Adoption of rules, monitoring, and reporting.

(1) The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 120 specifying criteria for contractual arrangements and standards for the operation of correctional facilities by private vendors. Such rules shall define:

(a) Various categories of contractor-operated correctional facilities.

(b) Physical facility requirements.

(c) Critical staffing levels.

(d) Minimum program offerings.

(e) Maximum capacity levels.

(f) The characteristics of inmates to be incarcerated in contractor-operated correctional facilities.

(g) Circumstances under which inmates may be transported.

(h) Procedures for inmates to leave the grounds of a facility.

(i) A disciplinary system in accordance with the standards of the American Correctional Association.

(j) Comprehensive standards for conditions of confinement in accordance with the standards of the American Correctional Association.

(2) The department shall appoint a contract monitor who shall document the private vendor’s adherence to the contract and compliance with rules, policies, procedures, and performance standards of the department.

(3) The private vendor shall provide a work area at the contractor-operated correctional facility for use by the contract monitor appointed by the department and shall provide the monitor with access to all data, reports, and other materials that the monitor, the Auditor General, and the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability determine are necessary to carry out monitoring and auditing responsibilities.

(4) The private vendor shall employ a person who shall monitor all aspects of the private vendor’s performance under the contract. The monitor shall submit to the department periodic reports documenting adherence by the private vendor to performance standards established by the department. The monitor shall also submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature, by January 1 of each year, which shall include a report of the adherence to the contract by the private vendor and its compliance with rules, policies, procedures, and performance standards established by the department and an independently audited financial statement.

(5) The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability shall conduct a performance audit, including a review of the annual financial audit of the private entity and shall deliver a report to the Legislature by February 1 of the third year following any contract awarded by the department for the operation of a correctional facility by a private vendor.

(a) The report shall determine the reasonableness of the cost analysis procedures used by the department for comparing services provided under the contract and for comparing the quality of the services provided under the contract with the costs and quality of similar services provided by the department.

(b) In preparing the report, the office shall consider, in addition to other factors it determines are significant:

1. The extent to which the private vendor and the department have complied with the terms of the contract and ss. 944.710-944.719.

2. The wages and benefits that are provided to the staff of the contractor-operated correctional facility as compared to wages and benefits provided to employees of the department performing comparable tasks.