AG Appeals Prison Privatization Ruling

November 1, 2011

At the urging of lawmakers, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday appealed a judge’s ruling that a controversial plan to privatize 29 prison facilities was unconstitutional.

Bondi’s office announced about 4:30 p.m. that it had filed a notice of appeal in the 1st District Court of Appeal. The move came as a surprise: Earlier in the day, Gov. Rick Scott’s administration said it would not fight the judge’s ruling.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, issued a statement expressing confidence that the appeal will be successful and that privatization will help save tax dollars for the state.

“Not only is the privatization of our state’s prisons good policy, but it ensures that our state can dedicate more money to education, health care or economic development programs that would otherwise be spent on prisons,” Haridopolos said.

The state faced a Monday deadline for deciding whether to appeal. The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which filed the lawsuit, said it was disappointed that Bondi “waited until the last minute” to file an appeal but said it is willing to fight the privatization issue to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

“We’ve been ready to go from the start, and we’re taking it to the next level,” PBA Executive Director Matt Puckett said.

Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford on Sept. 30 agreed with the PBA’s arguments that lawmakers violated the state constitution in the way they approved the privatization plan. Legislative leaders included the plan in the fine print of the state budget — known as proviso language — instead of passing it in a regular bill.

“Based on the record before it, this court concludes that if it is the will of the Legislature to itself initiate privatization of Florida prisons … the Legislature must do so by general law, rather than ‘using the hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,’ ” Fulford wrote, partially quoting a decades-old Supreme Court ruling.

Prison privatization has long been a hot-button issue, with the politically influential PBA fighting proposals to turn over operations of correctional facilities to private companies. On the other side, prison firms lobby for the changes and promise budget savings to lawmakers.

The named defendant in the lawsuit is Department of Corrections Secretary Kenneth Tucker, whose agency is part of Scott’s executive branch. As a result, it appeared that an appeal was dead when Scott’s office said Monday it would not challenge Fulford’s ruling.

But Jenn Meale, a Bondi spokeswoman, said the attorney general’s office went forward with the appeal at the request of the Legislature. She said the office, which has represented the state in the case, has the authority to pursue such appeals when defending the constitutionality of laws.

A spokeswoman for Scott, Jackie Schutz, said the case was about a question of legislative power, making lawmakers – with the attorney general representing them – “best suited to litigate this case.”

Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, both said they think the Legislature acted appropriately in using the budget proviso language to make the prison changes.

Even if lawmakers are not successful in the appeal, they could approve the privatization plan in a regular bill. They could do that as soon as the 2012 legislative session, though revisiting the privatization idea likely would touch off a fierce political fight.

The PBA was already preparing for such a legislative fight Monday, after it appeared the state would not appeal the judge’s ruling. The session starts in January.

“Now we need to educate the public and the Legislature on the significant public-safety issues and lack of significant savings associated with the privatization issue,” Puckett said in a statement released after Scott declined to file the appeal.

The proviso language offered a roadmap to privatize prisons, work camps and other types of correctional facilities in 18 counties across the southern part of the state.

The language called for the Department of Corrections to solicit proposals from private companies and then submit a plan to the Legislative Budget Commission by December 1. If approved by the commission, the proviso said the department “may” award a contract to a private company.

Immediately after Fulford’s ruling, the department suspended the planned opening of bid proposals from companies interested in operating the prisons.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

2 Responses to “AG Appeals Prison Privatization Ruling”

  1. Rufus Lowgun on November 1st, 2011 4:29 pm

    Privatizing prisons is horrible policy. What you do when you privatize prisons is create a special interest group with very well funded lobbyists who push an agenda of locking more people up for longer periods of time because more prisoners means more money in their pockets. Justice, fairness, and the rule of law become secondary to the bottom line. Look at the proportion of our citizens we have locked up compared to the rest of the countries on the planet. We are not in good company.

  2. 429SCJ on November 1st, 2011 3:49 am

    The thing I like about the Scott gang is they do not use firearms, in the commission of their crimes. That has to count for something.

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