Welcome to

New details tonight about a story we broke back in April of 2010.

That’s when we first learned the FBI was asking questions about a state budget deal with GEO Group, a private prison corporation. Now the feds are taking action, seizing a government computer in Santa Rosa County where GEO runs the Backwater prison. Matt Puckett, a spokesman with the Florida Police Benevolent Association says the 140 million taxpayer dollars spent on the private prison wasn’t vetted by the public and was put in the budget in the 11th hour.

“This thing was given away in a 72 hour period really. We think it stinks, we’ve always though it stinks and we hope maybe we can put this thing to rest,” said Puckett.

The FBI rarely talks about its investigations, so it’s hard to know exactly who is the subject of their inquiries. Former House Speaker Ray Sansom is a possible target, because he is responsible for putting the money for the prison into the state budget in 2008.