Prisons chief questions merits of privatization
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), August 2, 2006
The head of Florida's prison system, who has been cleaning up contracting scandals for six months in the Department of Corrections, voiced skepticism about prison privatization Tuesday. Secretary Jim McDonough said private companies are good at financing and building prisons but that his department is better at running them. The state has five privately operated prisons, and a sixth under construction, but McDonough said he doesn't see it as a growth industry.
...... McDonough took over the prison system last February after former Secretary Jim Crosby was fired by Gov. Jeb Bush. Crosby and a top aide, former Panhandle regional chief Allen Clark, last month pleaded guilty in Jacksonville federal court to taking kickbacks from a company that sold snacks and other items to visitors at a prison canteen.
The state separately charged eight other prison employees with theft of prison property and misuse of inmate labor. The two companies that run privatized prisons, Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group, were not involved in the scandals - but an internal audit by the Department of Management Services last year said the state had made nearly $13 million in overpayments for operation of the private prisons.