STATE

At height of opioid crisis, some Florida treatment programs face deep cuts

John Kennedy
jkennedy@gatehousemedia.com
The intake room at First Step addiction recovery program's detox unit. First Step is among the 33 drug treatment programs across Florida facing budget cuts imposed by the Florida Corrections Department. [Herald-Tribune staff photo / Mike Lang]

Drug treatment, mental health and community re-entry programs across Florida are facing a deadline this week to sign revised contracts with the nation’s third-largest prison system that will cut services almost in half — at the height of a raging opioid crisis.

The Florida Department of Corrections announced last week that it’s reducing operating costs and slashing 66 contracts held by 33 community providers to free up $50 million it can use for prison health and pharmacy services, which the state is legally obligated to provide.

But the state’s balancing act is drawing outrage from many advocates.

“This makes absolutely no sense,” said Lori Costantino-Brown, CEO of Bridges of America, which must decide by Wednesday whether to endorse a new contract that cuts 300 beds from substance abuse centers in Jacksonville, Bradenton, Orlando, Pompano Beach and Auburndale.

Losing roughly $4 million in DOC contracts — possibly within 30 days — could force several Bridges facilities to close, said Costantino-Brown. More than 200 staff members would lose jobs, she said.

“There is no logic in this,” said P.J. Brooks, of First Step of Sarasota Inc., which also faces a Wednesday deadline for signing a shrunken contract.

“This went from a conference call with DOC saying ‘this is going to happen,’ to ‘you’ve got 48 hours to sign a new contract,’ to ‘we need it back this week,’” he said.

First Step is losing almost $500,000 and will reduce its two Sarasota residential treatment centers — a women’s facility losing four of its 10 beds and a 52-bed men’s center losing 22 beds.

Like most providers, Brooks said First Step will struggle to survive.

In the Daytona Beach area, Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavorial Healthcare is losing $2.2 million — among the largest cuts to the 33 organizations scaled back or eliminated across Florida.

The program plans to close the 38-year-old Reality House residential drug treatment facility, possibly sending 100 men back to prison.

Officials say almost 500 offenders now in treatment, re-entry and mental health programs statewide could end up back behind bars because of the reductions. Another 500 staffers, including counselors, treatment specialists, psychologists and cafeteria workers, could soon be out of work.

Meridian Behavior Healthcare, which serves the Gainesville area, already had seen its contract end because the DOC said the circuit court had stopped directing drug offenders there.

The Florida Legislature low-balled the $2.3 billion Corrections Department budget in putting together the state’s $88.7 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The agency doesn’t have enough cash to pay for renewing its prison health care contract with Centurion of Florida LLC, which expires June 30. But DOC is looking to cover the hole by cutting the community contracts by almost $30 million, along with another $20 million worth of reductions in prison operating costs.

But the budget tightening comes at a bad time, with the state trying to combat a drug crisis. Lawmakers allocated more than $50 million in the state budget to fighting the opioid epidemic.

Cutting treatment programs for drug offenders seems to run counter to this effort, advocates said.

Similarly, lawmakers struggled to find $400 million in the budget for school security and mental health programs following the shootings at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

But mental health treatment is among the services on the DOC chopping block.

The Florida Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform has scheduled a news conference Wednesday in St. Petersburg, where it is expected to renew its call for Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers to hold a special session of the Legislature or find some way to direct more money to DOC and avoid the cuts.

“All Floridians, offenders and non-offenders alike, are now placed at a greater risk as the department has chosen a path to release inmates who have endured incarceration without receiving the mental health or drug treatment services they need,” said Luke Newman, with the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Scott, now a U.S. Senate candidate, is keeping his distance from the funding crunch, saying he wanted more for DOC, but lawmakers ignored him.

The governor recommended a $169 million increase for DOC this year, including pay raises, improvements at already short-staffed prisons, and dollars for services now in line for cuts, Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis said.

Lewis said Scott wants DOC Secretary Julie Jones to work with lawmakers to “ensure that this issue is temporary, resolved quickly and handled appropriately. Safety and security remain the department’s top priority.”

Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice, has floated the idea of the department approving a 10-month contract for health care by June 30, using available dollars and avoiding the bulk of the program cuts.

In that approach, Brandes said lawmakers could allocate the rest of the money needed for annual health services later this year, when they return to Tallahassee for the November organizational session.

“I’m not saying there will be no cuts,” Brandes said. “But there may be a way we can shift funds to modify some of what is lost.”