Agreement on emergency appropriation for the stateâ€™s prison system

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- State lawmakers Thursday ended months of arguments over prison funding by agreeing to a $24-million emergency spending plan.<br/><br/>The money will be used to pay private prisons

Thursday, February 23rd 2006, 11:19 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- State lawmakers Thursday ended months of arguments over prison funding by agreeing to a $24-million emergency spending plan.

The money will be used to pay private prisons for housing state inmates, to give prison guards a pay raise and to recruit more prison guards to reduce a staff shortage.

The money is part of a package that also provides $125 -million for bridge repair and more than $3.5-million to help rural fire departments pay for fighting recent wildfires. Also included is just over $4.5-million for a college scholarship program for lower income students and $456,000 for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's DNA database.