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House, Senate at odds over oversight commission
Lawmakers continued Tuesday on a collision course over attempts to repair Florida’s troubled prison system, with a House panel approving an overhaul which fails to endorse the Senate’s plan for an independent oversight commission.
With less that three weeks remaining in the scheduled legislative session, Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, reworked portions of his Department of Corrections bill (HB 7131). But Trujillo dug in against creating the outside panel, which also has drawn criticism from Gov. Rick Scott and DOC Secretary Julie Jones.
Trujillo said creating the commission will take time, create more bureaucracy and remove accountability from the department and Legislature.
“It will put us in a worse position,” Trujillo told the Judiciary Committee, which approved his bill, 15-3.
The House and Senate are advancing dueling prison overhauls following months of media reports alleging wholesale problems within Florida’s lockups. Among them is a series of stories by The Palm Beach Post about widespread maltreatment and rising inmate deaths in Florida’s privatized prison health care programs.
Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, also condemned the “Gucci-loafer-wearing lobbyists who help” health care giants Corizon Prison Health Management and Wexford Health Sources, which signed five-year contracts in 2013.
Corizon’s contract is worth $1.2 billion and Wexford’s is $240 million, although Jones has said she will rebid these contracts in the wake of widespread reports of inmate deaths and poor treatment.
The House proposal does not call for any outside review of Florida prisons, the nation’s third largest system.
Trujillo’s reform bill had earlier relied largely on a provision that would increase the number of administrative regions included within the Department of Corrections, from three to five.
But Tuesday, Trujillo broadened his plan to include steps allowing all corrections staff and inspectors general to be hired-and-fired at-will by supervisors, have prison guards wear body cameras, create a hotline for abuse allegations and allow for the expanded regional system to conduct surprise inspections.
Many prison advocates, however, continued to call for the Senate’s more sweeping approach (CS/SB 7020) which has already cleared that chamber. Many said the oversight commission is needed to disrupt a prison system rife with cronyism and dismissed the House proposal.
“It’s a Band-Aid of a bill that gives license to amoral officers,” said Judy Thompson, president of Forgotten Majority, which lobbies on behalf of inmates.
The Senate’s proposed commission would be appointed by the governor and include a sheriff, state attorney, public defender, faith and community leaders.
Along with helping to develop an annual budget for the 100,000-inmate, 20,000-employee DOC, the commission would create performance standards for prisons and monitor operations.
It also could issue subpoenas and conduct confidential interviews and investigations, which bill backers have said would be free from any interference by anyone within the DOC.
While the House and Senate appear far apart, Trujillo pointed to more than a dozen similarities between the separate approaches. He also said negotiations between the two sides would continue.
“This, by far, is not a finished product,” Trujillo told the committee.
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