\n
\nFlorida Senate Kills Prison Privatization<\/a>,<\/p>\n
\nA bipartisan coalition of senators bucked the chamber’s Republican
\n
\n<\/a>
\nleadership Tuesday and rejected a proposal to privatize several
\nprisons, but got warnings from leaders that it will have a cost in
\nfurther budget cuts.<\/p>\n\nIn a dramatic showdown with Senate President Mike Haridopolos and
\nthree other top leaders one of whom controls the Senate’s budget,
\none who controls the calendar and one who will be the next president
\nopponents of the bill managed to kill it on a 19-21 vote.<\/p>\n\nThe odd coalition that lined up against the bill included Republican
\npopulists who have become occasional mavericks, Democrats and some
\nmembers of the GOP caucus that almost always vote with their party,
\nbut come from areas laden with corrections officers who opposed the
\nidea.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPrivate prison proponents tried to sell it as cost savings.
\nIf prison privatization really does save money, why did the
\nlegislature previously try to hide it in a general budget bill,
\nwhich was
\n
\nthrown out by a judge back in September?<\/a><\/p>\n\nThis time, senators weren’t buying that baloney.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nBut senator after senator rose on the floor to raise objections some said
\nthe savings wouldn’t materialize, others argued the state could just as
\neasily find 7 percent savings if pressed. Some said the companies that
\nwould bid couldn’t be trusted to run them well or would skimp on safety,
\nall arguments that backers rejected.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd it wasn’t just corrections officers opposing the bill.
\nOthers with law enforcement experience opposed it, too.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/a>
\nTwo Republican opponents who don’t usually bolt their own party, but
\nwho vocally opposed the privatization measure were Sens. Steve
\nOelrich of Cross Creek and Charlie Dean of Inverness. Both are
\nformer sheriffs, and have run jails. Both also live in areas with
\nhuge numbers of corrections officers and other state workers.<\/p>\n\nOelrich said that there are just some things that only government
\nshould do.<\/p>\n\n“I’m scared about the whole idea of private companies taking away
\nsomeone’s freedom with the primary notion that we expect them to
\nspend less dollars, to save dollars,” said Oelrich. “I know there is
\na chance we could save some money..If the governor wants to cut 7
\npercent out of the corrections budget then lo and behold let him to
\ndo that, he’s the chief executive.”<\/p>\n\nDean agreed, saying savings should be found “on the back of the DOC
\nemployees.<\/p>\n\n“Jailing for profit is not the public good,” Dean said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And that’s why, as
\n
\nCBS News put it<\/a>,<\/p>\n\nnine Senate Republicans joined the chamber’s Democrats\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That story added:<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nNan Rich of Sunrise, the Senate’s Democratic leader, told her fellow
\nsenators that corrections officers’ starting salary is $34,000 and
\nthey haven’t had a raise in six years.<\/p>\n\n“They are loyal and valuable state employees who do a job that not
\nmany of us would do,” she said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo do we want a private prison company paying even less for fewer
\nguards and risking public safety?
\nI think not.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/a>
\nNot here in Georgia, either.
\nGeorgia started
\n
\nfollowing Florida down the private prison path.<\/a>
\nNow maybe Georgia can follow Florida back from that dead end.
\nBut we don’t have to wait for Georgia as a whole to come back to sanity.
\nPrivate prison company CCA has acknowledged that
\n
\ncommunity opposition<\/a> makes it harder to site a private prison.
\nHere’s a
\n
\npetition for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
\nto stop the CCA private prison<\/a>
\nin Lowndes County, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are just some things that only government should do. And jailing for profit is not the public good. That’s what the Florida Senate decided Tuesday, ending an attempt to legislate privatization of prisons. David Royse in wctv.tv yesterday, Florida Senate Kills Prison Privatization, A bipartisan coalition of senators bucked the chamber’s Republican leadership Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113,203,72,20,178],"tags":[8817,8751,8699,8730,8710,75,1297,1437,8749],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cca","category-florida","category-incarceration","category-law","category-vlcia","tag-cca","tag-florida","tag-government","tag-incarceration","tag-law","tag-prison","tag-private-prison","tag-senate","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}