Florida Prison Health Privatization Remains Unresolved

June 27, 2012

With the end of the fiscal year looming and no final action by lawmakers, a circuit judge on Tuesday grappled with how to deal with budget fine print that called for privatizing prison health services.

The Florida Nurses Association and a state employees union filed a lawsuit this year challenging the constitutionality of the Legislature’s decision to use the fine print, known as proviso language, to direct the Department of Corrections to contract with private health companies. But a legislative budget panel also was supposed to give final approval before contracts could be awarded — something it has not done as the proviso language gets ready to expire at the June 30 end of the fiscal year.

That left Leon County Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll, who held a hearing last month on the constitutional issues, pondering Tuesday how he should handle the case.

Jonathan Glogau, an attorney for the state, said the budget fine print becomes moot, meaning “this case goes away.” He said state law gives the Department of Corrections other authority to move forward with privatization of prison health services, anyway, with the panel known as the Legislative Budget Commission ultimately having to sign off.

If that occurred, Glogau said opponents could then launch another legal fight.

“Until then, there’s nothing to challenge,” Glogau said.

But M. Stephen Turner, an attorney for the nurses association, said the department should have to go through a new contracting process if it decides to try to privatize health services — and should not be allowed to use the expiring proviso language as a basis for contracts.

“The agency’s got to go back to the drawing board and start again,” Turner said.

Carroll did not issue a ruling Tuesday and said he will work on the case for the next couple of days. The overall constitutional issues center on whether the Legislature improperly used proviso language, instead of changing state law with a stand-alone bill, to direct the department to carry out privatization.

The hearing also came a day before the 1st District Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear arguments in a broader prison-privatization case. Another Leon County circuit judge rejected privatizing prisons across the southern part of the state because of the Legislature’s use of proviso language to do that as well.

The health-care proviso called for privatization to lead to cost savings of at least 7 percent for the state, compared to 2009-10 expenses. The process led to the department recommending that Corizon, Inc., receive a contract for prisons in North and Central Florida and that Wexford Health Sources receive a contract in South Florida.

Glogau on Tuesday reiterated earlier arguments that the department already has the authority to privatize health services, regardless of the proviso. He said after the hearing that the department has not decided whether it would use that authority to move forward with privatization.

But Tom Brooks, an attorney for the employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the state had played “fast and loose” to try to prevent a ruling on the broader issues in the case — an argument that Glogau disputed.

“We are not playing fast and loose with the rules, and we are not denying anybody their day in court or due process,” Glogau said.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

2 Responses to “Florida Prison Health Privatization Remains Unresolved”

  1. jesse on June 27th, 2012 5:46 pm

    Apparently no attention to the fiasco’s caused by the for profit company’s contracted for prisons in other states are being paid attention to by our law makers. Recently a for profit prison in Mississippi has had a riot where a correctional officer was murdered. A for profit prison in Arizona had a hostage situation that went on a couple of days before being resolved. A for profit prison in Indiana had a murderer sentenced to life escape the secure perimeter and terrorized the local community before being captured in Chicago. Keep in mind that several of the for profit prisons made large campaign contribution to our law makers. Also remember that Governor Scott, one of our local senators (Don Gaetz), Senate President Mike Haridopolous, Senator John Thrasher, Attorney General Pam Bondi, have all strongly supported the privatization of our state prisons even after the majority of their constituents expressed their disapproval.

  2. Rufus Lowgun on June 27th, 2012 4:16 pm

    Corizon was the company involved in the death of an inmate in California recently. A corizon employee, a nurse I believe, who was not at the prison in question (nurses are only on sight from 8am to 4pm weekdays under their contract), canceled an ambulance called by a prison guard for a prisoner who went into convulsions becuase it would have cost $3,000.00. The inmate subsequently died. The state locks the inmates up, so the state should take resonsibility for their well being and for the facility where they are kept, imo, otherwise, there is not accountability. When there is no accountability, bad things happen, no matter what type of business or endeavour you are talking about. Any manager knows that.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News