Lack of money, too many inmates crippling state prisons

Thursday, January 26th 2006, 5:29 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Board of Corrections was told Thursday that state prisons will start to run out of money in the first week of March unless the Legislature appropriates nearly $32-million to finish out the fiscal year.

Board members also learned that neither state nor private prisons that already hold thousands of state prisoners will have a place to house and feed the estimated 654 inmates expected to be added this year to Oklahoma's current inmate population.

The bleak assessment alarmed members of the corrections board, who brought their funding and inmate population problems to the Legislature's doorstep during an unprecedented meeting at the state Capitol.