Ray Sansom's Blackwater Deal

In 2008, former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom inserted an amendment that would privatize five state prisons. The contracts would go to Blackwater. The company is now known as Xe Services LLC. Blackwater best known for the controversial killing of 17 Iraqi civilians. Judge Ricardo M. Urbina dropped the charges against the accused Blackwater guards.

Florida Sen. Paula Dockery is opposed to the Blackwater contract. The town of Sneads's economy depends of the state jobs provided by the prison. Dockery issued a press release.

Senator Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland), is strongly opposed to the lengthy proviso language that was quietly inserted into the Senate’s proposed budget during last week’s Ways & Means Committee hearing. “The proposal to close unnamed existing correctional facilities resulting in the layoffs of over 1,000 state corrections officers to move inmates to private facilities is a policy decision that deserves to be vetted through a completely transparent process. As chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, I find it outrageous that major change in how we run our state correctional facilities was not reviewed by committees that were created for this explicit purpose,” said Senator Dockery. “Transparency cannot exist when there has been no opportunity for debate or testimony.”

A hush contract given to Blackwater. Maybe this is what Ray Sansom meant by saying he was a man of values. Those same values allowed Sansom to use the Republican Party of Florida credit card to buy expensive meals and tuxedo rentals. Sansom's strong values allowed him to never repay the RPoF for his lavish spending.