DOC plans to purchase private prison and transfer inmates

Wednesday, January 15th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A deal that allows the Department of Corrections to purchase a private prison and transfer inmates from the Mabel Bassett Correctional Facility there could be finalized as soon as next month.

The Council of Bond Oversight recently approved the deal for as much as $45 million, but officials don't believe the entire amount will be used, Jim Joseph, the state's bond adviser, said Tuesday.

The bonds will be issued through the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority, Joseph said.

The DOC believes moving offenders from Mabel Basset, where the state's maximum-security female inmates are housed, to the Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility in McLoud will save the agency money.

The department plans to move into the facility about six months after paperwork on a lease-purchase agreement is completed, which could be in late February, Ron Ward, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' director, told the Tulsa World's Capitol bureau.

The private prison, which houses about 575 female inmates, is about 25 miles east of downtown Oklahoma City and can house about 1,100 offenders, Ward said. It opened in 1998.

About 150 of the inmates in the McLoud prison are from Hawaii and Wyoming.

``Our plan is to continue to contract with those two states,'' Ward said. ``We will have enough bed space to continue to do that. It is our plan to do that as long as it is mutually acceptable to all the parties.''

Edmond-based McLoud Correctional Services owns the prison and Dominion Correctional Services, also based in Edmond, operates it.

The facility costs $35,920,000, but renovations and an expansion will add on $4,047,050, said Jerry Massie, a DOC spokesman.

The move will save the department money by allowing it to consolidate costs, Ward said.

``We are projecting in the first full year we are in that facility we will probably save a little over $1 million and anticipate over a period of time that may increase,'' he said.

The department is still considering how it will use Mabel Bassett once the inmates are transferred to the McLoud facility, Ward said.