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Prison overseer faces scrutiny

The corrections secretary denies discussing a state contract bid during a dinner in New York.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published September 30, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Over dinner in midtown Manhattan, Florida Corrections Secretary James Crosby met in July with two executives of a company seeking a multimillion-dollar contract with his agency.

Crosby paid his own tab and said no state business was discussed. State bidding rules prohibit vendors and agency staffers from discussing pending contracts, except through official channels.

The company, G4S Justice Services, later won a three-year contract to monitor sex offenders in half the state, including Pinellas and Hillsborough. It won because it submitted the lowest price.

But the dinner meeting raises new questions about Crosby and a prison system already under investigation for allegations ranging from illegal steroid use to mishandling of recyling grants.

In recent weeks, a close ally of Crosby's, former regional prison director Allen "A.C." Clark, has quit, and the agency is under intense scrutiny for how it spends tax dollars.

More bad news surfaced Thursday.

--Under criticism from legislators, prison officials reversed course and decided not to hire four companies to expand privatization of health care at South Florida prisons.

Instead, prison officials will redo the bids and hire one company to provide medical, dental, mental health and pharmacy services, a deal worth more than $100-million.

Because of complex bid regulations, hiring four companies invited a legal challenge, opponents said.

--A high-ranking prison health care official, John Burke, quit his $95,000-a-year job amid questions about his past ties to a company that has a prison contract to package medicine for inmates.

In his resignation letter, Burke cited "continued turmoil" over his past work for TYA Pharmaceuticals of Tallahassee and another company, MHM Services of Vienna, Va.

Both companies were expected to seek parts of the inmate health care program.

"I have done nothing improper, unethical or illegal during my tenure now or before," Burke wrote Wednesday.

Burke listed his past ties to TYA and MHM on a financial disclosure form filed with the state Commission on Ethics, but prison officials say he never disclosed it to them.

The latest developments have increased the focus on the 53-year-old Crosby, a gregarious former prison warden who skillfully parlayed his prison experience and political connections to a job running one of the nation's biggest penal systems.

He was a volunteer in President Bush's 2000 campaign and Jeb Bush's 2002 re-election before the governor named him to run the Corrections Department in 2003.

Crosby got the job despite having been the warden of Florida State Prison in 1999 when inmate Frank Valdes died in his death row cell after a severe beating. Correctional officers who were implicated in Valdes' death were found not guilty at trial. Crosby is now a defendant in a wrongful-death civil suit brought by Valdes' estate.

The corrections secretary's dinner in New York was in the last week of July at a nationwide convention of probation and parole officials.

Crosby said he was aware of rules prohibiting contact with bidders while a bid award is pending. But he said he followed the rule by refusing to discuss the G4S bid that was then pending before his agency.

"You can't live in a vacuum and say you're never going to talk to anybody," Crosby said. "Right up front, I said, "Don't jeopardize your contract, folks.' ... Mainly they wanted to get to know me."

G4S sales director Leo Carson, who was at the dinner with the company's top executive, Fiona Walters, said it was the kind of casual get-together that occurs frequently at all professional conferences.

"It was very impromptu, very informal and very much in a conference atmosphere," Carson said. "The first thing out of our mouths was, "We want to avoid this topic, for the obvious reason. Agreed? Agreed."'

Carson said it would have been rude to snub Crosby, and that the dinner was "115 percent above board." He said Crosby paid his own tab.

Crosby previously acknowledged having gone to concerts and sporting events with Don Yaeger, a Tallahassee lobbyist for vendors seeking contracts in the prisons. But as with the New York dinner, Crosby said he always paid his own way.

--Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or at 850 224-7263.

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]