A group of corrections officers and their union have sued to block the states effort to privatize 18 Florida prisons, saying the law allowing the privatization was illegally added to the state budget during the waning days of the 2011 session.
A lawsuit filed last week in circuit court in Tallahassee says lawmakers overstepped their bounds by including budget proviso language that requires the Department of Corrections to explore the private prison option --a controversial issue that has been simmering in Tallahassee for years.
Under the prison privatization measure, the Department of Corrections could bid out the contract for the private takeover of prisons across the southern third of the state as a group, or as a set of smaller contracts. The Legislative Budget Commission would give final approval to the plan.
Plaintiffs who sued the Department of Corrections, including the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents many corrections officers, say lawmakers essentially crafted legislation that required Gov. Rick Scott to approve the plan. Thats because it tied the transfer to other Department of Corrections appropriations that had to be approved by the governor.
This effectively made the proviso language veto-proof, the complaint contends.
Further, the group alleges that lawmakers sidestepped the type of research needed to justify the privatization effort, and didnt provide proof that the outsourcing would save money while maintaining quality of service and public safety.
The proviso language at issue requires savings of 7 percent in order for a private prison operator to get a contract.
But in essence, the prison guards contend lawmakers used the budget to pass legislation that should have had to stand on its own.
The subject proviso language attempts to enact or alter substantive law and legal standards that control or should control the privatization of any state correctional facility, the complaint reads.
The PBA has more than 36,000 law-enforcement and corrections-officer members.
The budget provision allows state officials to transfer up to 1,200 beds to existing private prisons with available capacity.
