Several private prisons scored big in salary sprinkles.
The Senate and House supplemental funding lists both budgeted significant dollars to cover correctional officer pay.
Pay equity between guards at private prisons and those working directly for the Department of Corrections has been a sticking point for the House and Senate through the budget conference process.
While the Senate has pushed in talks for more funding to catch salaries up to state workers, the House ultimately jumped in and agreed to chip in as much for the job at hand. The bulk will go to three facilities.
The facilities run by The GEO Group — Blackwater River Correctional, Moore Haven Correctional and South Bay Correctional — will receive $1.6 million from each chamber of the Legislature, or a combined $3.2 million, for the sole purpose of raising correctional officer salaries "commensurate with salary increases for state correctional officers."
Additionally, the chambers together gave $1 million, split between the chambers, for salaries at Lake City Correctional, operated by CoreCivic.
In total, that's nearly $4.2 million just for correction officer pay at those four institutions.
The chambers also both directed individual supplements for contract extensions at three prisons, two of those run by The Geo Group. The big winner was Moore Haven, with $13.6 million directed to the Glades County institution between the two chambers.
South Bay, in Palm Beach County, receives a total of more than $6.1 million, with the costs divided between the House and Senate.
Lake City will get $300,000 from each chamber, or $600,000 in total.
The funding will extend contracts for each of the correctional facilities with the state, but for no longer than two years.
From there, the Department of Corrections plans to accept fresh competitive bids for all private prisons in the state system for work in the 2026-27 fiscal year.
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