Rural North Florida counties worry about ‘devastating’ prison closures
Dara Kam, Senior reporter, News Service of Florida
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A plan to shutter up to four state prisons is alarming officials in Florida’s rural regions where correctional institutions have played an outsized role in providing jobs and supporting businesses for decades.
Senate President Wilton Simpson’s proposal to consolidate prisons and demolish four facilities drew bipartisan pushback when it was released recently as lawmakers began to piece together next year’s state budget.
Simpson, R-Trilby, has defended consolidation and closures, saying the plan is designed to resuscitate a prison system in crisis. The Department of Corrections for years has grappled with decaying infrastructure, an exceedingly high worker turnover rate and staffing vacancies so dire they now pose security threats to employees and inmates.
Guardian ad litem program in Florida draws scrutiny
Dara Kam, Senior reporter, News Service of Florida
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The head of Florida’s guardian ad litem program defended the agency’s efforts Tuesday to a Senate committee, following a report that said the organization’s funding has increased while the number of children it represents has dropped.
Alan Abramowitz, who has served as executive director of the program for more than a decade, pushed back against the report during an appearance before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee.
The report, issued last month by the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, or OPPAGA, identified a number of issues in the operation of the program, which receives state and local funds to represent abused, neglected and abandoned children in dependency cases.