EDITORIALS

Investigate big donor's prison deal

The Daytona Beach News-Journal
[Department of Corrections photo]

To answer seemingly unanswerable questions, sometimes you have to connect the dots. In this case, the question is: Why did Gov. Rick Scott — knowing the state is in the grips of an unprecedented opioid-abuse crisis — stand by as the Florida Department of Corrections destroyed successful programs intended to break the cycle of incarceration and drug abuse?

Thanks to dogged reporting by Gatehouse Media’s John Kennedy and other reporters, those dots are being connected. The emerging picture is ugly: Money that could have funded these modest programs is instead disappearing in the maw of a big corporation that just happens to be a major campaign donor.

In May, DOC officials announced they would be yanking money intended for 33 prison-transition programs around the state. These programs, which have proved successful in preparing inmates to re-enter society, vanish as of July 1.

Inmates making their way through the programs will be returned to prison to await their release dates, when they’ll be discharged with nothing more than a gift card and a bus ticket. Over the next few years, expect prison-recidivism rates to skyrocket.

DOC officials have been up-front about where they diverted money intended to fund addiction-treatment programs. The Legislature didn’t appropriate enough to cover a massive $375 million contract with Florida’s prison health contractor — Centurion of Florida. The budget had a buried provision that let DOC raid any other funding source to pay for prison health services.

Officials have portrayed themselves as helpless because Florida is constitutionally mandated to provide health care for prisoners. The state is not, however, constitutionally mandated to provide big profits for private companies. Yet the Centurion contract set to be finalized later this month includes a $55 million increase over the current contract’s costs, as well as a fat 11.5 percent “administrative” fee that could go straight into Centurion’s coffers, with no resulting improvement in health services.

DOC representatives have also stressed that Centurion was the only bidder for the prison health contract. That can’t be the whole story. Florida is the nation’s third-largest prison system; it boggles the imagination that no other company wanted to bid on such a massive chunk of profitable business. What scared other companies off?

One place to look: The state’s campaign-finance database, which reveals that, since 2011, Centurion’s parent company, Centene, contributed more than $1 million to Republican candidates and committees, including Scott’s campaigns. Did that money help secure an unbeatable advantage in the bidding process?

If Scott wants to scrub himself of the appearance that his administration had its thumb on the scales, he’ll call for an independent investigation. If he won’t, an enterprising state attorney should bring the matter before a grand jury.

Taxpayers will be footing the bill for this contract, including the double-digit profits Centurion is all but guaranteed. They’ll also be facing an increased risk of crime and drug abuse in their communities, as inmates return to life outside prison walls with inadequate preparation and addictions on a hair-trigger. They deserve answers.