So much for being fiscally conservative. More evidence of social conservatives using government to impose their views on the American people via your tax dollars.


Florida
Governor Rick Scott on Friday vetoed a widely popular bill that would send
certain non-violent drug addicts to treatment after serving half their
sentences.

“He said
it was a 'public safety’ issue. No it’s not,” said bill sponsor Sen. Ellyn
Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) according to the Miami Herald. “These are
non-violent drug offenders.”

The bill,
a rare common sense favorite during a legislative season that saw Scott approve
dying animals and Jay-Z lyrics debated on the House floor, was opposed by only
four state lawmakers.

Sold on
Bogdanoff's argument that the state would save money by getting potential
re-offenders the help they need for addiction, lawmakers including typically
tough-on-crime conservatives overwhelmingly sped the bill through the House
40-0 and the Senate 112-4.

But though
offenders would remain in custody during the rehabilitation portion of their
sentences, Scott said in his veto statement that the bill would violate laws
against early release -- and be an injustice to "victims."

“Justice
to victims of crime is not served when a criminal is permitted to be released
early from a sentence imposed by the courts...This bill would permit criminals
to be released after serving 50 percent of their sentences, thus creating an
unwarranted exception to the rule that inmates serve 85 percent of their
imposed sentences.”

Tampa Bay
Times/HeraldColumnist Steve Bousquet wrote that Scott's veto missed the point:

The prison
system would have chosen inmates based on their good behavior, the severity of
their addictions and the likelihood that rehabilitation would save taxpayer
dollars, a House analysis said.

In other
words, the bill, properly implemented, could have reduced the cost of
government, the very thing that Scott talks about so much.

"This
was a very small step toward prison reform," [House sponsor Rep. Ari]
Porth (D-Coral Springs) told Bousquet. "This was a real chance to have a
positive impact on the lives of people."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/gov-rick-scott-vetoes-bil_n_1414758.html?view=print&;comm_ref=false