TALLAHASSEE -- As emotions run high, lawmakers are again fast-tracking privatization of South Florida prisons while the state rushes to shut down seven others, an economic and political one-two punch that is creating anger and anxiety statewide.

The Senate Budget Committee voted 13-5 Wednesday to fast-track privatization of prisons in the southern tier of the state. Correctional officers who were not allowed to testify shouted "Shame, Shame!" as security personnel hovered near lawmakers.

Republican lawmakers are determined to overcome a judge's rejection of last year's privatization plan and pass a plan that can survive legal scrutiny. The current proposal, which would amount to the largest expansion of prison privatization in the country, would replace the state with for-profit vendors at 30 prisons in 18 South Florida counties. Only the South Florida Reception Center in Miami-Dade County, a point of entry for inmates, would remain state-run.

"I don't have a particular bias for public or private," said Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, privatization's leading advocate. "But I am charged, for one more year, with making every dollar count."

For-profit prison vendors would be required to run prisons at a cost of at least 7 percent less than what state-run prisons cost taxpayers. Opponents say the savings would be outweighed by the loss of jobs, economic dislocation and lack of accountability.