An agency at the center of the resolution of a 20-year legal battle between the state and its prisoners is facing the chopping block as Gov. Rick Scott considers a bill that would abolish the Correctional Medical Authority (CMA).
The move would shutter an agency that has overseen the health care provided to Florida’s prisoners for 25 years.
Legislative budget-writers say the move trims an ineffective bureaucracy as part of the drive to close a $3.75 billion budget shortfall. Critics say it sets up the state for a potential return trip to the federal judiciary that refereed Costello v. Wainwright, a class-action lawsuit against the state prison system that prompted years of federal control.
Scott is expected to sign the budget Thursday, but the conforming bill (HB 5305) abolishing the CMA has not been sent to him.
Bill Sheppard, a Jacksonville lawyer who represented the plaintiffs during parts of the legal odyssey, which began in 1972 and was finally closed out in 1993, said the move showed the “naivete” of legislators, should Scott sign the bill.
“They don’t know any institutional history of this prison system they pretend to know how to run,” Sheppard said.
With a budget of less than $718,000 and six full-time employees, supporters of keeping the CMA say it will not break the bank.
“That, to me, might be a good investment in terms of avoiding future lawsuits,” said Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach.
Pafford sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday asking him to veto the measure.
“If the CMA is eliminated, Florida may become vulnerable to legal challenges to the constitutionality of health care provided to approximately 103,000 inmates in state correctional institutions which could result in costly federal court intervention,” Pafford wrote.
In an interview Tuesday, Pafford also argued that the state’s recent move toward privatizing prisons in roughly the southern third of the state raises questions about the timing and the motivation of the elimination of CMA.
“I don’t think there’s any kind of coincidence that … a watchdog would be cast aside as we’re readying to privatize prisons,” Pafford said.
The agency’s creation, and pledges from state officials at the time, was critical to the conclusion of federal involvement in Florida prisons, U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Black wrote in 1993. At the time, she praised the work of the CMA and highlighted it as an example of how the federal courts can end their involvement in state functions while making sure constitutional rights are protected.
“It is exemplary that a major state such as Florida, with its significant prison population, would take such a creative step,” Black wrote. “Without innovations such as the CMA, there is little hope for satisfactory withdrawal of federal supervision.”
Supporters of the agency are also raising the specter of renewed interest in prisons by courts after the U.S. Supreme Court this week ordered California to move more quickly to ease its overcrowding issues.
“By keeping the system in check, it prevents the possible federal intervention,” said Murdina Campbell, executive director of the authority.
But Rep. Matt Hudson, the Naples Republican who chairs the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, dismissed those concerns. Hudson said the agency only inspects each prison every three years, and state officials are more than capable of making sure that prisoners get the medical care they need.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say if you’re only inspecting something once every three years, you’re not going to catch the pressing issue,” Hudson said.
By Brandon Labarre
