Court rejects Bondi's appeal in prison-privatization case

The 1st District Court of Appeal has rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi's appeal of a lower court's ruling that found a 2011 Florida prison privatization plan unconstitutional.

The order, released Tuesday morning, dismissed the appeal on a technicality that Bondi could not present the case alone.

The original lawsuit by the Florida Police Benevolent Association challenged the 2011 Legislature's budget language directing the Department of Corrections to put out to bid and award a contractto privatize prison operations in 18 South Florida counties.

Leon County Circuit Court Judge Jackie L. Fulford ruled the way the senators allocated the money for the plan was against the law. Because of the ongoing litigation, the plan was largely moot as deadlines passed while the court fight went on.

Proponents presented the plan again during the 2012 session, but the stand-alone bill failed in the Senate. In the meantime, state Attorney General Pamela Bondi filed the circuit court case for appeal.

In the ruling released Tuesday, 1st District Appeals Chief Justice Robert T. Benton II wrote that Bondi lacked standing to initiate an appeal on her own. Appeals Court Judge Ronald Swanson also wrote that the ruling was not meant to curtail the power of the attorney general and was based on common law.

The 1st DCA ruling allows Fulford's decision to stand on the unconstitutionality of budget language establishing substantive policy.

"This ruling reaffirmed our argument that the Attorney General did not have the authority to appeal the lower court's decision. This was never more than the legislature's last second attempt to privatize public prisons in south Florida," said Matt Puckett, executive director of the Florida PBA, in a statement. "We can now put this issue behind us and move forward with other important issues facing our state."

(Published by Tallahassee - July 24, 2012)