Oklahoma Prisons Expected To Be Full In Early 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ State prison officials say Oklahoma's prison will be full by early next year. <br/><br/>State Department of Corrections director Justin Jones says state-run prisons are essentially

Monday, October 9th 2006, 9:53 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ State prison officials say Oklahoma's prison will be full by early next year.

State Department of Corrections director Justin Jones says state-run prisons are essentially full now and any open space in privately run prisons is being bought by other states to hold their inmates.

With the state's prisons full more inmates will be kept longer in county jails as they wait for a bed to open up in a state prison.

Jones says the Corrections Department already has a backlog of more than 1,200 inmates being held in county jails waiting for space to open in the state prison.

The department is planning to ask the legislature for approval to sell bonds with the money to pay for building space for 750 more inmates at the State Penitentiary in McAlester and to build a new 1,400 medium security prison.