Lawmakers decry state prison chief's policy moves

By JO BECKER

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 1999

TALLAHASSEE -- State lawmakers again are expressing dissatisfaction with the state's top prison boss, this time for failing to check with them before making sweeping policy changes.

Since taking office in January, Secretary Michael Moore has taken steps to privatize prison health care in all of South Florida's prisons.

He has switched to a new electronic system to track criminals -- a decision that could mean hundreds of sex offenders the state used to track would eventually be able to wander unsupervised.

And though he promised to cut "fat" from the top and spend it on the men and women who work the front-lines at prisons, he has handed out huge raises totaling $1.9-million to accountants, purchasing agents and other office workers.

Normally, agency heads carry out the policy decisions that are made by elected lawmakers. Moore made the changes without consulting the Legislature.

"You obviously have your own department, and you know how to run it better than we do," state Rep. Alex Villalobos, a Republican from Miami who is chairman of the House Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee, told Moore. "The issue though is that there is a line where you have your discretion ... and the Legislature feels you have crossed that line into the area of major policy decisions."

Moore said he thought he had the authority to move forward on the projects, but he nevertheless apologized to the committee.

"We haven't communicated well as an agency," Moore said. "We will get better, I promise you."

For now, Moore has called a temporary halt to his idea to privatize health care in the prisons of South Florida, saying he will bring the plan before the Legislature this spring.

Lawmakers also were concerned about Moore's decision to switch to a global positioning system to track offenders on parole and serving house arrests. The state now tracks 850 criminals, most of them sex offenders, by forcing them to wear electronic anklets and using radio frequency technology to track movements.

Unlike the current technology, which only tells the Department of Corrections when an offender is home, global positioning can track an offender's precise movements 24 hours a day. It even can alert law enforcement officials when, for instance, a pedophile strays into a prohibited school zone.

But the technology is more expensive. When Moore made the decision to convert to the new system, it meant that about 500 offenders whose court-ordered sentences included the state monitoring program would be dropped from the program. None have yet been dropped, and Moore said he could meet all the state's monitoring needs with an additional $5.5-million.

Villalobos and others said they felt boxed in.

"We're going to force a number of court orders to not be observed unless we come up with the money," complained state Rep. Randy Ball, R-Titusville.

Moore justified his decision to hand out $1.9-million in raises to office workers by saying that a massive reorganization of his department had eliminated jobs and forced many to take on increased responsibilities. The reorganization is expected to save $10-million this year.

But many of the raises were in the 40 to 70 percent range.

"It's very difficult for that guard to understand why someone gets a 70 percent increase in salary when he only gets 2 percent," Villalobos said.

Moore said that ultimately, he hopes that the savings from reorganization will be translated into more resources for those on the front line.

"I was once one of those correctional officers," he said, "so I know how they feel."

Moore's department has come under legislative scrutiny in the wake of a criminal investigation into allegations that guards beat to death a Florid State Prison death row inmate on July 17. He has faced questions about the backgrounds of guards -- at Florida State Prison, nearly one in six have an arrest record -- as well as the health care provided to state prisoners, a new purchasing program and a decrease in diversity at the department's upper echelons.

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