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Florida has a state prison "emergency."
Says who?
Jeb Bush, the state prison boss and a few number-crunchers in the bureaucracy, that's who.
That was enough for the Florida Legislature, which this week forked over $66-million to the Department of Corrections to build thousands of new prison beds. This at a time when crime is at a 30-year low and colleges were considering closing their doors to new students because of too little money.
Lawmakers will even let Corrections Secretary Jim Crosby go on a building spree without competitive bids. That means he doesn't have to accept the lowest price offered, and rival companies can't appeal his selection. Crosby says bidding slows everything down.
Crosby and his boss, Gov. Jeb Bush, were both unhappy that legislators cut the corrections budget during the regular session. Now, they say, a recent spike in prison admissions has pushed the inmate population close to capacity.
But nobody can explain the reason for the increase. Is it the start of a trend or a short-term aberration?
Many new inmates are doing time for drug offenses, according to the Criminal Justice Estimating Conference, and more than half come from five counties: Hillsborough, Polk, Escambia, Volusia and Leon.
Is it a coincidence that drug crimes are surging after a series of cuts in drug treatment, juvenile crime prevention and probation?
Legislators were putty in Crosby's hands. Prison bosses can always raise the apocalyptic warnings that, without more beds, they will have no alternative but to unleash murderers and rapists.
Next year is an election year, and no lawmaker wants to be the target of a direct mail smear filled with accusations of being soft on crime. Amid such warnings, Crosby, the politically savvy former warden at Florida State Prison, got his $66-million, enough money to add 4,000 beds and reopen a mothballed prison in Hendry County.
Still, 21 Democrats voted against the prison money. They were joined by a lone Republican, Rep. Nancy Detert of Venice, a mortgage broker and former school board member who exerts a quiet but fierce independence in the House.
"I know a lot of agencies that are short of money. It was a tough year, and everyone took their lumps," Detert said in an interview Friday. "I don't know why one agency is suddenly exempt. Crime is down, the lowest in 30 years, and they say the prison population is up, and it's for reasons they can't explain. I think they need to look at what's going on here before they throw $65-million at the problem."
Detert said she would like more money for community mental health care, or education, or other things before more prisons. "I am craving good government," Detert said, "and I'm seeing less of it every year."
House Democrats, including most black caucus members, were outraged at how a supposed emergency opened the purse strings for prisons in a year when schools bore the brunt of cuts.
"Isn't is as much of an emergency that funding shortages are forcing schools to fire educational staff and children are still failing the FCAT?" asked Rep. Ed Jennings, the Gainesville Democrat who heads the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators. "What about community colleges and universities that have shut their doors to some students while increasing tuition to existing students?"
Bush scoffed at such talk, citing a 4.5 percent increase in per pupil spending in the budget he signed in June - a budget that, by the way, contains 4,000 prison beds in addition to those authorized this week.
Feel safer now?
- Steve Bousquet is the Times' deputy capital bureau chief. He can be reached at 850 224-7263 or at bousquet@sptimes.com