Showing posts tagged florida
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The act of handing over prisons to the private sector is something that shouldn’t even be debated, it’s simply wrong. When owning any business, the prime motive is profit, to make money. Making money of off prisoners is something that has been debated over time but there shouldn’t be much of a debate. Of the nearly 30 prisons that Scott planned to privatize, the company that had most to gain was the GEO group. GEO owns two of the seven prisons now privately owned and has donated big money to Scott with more on the way if more prisons were put into the private sector. Republicans love of uncontrollable capitalism has gone too far and Rick Scott’s private sector scheme has hit a wall. A circuit court judge in Tallahassee has stated that Scott’s private prison scam violates Florida’s constitution. The FPBA, Florida Police Benevolent Association, filed a lawsuit against the plan and it looks like it might stand up.
The Republican plan to privatize prisons has hit a wall - Orlando liberal | Examiner.com (via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity)
(Reblogged from pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)

Sheriff Saves $1 Million By De-Privatizing County Jail | Crooks and Liars

Privatization has nothing to do with saving money and everything to do with giving kickbacks to politically connected contractors like Corrections Corporation of America:

Sheriff Michael Page of Hernando County, Florida, is the latest in a line of Sheriffs to inherit the headache that is the county jail. After being operated by CCA for 22 years, the facility had fallen into exceptional disrepair, after CCA had neglected to perform millions of dollars worth of required maintenance. The county took over the facility a little more than a year ago and started the long process of upgrading the security, staff, and conditions of the jail.

Initial projections by then-Sheriff Richard Nugent hypothesized that the county could save up to $200,000 compared to what CCA would have charged. It turns out that de-privatizing the jail has actually saved Hernando County taxpayers more than $1,000,000 this year. Maybe Ric Scott and JD Alexander ought to reconsider their bullheaded push to privatize half the state’s prison system.

(Reblogged from sarahlee310)

Manic Chill: Rick Scott's Drug Testing Plan Already Costing Taxpayers More Money

manicchill:

Back in May, Rick Scott signed a bill into law requiring “all adult recipients of federal cash benefits” to take a drug test prior to receiving said benefits. The new law wasn’t a shock to anybody that followed Scott’s gubernatorial campaign closely, even though a similar law had already been ruled unconstitutional. Of course, as Rachel Maddow noted, the math just didn’t make sense. When asked to defend the new law, Rick Scott has repeatedly said the policy was, “the right thing for taxpayers.”

Well Rick, if that’s true, I think now would be a great time to start looking for some new advisers…

ACLU Blog:

The ACLU and others predicted this program would be a failure and cost the state of Florida much more money than they would save. Guess what? In just the few weeks that the program has been in effect we have been proven right.

The Department of Children and Families’ central region has tested 40 applicants since the law went into effect six weeks ago, and of those 40 applicants, 38 testednegative for drugs. The cost to the state of Florida to reimburse those 38 individuals who tested negative was at least $1,140 over the course of six weeks. Meanwhile, denying benefits to the two applicants who tested positive will save Florida less than $240 a month.

The ironic thing is that Florida should know better. They ran a similar pilot program a decade ago but ended up scrapping it because it cost the state way more money than it saved.

(Reblogged from manicchill)
motherjones: VIP State Health Care Exposed, or “GOP Tea Party Hypocrisy of the Day” Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party’s anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor’s office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest… Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance… and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage. Here’s how he does it. View high resolution

motherjones:

VIP State Health Care Exposed, or “GOP Tea Party Hypocrisy of the Day”

Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party’s anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor’s office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest…

Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance… and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.

Here’s how he does it.

(Source: Mother Jones)

(Reblogged from letterstomycountry)
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‘The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law. This the Eighth Amendment does not permit.
Justice Anthony Kennedy in the majority opinion in the case of Terrance Graham, who was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17. Graham, now 22, is in prison in Florida, which holds more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for crimes other than homicide. (nytimes) (via abbyjean)
(Reblogged from abbyjean)