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November 04, 2009
CA to send 1,300 prisoners to CCA Prison in OK
California sending inmates to Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov 04, 2009 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune California officials plan to send more than 1,300 inmates to a private prison in Sayre.
Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, says the move will create about 200 jobs, company spokesman Steve Owen said.
CCA houses 7,900 California inmates in its facilities in various states.
Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, said moving California prisoners to the Sayre prison "should lessen some of the political pressure at the Capitol to fill the empty private beds with Department of Corrections inmates."
He said that area of the state needs jobs and that the added prisoners will create jobs with benefits.
Terrill is chairman of the House Public Safety and Judiciary Subcommittee, which oversees the budget of the Department of Corrections.
The California prisoners will be housed in medium-security space, said Renee Watkins, administrator of private prisons and jails for the DOC.
The inmates are expected to arrive in December or January, she said.
Private prisons in Oklahoma now house 4,849 out-of-state inmates from California and Arizona, Watkins said.
The Sayre prison holds 1,036 California inmates. The Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, which is also run by CCA, holds 2,053 Arizona inmates, she said.
The Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton holds 1,760 Arizona inmates, she said. That prison is run by Cornell Cos.
Private prisons in the state also hold 4,725 Oklahoma offenders, Watkins said.
Posted by lois at November 4, 2009 04:23 PM