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JONI JAMESOne state senator accused the Department of Children and Families of tying to bypass a new state contracting law.
TALLAHASSEE - Sexual predators too violent to be released into society would get a new 600-bed, privately built facility under a plan the state Department of Children and Families is quietly pitching in the Legislature.
The proposal, largely unnoticed until Democrats discovered it in the Senate budget, comes six months after state officials discovered rampant lawlessness at the Florida Civil Commitment Facility near Arcadia, a facility run by Liberty Behavioral Health Corp. of Pennsylvania.
A February report by DCF's inspector general revealed that residents made and abused homemade alcohol. It said fights between residents were common.
The report also found Liberty employees compromised an investigation of a stabbing by ordering residents to clean up before law enforcement arrived.
The current facility, opened in 1999, houses nearly 500 convicted rapists, child molesters and other sexually violent predators under Florida's Jimmy Ryce Act. Named for a 9-year-old Redland boy killed by a child molester, the law allows Florida to house such offenders indefinitely for treatment.
Liberty's contract expires June 30, DCF spokesman Tim Bottcher said, and DCF plans to seek bids for the next contract that would include building a facility with a centralized design to enhance security. Residents are now spread over eight facilities. The plan was part of the agency's legislative proposal, he said.
But key senators said they hadn't heard of the proposal. "What are they trying to do, get around our new contracting law?" Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Tamarac, complained Thursday hours before his bill to increase legislative oversight of DCF's contracts was approved unanimously by the Senate. Campbell, chairman of the Senate Children and Families Committee, said the agency never mentioned the plan to him.
Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, author of the Senate's social services budget, said he didn't recall how the language was added, or whether it was ever discussed in a committee.
Saunders did not object Thursday when Senate Minority Leader Les Miller, D-Tampa, succeeded in removing the language. "Now I just have to make sure it doesn't get back in" as the House and Senate negotiate the budget, Miller said.
Joni James can be reached at 850 224-7263 or jjames@sptimes.com