Florida legislators were treated Monday to a tutorial in criminal justice, Texas-style.

When Gov.-elect Rick Scott unveiled his economic plan on the campaign trail this summer, there was a portion that caught many law enforcement professionals by surprise: a proposed $1 billion cut to the state’s corrections’ budget.

In slapping down life sentences for teenage offenders in non-homicide cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ended life terms for 77 Florida inmates.

Saying Monday's ruling "will have a significant impact on our state's juvenile justice and corrections systems," Attorney General Bill McCollum said his office, along with the state Department of Juvenile Justice and Department of Corrections, has a lot of work to do.

Bowing to resistance from the Department of Corrections, Senate Republicans scaled back their prison privatization plans Wednesday.

But the DOC is still directed to open the new 2,224-bed Blackwater River Correctional Facility as a privately operated facility by the GEO Group.

GEO, which built the $110 million Panhandle prison per state contract, can operate the facility for $5.7 million less per year than the state, according to the Department of Management Services. Those savings are based on GEO's daily contract cost of $41 per inmate vs. $48 projected by the DOC.