Two private prisons under investigation for overpayment

[Joanne98]

The head of a Senate budget committee today called for a criminal investigation of overpayments to two companies running private prisons for the state.

Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, said he is not satisfied with a $402,501 settlement negotiated by the Department of Management Services this month with GEO Group, a Boca Raton-based company that runs prisons for the state in South Bay and Moore Haven. The state is still negotiating reimbursement of overpayments with Corrections Corp. of America, the Nashville company that runs prisons at Quincy, Lake City and Panama City.

"This almost seems criminal," Crist told his Senate Justice Appropriations Committee. He said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement should investigate how the overpayments occurred.

After DMS assumed oversight from the old Correctional Privatization Commission, the department's inspector general did an audit that questioned some $13 million in payments to the two private prison operators. The audit said the companies were overpaid $4.5 million for unfilled positions.
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070125/CAPITOLNEWS06/70125031