• While it is possible to evaluate whether private prisons save money, significant differences in Florida's public and private prisons hinder comparisons.
• Preliminary comparisons of the costs of public and private prisons by the Department of Corrections and the Correctional Privatization Commission reached opposite conclusions about whether private prisons provide cost savings. The Department and Commission did not agree on which prisons to compare or how to adjust for differences.
• To facilitate better cost comparisons to determine whether private prisons save money, the Legislature should establish public and private prisons that are comparable in size, location, types of inmates and programs provided.

Which Government Program Summaries contain related information?

Department of Management Services

What other OPPAGA-related materials are available?

• Report No. 99-46 Progress Report: Bay and Moore Haven Private Prison Contracts Renewed; Bay Costs Increase, published in April 2000.
• Report No. 99-39 Private Prison Review: South Bay Correctional Facility Provides Savings and Success; Room for Improvement, published in March 2000.
• Report No. 99-33 Private Prison Review: Lake City Correctional Facility Experienced Start-Up Problems, But It Has Improved, published in February 2000.
• Report No. 97-68 Review of Bay Correctional Facility and Moore Haven Correctional Facility, published in April 1998.
• Report No. 97-56 Follow-up Report on the Gadsden Correctional Institution, published in March 1998.
• Report No. 97-06 Follow-up Report on the Review of Correctional Privatization, published in September 1997.
• Report No. 95-48 Performance Audit of the Gadsden Correctional Institution, published in April 1996.
• Report No. 95-12 Review of Correctional Privatization, published in November 1995.

Copies of this report in print or alternate accessible format may be obtained by telephone (850/488-0021), by FAX (850/487-9213), in person, or by mail (OPPAGA Report Production, Claude Pepper Building, Room 312, 111 W. Madison St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-1475).
e-mail address: oppaga@oppaga.fl.gov