Lawmakers Working To Solve Prison Predicament

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's corrections system, beset with crowded prisons, annual budget shortfalls and wilting employee morale, will soon be the focus of a sweeping performance audit and review

Sunday, June 3rd 2007, 6:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's corrections system, beset with crowded prisons, annual budget shortfalls and wilting employee morale, will soon be the focus of a sweeping performance audit and review that state lawmakers believe will point the way to making state prisons more efficient and effective.

The audit's findings and recommendations are sure to make state prisons a primary focus of the 2008 Legislature. Less certain is whether lawmakers will have the political will to implement what may be costly proposals to build new state prisons, improve others and end a decade-long cycle of underfunding.

``It's not popular putting money in prisons,'' said Sen. Mike Johnson, R-Kingfisher, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. ``We definitely know we have an underfunding problem.''

``There will be tough decisions that need to be made,'' said House Speaker Lance Cargill, R-Harrah, who spearheaded efforts during the 2007 legislative session to appropriate $1 million for a private, independent audit of state prisons.

``The cycle of Band-Aid supplemental appropriations has to be fixed,'' Cargill said. ``It's our plan to correct that, move past it. It's an effort to do what's in the best interest of the state and the taxpayer.''

Legislative leaders said the audit will help lawmakers take a stand on policy issues involving corrections including whether to build more state prisons or put more state inmates in privately operated prisons.

It may also reopen debate on sentencing practices within the criminal justice system that studies by the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center indicate are forcing offenders, especially drug and other nonviolent offenders, to serve longer sentences.

There were 24,116 state inmates in public and private prison cells on May 29, including 17,660 in state prisons and community centers and 6,456 in private prisons, according to the Department of Corrections Web site. State prison facilities have a total capacity of 18,088 inmates.

The inmate count included 2,269 women, according to the corrections department.

This year, prison officials sought funding for a 1,500-bed expansion at the maximum-security Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and a new 2,400-bed medium-security prison, but neither plan was considered. Both would have been paid for with a 25-year, $380 million bond issue.

``There are a lot of questions that we need to answer,'' said House Speaker Pro Tem Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, vice chairman of the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission and former chairman of the House Corrections and Criminal Justice Committee.

``It's not that we're sticking our heads in the sand and saying there is no problem,'' Blackwell said.

Meanwhile, state prison costs continue to escalate.

The $6.9 billion general appropriations bill that will fund state agencies for the fiscal year beginning July 1 allocates more than $477 million for state prisons, an increase of 4.7 percent from the previous year.

Last year, the Legislature appropriated $435 million for state prisons, $45 million more than in 2005.

``Considering the massive appropriation handed to the Corrections Department every year, we believe it can be operated much more efficiently than it has recently, and in doing so will serve the taxpayers and the families who rely on this agency to keep them safe,'' Said Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, chairman of the House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

The firm that will perform the prison audit has not yet been chosen. But authorities said the auditors' recommendations may be shaped by some of the same incarceration and cost statistics that have alarmed state lawmakers.

Oklahoma, 28th in the nation in population, is the nation's top incarcerator of women and fourth in the country in the number of men in state prisons, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Oklahoma incarcerated 120 women per 100,000 residents in 2005 compared to the U.S. average rate of 58, the agency said. The same year, the state incarcerated 652 men per 100,000 residents compared to the U.S. average of 491. Only Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi had higher incarceration rates.

In addition, the amount Oklahoma spends to incarcerate inmates is lower than most states, according to the Criminal Justice Institute, a consultation and research firm in Connecticut.

Oklahoma ranked 41st in the nation in inmate costs per day in 2002, according to the group's 2002 Corrections Yearbook. Daily inmate costs in the state totaled $46.29 while the U.S. average was $62.22.

The institute also reported that Oklahoma's ratio of inmates to uniformed correctional officers, 7.2, during the same year was higher than the national average of 4.7.

Oklahoma prison director Justin Jones said he welcomes the upcoming performance audit and believes it will support his believe that state prison workers do a good job protecting the public with limited resources.

``I think it will give us accolades,'' Jones said. ``We're one of the most efficient and quality correctional agencies in the nation.''

Oklahoma's prison system, accredited by the American Correctional Association, has one of the lowest rates of repeat offenders in the nation, 28.9 percent, Jones said. In addition, state prisons spend only $7.80 a day per inmate for medical costs and provides three meals a day _ including a meat product at each meal _ for just $2.48 per inmate per day.

``What we do works,'' Jones said. But a lack of resources has made it difficult to meet the needs of mentally ill inmates, one of the fastest growing inmate populations, and repair and replace aging prisons like the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, which will be 100 years old next year, Jones said.

He said the prison performance audit may finally give lawmakers the tools they need to end the cycle of underfunding.

``I'm optimistic,'' Jones said. ``I think they're going to make a good-faith effort to prioritize what comes out of this audit and provide the resources.''