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| Massive job shifts, some resignations, mark state's prison consolidation |
| By thefloridacurrent.com - Bill Cotterell |
| Published: 06/21/2012 |
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Florida's prison system is winding up an $89 million cost-savings initiative, with the closings of 11 lockups across the state, and beginning a new effort to cut future costs by preparing inmates -- from the day they arrive -- for their return to society. Department of Corrections Secretary Ken Tucker said Wednesday the final few women are being moved out of Broward Correctional Institution, most of them going to the Lowell CI and a women's facility at Homestead, to complete the reorganization announced in the 2012 legislative session this year. Initially, 1,293 employees were to be affected but Big Bend lawmakers and business interests got a reprieve for Jefferson Correctional Institution near Monticello -- the county's largest employer with 177 jobs. Tucker had to substitute a couple of smaller work camps and make some contracting cuts to meet the goal. "They gave me an assessment that if we continued our spending at the same level we had been, we were projecting an $89 million deficit in the agency," he said in an interview with The Florida Current. "Through those closures, through some other cost-savings initiatives, we've closed the gap on that." He added, however, that, "by virtue of paying our last payroll out of next year's budget, we will be moving somewhere in the neighborhood of about $30 million into fiscal 2013." Unlike other state employees, correctional officers have "bumping" rights based on seniority. Tucker said some officers resigned rather than move, but all affected employees were offered new jobs -- and almost all got their choice of new duty. Read More. |
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