Bidding Reopened on Prison Privatization, PBA Seeks a Stay

The Florida Police Benevolent Association has been given 45 minutes today to convince a circuit court judge to halt the reopened bidding to privatize 29 correctional facilities in South Florida.

The PBA asked for the emergency stay after the Department of Corrections late Thursday announced the bid process would continue.

The suspension was lifted after Attorney General Pam Bondi filed an appeal Monday to contest Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulfords ruling that the prison privatization effort that legislators approved in the 2011 session violated Florida's Constitution.

According to a release from the Department of Corrections, the bids are due next week but the agency won't sign a contract until the litigation is completed.

The appeal allowed the state to move forward with the bid process. However, Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency decided to be cautious and delay the contract signing.

Fulford sided with Florida Police Benevolent Association attorneys who argued that lawmakers should have put the potential privatization of the prisons in South Florida into a separate bill, rather than as a proviso to the budget.

The proviso required the Department of Corrections to accept bids from companies seeking to privatize state prisons, making the change from public to private if the contracts would save at least 7 percent from the current prison costs. Legislators estimated the state could have saved $11 million by privatizing the correctional facilities.

With Fulford's Sept. 30 ruling, the Department of Corrections suspended the planned Oct. 4 bid opening from companies seeking to manage all or some of the correctional facilities.

Fulford in her ruling didnt object to the state privatizing prisons, just how the legislation was enacted this past spring.

The PBA request goes before Fulford at 4:30 p.m.