Florida's Prison Chief Steps Down
Thursday, August 25, 2011
By: Sascha Cordner, Florida Public Radio

Aug. 25, 2011 | WMFE - The head of Florida's prison system is resigning from his job at the urging of Gov. Rick Scott. Gov. Scott hired Edwin Buss in December. But in the past month, Buss has had several public disagreements with the governor's office. The Scott administration released a statement saying that "differences in philosophy and management styles arose which made the separation in the best interests of the state."

In December, Governor Scott asked Edwin Buss to head the Florida Department of Corrections and asked Buss to spearhead the state’s massive prison privatization effort.

In a July Interview, Buss said he was up for the task of overseeing Florida’s 102,000 prison inmate population even though that’s  much larger than Indiana’s prison population of 29,000.
“The exercise in Indiana was good for me.” Buss said. “All the years spent in the prisons and then in the administration working for Governor Daniels was a wonderful experience.”

Last year, Scott liked what he saw well enough to ask Buss to come to Florida.
But, lately, Buss has come under fire from the Scott Administration. This week, Elizabeth Gondles, was let out of her contract due to concerns about a possible conflict of interest. Gondles was hired by Buss to oversee the privatization of prison health care.
She is married to the director of the only organization in the country that accredits state prison medical services.

Governor Scott also made Buss cancel a $110,000 contract with the MSNBC television show “Lockup.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, Scott named Florida Department of Law Enforcement Deputy Commissioner Ken Tucker as Buss’ replacement at the Department of Corrections.