Do away with nursing home watchdogs, privatize Prisons---our daily Rick Scott watch.

[trumad]

Legislature wants to privatize prisons, probation officers

In what could signal a massive private takeover of public prisons, the Florida Senate quietly slipped language into its newly proposed budget Monday that seeks to give corporations the chance to run correctional facilities and probation services in 18 counties

The move — which could shift nearly $600 million to private firms — surprised prison guards, their unions and even the head of the Senate’s Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee, Mike Fasano, who said his committee was opposed to the idea of privatizing prisons when it was proposed by Gov. Rick Scott’s aides . “We made it clear that we weren’t interested. We moved on without doing it,” said Fasano, R-New Port Richey. “And now it appears in the budget. I’m not pleased. It is a huge, substantive issue. It’s a major policy change and it should have at least been discussed publicly.”

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The budget language doesn’t appear to favor any one vendor although a leading contender is GEO Group, whose healthcare arm, GEO Care, has contributed at least $126,000 to state parties and candidates since 2009.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2138919/legislature-wants-to-privatize.html#ixzz1HzBjoDWM

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Bills would restrict state's nursing-home watchdogs

In the weeks since Gov. Rick Scott called for the ouster of Florida's top nursing-home watchdog, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than a dozen bills that critics claim would further "neuter" the ombudsman program.

The state Department of Elder Affairs also has notified Florida's 400 mostly volunteer ombudsmen, instructing them not to speak to the media without alerting a district manager about the conversation and detailing the questions asked.

"My biggest concern is that we can still speak for residents, still do yearly assessments of the facilities, still handle residents' complaints and not be muzzled by the industry or the governor or anyone else," said Lynn Dos Santos, chairwoman of the State Long Term Care Ombudsman Council and a volunteer herself. "Under the new policy, I shouldn't be talking now. But the truth has to be told."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-fl-ombudsman-bills-20110328,0,7558563.story