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April 22, 2008
OK: $300 million bond package for prison "infrastructure"
Sun April 20, 2008
Keeping up the world behind bars
By Julie Bisbee
Staff Writer, The Oklahoman
Many of Oklahoma's prisons are filling up and need improvements. As facilities age, they need costly repairs that the state Corrections Department might not be able to afford without a cash infusion from the Legislature.
There are nearly 25,000 people in the Corrections Department system. The state has the highest per capita rate of women in jail, and the third-highest per capita rate of men in jail.
The number of people involved in the state's prison system is projected to grow in the next few years, according to a recent third-party audit of the state's correctional system. In Oklahoma, people with felonies go on to the state prison system.
In other states, people serving short sentences for felonies often are held in jails at the county level, said Justin Jones, director of the state Corrections Department.
Outsourcing inmates
The growing number of prisoners also means the state needs more maximum-security prison beds, Jones said.
To meet that need, the state is looking to privately run prisons, Jones said. The state could pay anywhere from $62 to $65 a day to house a maximum security inmate in a private prison. About 28 percent of the Oklahoma's prison population is housed in private prisons in-state, Jones said.
There is also a need for lower- security space, Jones said. The state is working to address that need and is using inmate labor to turn old kitchens and old storage into living spaces for inmates.
"We've decided to put our destiny into our own hands,” Jones said.
The department that employs about 4,700 people is also asking state legislators to sign off on a $300 million bond package that would help update facilities systemwide.
"We have a decaying infrastructure that needs major investments,” Jones said. "We need to update kitchens, add new boilers, or new heating and air, those kinds of things.”
http://newsok.com/article/3229371/1208614457
Posted by lois at April 22, 2008 10:33 PM