Halt prison privatization

Florida lawmakers pushing to privatize more than two dozen state prisons from Orlando south hit a roadblock last week when Senate leaders failed to win over Republicans standing firm in opposition to the controversial bill.

The plan to turn over Florida's state prisons to the private sector is a move that has been suspicious since its outset when Senate leadership tried to sneak it into the 2011 state budget bill. The courts quickly ruled that process was unconstitutional and said the plan would require its own piece of separate legislation.

Last week's decision to end debate on the bill came after Senate President Mike Haridopolos realized "that a large enough contingent of his party were prepared to kill the bill," according to The Bradenton Times. This was despite underhanded efforts by Haridopolos to silence critics such as Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey), who was stripped of his "chairmanship of the Senate budget subcommittee that oversees spending on prisons and the courts," according to the Associated Press.

Advocates of prison privatization, such as Gov. Rick Scott, cite the required 7 percent savings rate as reason enough to pass the bill amidst the state's budget crisis. This would translate to a minimum savings of $16.5 million a year, but that's merely a drop in the bucket relative to the $1.5 billion budget deficit. Scott also argues that privatizing prisons would create savings in the state pension system by reducing future benefits. Needless to say, he was "extremely disappointed" when the bill stalled in the Senate last week, according to the Miami Herald.

Scott should be thanking Republican opponents of the plan for protecting our state from such foolishness. Instead, the self-touted "jobs" governor seemingly ignores warnings that the jobs of thousands of prison guards could be lost by handing over our state prisons to private corporations, which have every last incentive to reduce costs and increase profits. Some 2,700 prison guards could lose their jobs under the plan, according to a Tampa Bay Times editorial. And losing these thousands of contributors to the state pension would obviously hurt the system more than it would help.

Plus, there are other foreseen problems with private prisons. For one thing, they tend to cherry-pick inmates and avoid those who need costly medical care. For another, the desire to cut costs can lead to security breaches. Dangerous criminals are more likely to escape from a private prison than a government-run one, according to a study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons Office of Research and Evaluation.

Florida legislators received nearly $900,000 from private prison corporations during the last campaign cycle, according to the Huffington Post. It's no wonder that corporations like Corrections Corporation of America, which operates more than 60 correction facilities, are expecting a return on their investment. Opponents of this misguided plan should continue to fight for the public over these powerful corporate interests.