for technical violations of probation. The movement ( rightoncrime.com) claims too little money is spent teaching life skills to inmates so they can be productive citizens after they leave prison.

Voices in the Tallahassee power structure such as Florida TaxWatch and Associated Industries of Florida have called for a similar approach. Their umbrella group, the Coalition for Smart Justice, is housed in the Collins Center for Public Policy.

"Most of the inmates in Florida's prisons are going to be getting out, and if they're not employable, they're going to commit more crimes, and there's going to be more victims," said Associated Industries president Barney Bishop. "If we don't change this, we're just going to be incarcerating more people and building more prisons."

Scott also wants to add two faith- and character-based prisons to four already in existence from a program begun more than a decade ago by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. About 4,300 inmates are enrolled in faith-based programs, including 300 women at Hillsborough Correctional Institution in Tampa.

Statistics show character-building programs make inmates less likely than other prisoners to end up back in prison.

Gov. Rick Scott's prisons proposal shifts to reform strategy - St. Petersburg Times

I doubt anyone except the civil service unions will have issue with these changes.

 

[scooterbug44]

I doubt anyone except the civil service unions will have issue with these changes.

I like his ideas about reducing recidivism through literacy, mental health, and drug/alcohol abuse etc., but question the motivation for shifting thousands of inmates to privately run facilities.

Prisons are big money.

I also wonder why an oversight committee with a staff of four needs a $350K budget.

More details needed as usual, but if that shift is on the up and up, it sounds like a great group of ideas.

 

[30ashopper]

The motivation is saving our tax dollars - the cost of private prisons is less due to things like lower employment overhead and profit oriented operation.

 

[beachmouse]

Unfortunately, prison privatization in Florida hasn't really been about reducing costs. It's been about rewarding big donors with construction and management contracts that often seem to end up costing the taxpayers a lot more than it did for public prisons.

 

[30ashopper]

According to the article, they state the transfer would save around 200 million a year. If that pans out, I'd say it's a great idea.

 

[Bob]

I know someone who works at a prison in Volusia County. He says there guard staffing is at skeleton crew levels now. Where do you go from there?

 

[Bob]

The motivation is saving our tax dollars - the cost of private prisons is less due to things like lower employment overhead and profit oriented operation.

You continually demonize low paid state workers. The issues before us are funding, not labor costs. The answers are not to be found in outrageous changes in the depths of a recession. Minimum wage employees are not the answer here. Profit from corrections? Any profit should go to victims, not corporations.

 

[30ashopper]

You continually demonize low paid state workers. The issues before us are funding, not labor costs. The answers are not to be found in outrageous changes in the depths of a recession. Minimum wage employees are not the answer here. Profit from corrections? Any profit should go to victims, not corporations.

Back that statement up with stats and numbers, or maybe even a chart or two, and you'll have my attention. ;-)

 

[beachmouse]

Feds Ask Questions about Northwest Florida Prison Deal

In Sansom's sneaky footsteps: Prison deal is more legislative sleight-of-hand.

Sen. Alexander's amendment continues budget sleight-of-hand begun by former House Speaker Ray Sansom. That Santa Rosa County Republican slipped into the 2008 budget a $110 million appropriation the state used to pay GEO Group to build the private prison in his home county. That's the prison that Sen. Alexander now hopes to open.

Unless other prisons close, there aren't enough inmates to fill the 2,224-bed prison near the Blackwater River in Santa Rosa County. Also, the company, which contributed $158,000 to Florida Republicans and $17,000 to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, saw its stock price drop as much as 8 percent earlier this month when the Federal Bureau of Prisons canceled plans to house illegal aliens convicted of crimes. GEO Group expected those inmates to fill a facility it operates in Michigan. An analyst pointed out at the time that all was not bad for GEO Group because the company's earnings from the Blackwater facility had not been included in its 2010 forecast.

PolitiFact Florida | Tying Jeff Atwater to the 'Taj Mahal' courthouse project

As we already noted, The GEO Group won the contract to build Blackwater River after Atwater voted for the state budget, which passed the Senate 32-8. But since Ausley talks about The GEO Group as a "big contributor" in the ad, we decided to check that claim out, too. Since 2000 when Atwater was first elected to the state House, The GEO Group, its political action committee and subsidiaries have donated $2,500 to Atwater's campaigns, according to a review of campaign finance records.

In the 2010 election cycle alone, The GEO Group's PAC has contributed almost $236,000 to candidates -- including $500 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink and $500 to Democratic House leader Franklin Sands.

 

[30ashopper]

Feds Ask Questions about Northwest Florida Prison Deal

In Sansom's sneaky footsteps: Prison deal is more legislative sleight-of-hand.

PolitiFact Florida | Tying Jeff Atwater to the 'Taj Mahal' courthouse project

Independent of Sansom's dealings, you seem to be concentrating on campaign contributions. I'd like to see a comparison of SEIU contributions to private interests in the last election so we can determine which side of the poltiical isle was spending more on votes.