State must explain disappearance of health-services programs | Another view

To answer seemingly unanswerable questions, sometimes you have to play 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 News Service's John Kennedy and other media, those dots are being connected. And 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.

MORE: State's $375 million prison health care contract under scrutiny

The ax first fell in May, when corrections officials announced they would be yanking money intended for 33 prison-transition programs around the state — including Reality House, the Daytona Beach facility operated by Stewart-Marchman-Act. These programs, which target inmates on the brink of release, have proved successful in preparing inmates to re-enter society:

Year after year, the state's own figures credit Reality House with a success rate topping 80 percent.

As of July 1, these programs will vanish. 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 in Florida to skyrocket.

Corrections officials have always been up-front about where they diverted the 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. And though the budget included specific funding for the transitional drug-treatment programs, it also had a buried provision that let the Department of Corrections raid any other funding source to pay for prison health services.

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In press releases, corrections officials portrayed themselves as helpless, parroting the rationale that Florida is constitutionally mandated to provide health care for prisoners. That's certainly true. 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, repeatedly, that Centurion was the only bidder for the prison health contract — creating the impression the company had the upper hand in negotiations. 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 the Republican Party as well as 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.

These questions are too big to ignore.

Florida taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill for this contract, including the double-digit profits Centurion is all but guaranteed. They'll also be the ones 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.