More Tax Dollars Wasted

Scott Hiaasen of the Miami Herald writes that Effort to privatize Florida prisons raises questions of cost

The state agency that oversees these prisons says they will save taxpayers almost $90 million over the next three years. But state financial analysts say they cannot show with any certainty how much money they save over state-run prisons.

At a Senate hearing in February, legislative analyst Byron Brown said differences in how public and private prisons operate and account for expenses “limit the conclusiveness” of any cost comparisons.

“There’s never apples to apples,” Brown told lawmakers.

While the benefits of prison privatization may be hard to see, the problems have been obvious: Over the years, the arrangement has been marred by mismanagement by state monitors , lax contracts, overbilling by prison contractors, a corruption investigation, and a legal loophole that allowed sexual misconduct in private facilities to go unpunished.

I have never seen any reliable facts that privatization has ever saved any jurisdiction a nickel. Medicare Part D was supposed to save money when it was introduced, and after a decade it is 12% more expensive than regular Medicare. School bus service was more expensive beginning the second year after it was privatized, and it eventually had to revert to county control. [There was also the problem of near 12-hour days for some elementary school kids because the private contractor only used half as many buses and drivers.]

The only really reliable facts available are that the people who will probably get the contracts for the prisons are big Republicant political donors, and the whole thing looks like quid pro quo to me.