Appeals Court Mulls Florida Prison Privatization

June 28, 2012

With a prison-privatization plan all but dead, an appeals court Wednesday appeared hesitant to decide a constitutional fight about whether lawmakers improperly used the state budget to approve the plan.

Jonathan Glogau, representing Attorney General Pam Bondi, acknowledged to the 1st District Court of Appeal that there is virtually no chance that the state will go ahead with the plan to contract with private companies to run prisons across the southern part of the state.

That is because lawmakers included the plan in budget fine print, known as proviso language, that expires at the June 30 end of the fiscal year.

A Leon County circuit judge ruled last year that lawmakers violated the state Constitution in using proviso language to approve the plan, prompting an appeal by Bondi.

By The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under General