With the Hillsborough Correctional Institution (HCI) in Riverview one of seven state prisons and four work camps targeted for closure by the end of June, the County Commission today voted unanimously to tell Tallahassee that closing HCI is a very bad idea.
HCI is one of only two "faith and character based" facilities in the state exclusively for women.
But although he voted with his colleagues, Commissioner Les Miller, a former state legislator, told his colleagues he believed the resolution would fall on deaf ears in the state capitol.
Victor Crist, another former state legislator, said he was in Tallahassee last week and was told by appropriation staffers that the plan to eliminate HCI is all about economics. "It's going to be a tough fight," he admitted, adding that the county might have to match state funding of the prison to maintain its viability. "If this is something we want to do, we have to put our money where our mouth is," he said.
The drive to eliminate these facilities is happening at the same time that Governor Rick Scott and leaders in the Legislature are pushing to privatize 26 prisons in state Florida (passage of which now looks questionable).
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2012.