Headlines
Report: Profit Motive May Be Influencing Immigration Policies
FL: Sen. Nan Rich seeks to block inmate health care outsourcing
FL: Report claims Florida lawmakers do bidding of corporate-funded ALEC
FL: Florida prison vendor agrees to hefty fine in Pa. case
NY: Legislator: Sewage Privatization Plan Will Cost You
TX: An Outsourcing Plan Stirs Fear at Texas A&M

Report: Profit Motive May Be Influencing Immigration Policies
The for-profit prison sector would have been hit hard by the Great Recession had it not been for expanded federal immigration enforcement. That’s according to a just-released report by The Sentencing Project. States suffering budget shortfalls, like Texas, have trimmed prison populations, reducing the need for new private contracts. But federal agencies have helped take up the slack by increasingly relying on private facilities to hold detainees awaiting hearings, according to Cody Mason, who authored the report. “A lot of the detention growth is coming from immigrant detainees. There are these huge networks of facilities that they’re being housed in, and they’re not properly being overseen. It’s hard to keep track of where people are being held and what companies are actually holding them.” He says most new detention centers are for-profit. One such facility opened this year in Karnes City. It’s an example of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s effort to steer fewer detainees into the prison system. The Orange Leader

FL: Sen. Nan Rich seeks to block inmate health care outsourcing
Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, has lodged a formal objection to the Legislature giving final approval to budget transfers that would allow the prison system to privatize health care for 100,000 inmates….The outsourcing of health care in Florida prisons has a checkered history, and this latest venture is highly controversial because it was created under budget proviso language that expired June 30 when the previous fiscal year ended. “But for the proviso, the appropriation would not be made,” Rich wrote. “Consequently, I believe the DOC does not have the authority to privatize health services in prisons.” Miami Herald

FL: Report claims Florida lawmakers do bidding of corporate-funded ALEC
Some of the most controversial bills introduced recently in the Florida Legislature were thought up by out-of-state corporate interests with financial motives, according to a report released Thursday by a two national watchdog groups and Progress Florida. The report says the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a shadowy force exerting an uncanny amount of power over Florida’s lawmaking process. ALEC advances so-called “model bills” on items like public education, immigration, labor issues, healthcare, gun rights and voter rights. Replicas of those business-friendly bills often end up in legislation sponsored by Florida lawmakers who are ALEC members, the report found. Dozens of Florida lawmakers have ties to the group, which has been thrust into the spotlight this year as the main force behind the rapid spread of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law across the country. “We realized that this was a massive corporate agenda that often puts the corporate agenda in front of public interest and in some cases, public safety,” said Doug Clopp, of Common Cause, a liberal group. “What ALEC represents is the poster child for a non-transparent [political process] that puts corporate profits ahead of the public interest.” Miami Herald

FL: Florida prison vendor agrees to hefty fine in Pa. case
The company awaiting final approval from Gov. Rick Scott’s administration to privatize health care services for most Florida prison inmates has agreed to pay a $1.85 million fine in Philadelphia for skirting minority contracting requirements. The vendor, Prison Health Services, now known as Corizon Health, is accused of falsifying official documents and federal prosecutors are looking for evidence of mail and wire fraud.  Miami Herald

NY: Legislator: Sewage Privatization Plan Will Cost You
‎Legislator Dave Denenberg said Tuesday that Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano’s sewage privatization plan will put a dent in the wallets of taxpayers. “This is the biggest giveaway of county assets that will cost county taxpayers forever,” Denenberg said at a public forum held at Bellmore Memorial Library. “The bottom line is that the sewer tax will be converted into a rate that will go up at least 3 percent and as much as 10 percent per year.”   Patch.com

TX: An Outsourcing Plan Stirs Fear at Texas A&M
When the Texas A&M University System announced that its flagship would gain $260 million in new revenue and savings in the next 10 years by outsourcing its building maintenance, landscaping and dining services, Chancellor John Sharp said the plan was an unprecedented way to raise money in financially struggling higher education…But excitement over the plan is not universal. Many people on campus and in the surrounding community are worried and angry. A&M staff members who perform the support services have expressed concern over their future employment. And Bryan-College Station vendors fret that they could lose one of their biggest clients…. As financially squeezed public universities increasingly turn to the private sector to generate revenue, their actions can create discord within college communities. The University of Texas at Austin has been derided for starting the Longhorn Network, a 24-hour sports channel that it said would raise hundreds of millions of dollars but that has failed to win major cable contracts. The private partner in A&M’s effort is Compass Group USA, based in North Carolina. The company is expected to take over support services at A&M in August, creating its largest partnership with a university. The New York Times