PRIDE BACK ON TASK

The nonprofit company created nearly a quarter-century ago to put
Florida prisoners to work finally seems to be getting an important
message: Its primary job is to give inmates jobs.

The governing board of PRIDE, which stands for Prison Rehabilitative
Industries and Diversified Enterprises, has severed its relationship
with a for-profit spinoff it created six years ago with the stated
goal of competing in a global marketplace. PRIDE was never intended to
be an international business entrepreneur, and the spinoff, Industries
Training Corp., ended up being merely a siphon.

Six months after St. Petersburg Times staff writer Joni James exposed
the self-dealing and weeks following a sharply critical governor's
inspector general report, the board has cut the ties. But the case
should not be closed. The money paid in lucrative management contracts
may well be lost, but the assets conferred to ITC are an entirely
different matter. PRIDE officials say ITC still owes $12.9-million
from loans, and its assets include Northern Outfitters, a company
bought with a $2.5-million loan from PRIDE.

Corrections Secretary James Crosby, who sits as a member of the PRIDE
board, helped force the change. "Sometimes in business I guess you cut
your losses and stop the bleeding," Crosby said. "I'm not sure anyone
understood, when they were creating ITC, what could happen."

What happened was that PRIDE lost sight of its mission, and, for that,
current board directors and former corrections officials share much of
the blame. They might also want to direct some attention now to Pamela
Jo Davis, the former PRIDE chief executive, who has yet to pay a real
price. The company she now directs, ITC, is the company she created.
But that company would have essentially no value if not for the gifts
bestowed by PRIDE. Those gifts need to be returned.