Governor Ric Scott and many republicans in Florida's legislature have been trying to force the privatization of 29 prisons on the state's DOC. This earlier resulted in the forced resignation of the DOC's director, who was adamantly opposed to the privatization (though he himself had been a champion of privatization before coming to Florida), and a lawsuit by the union representing Florida's COs to block the proposal. The union, the PBA, won in its initial lawsuit and Scott's camp originally said it did not intend to appeal the judge's decision that the legislature had acted unconstitutionally when it inserted the privatization language into a last-minute budget proviso.
But, being the stand-up guy he is, Governor Scott's office decided to appeal the ruling at the very last minute. Then, as if appealing a decision that your blatant corporate handout was unconstitutional wasn't ballsy enough, Scott's office re-opened the bidding process for the privatization because they were apparently so confident in their chances to win on appeal. Thankfully, the PBA stepped in again, requesting that the court stop the bidding process because of the "panic" experienced by state COs who have no idea whether or not they'll have a job within the next few months. In fact, corrections officials had promised not to re-open the bidding process. They should have stuck by their promise, because now the state has been ordered to "Cease and Desist" from all activities related to the proposal and privatization.
Get it through your head, Florida Republicans. Your thinly-veiled handout to the industry that spent more than a million dollars lobbying you last election is unconstitutional and corrupt. The plan should have never even made it this far.
CCA is Wackenhut they changed there name because they got caught stealing taxpayer funds with no show workers. www.browardoutrage.com
ReplyDeleteHey - Wackenhut actually turned into GEO Group around the late 90s/early 2000s. The company split into at least three entities, among them Wackenhut security services, GEO Group, and a real estate firm that owned prisons operated by the GEO Group (I believe both were merged back together at some point). Wackenhut is actually the last name of the guy who founded it, who was some former shady FBI agent who helped compile all sorts of secret files on suspected communists during the red scare before branching out into the private security industry. so they've been nothing but classy from the get-go
ReplyDeleteBut CCA has certainly established its own grim track record. They have both wrought havoc on the prison system since they emerged in the 80s.
Thanks for reading!