Tulsa World: Corrections may see $7 million deficit

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Corrections may see $7 million deficit

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
Published: 9/19/2009 2:29 AM
Last Modified: 9/19/2009 5:08 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Board of Corrections on Friday was given a grim financial picture for the current fiscal year.

The Department of Corrections is trending toward a $7 million deficit, DOC Director Justin Jones said after the meeting at the William S. Key Correctional Center in Fort Supply.

The deficit would have happened regardless of mandatory 5 percent agency cuts ordered for August and September after state revenues came in lower than anticipated, Jones said.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, the Department of Corrections has seen a net increase of 300 inmates, Jones said.

Jones said if the budget cuts continue, the agency will have to ask its contractors, including private prisons, to reduce their per diem rates for housing state inmates.

The agency has had a hiring freeze and did a voluntary employee buyout program, Jones said. The DOC's staffing levels are at the lowest rates that still allow the agency to maintain adequate public safety, Jones said.

The agency is at 78 percent of its authorized full-time employees, he said. The vacancy rate for correctional officers is 24 percent.

"Furloughs are not an option to be considered at this time," Jones said. "We think we can make it through December. If there is no relief by January, we will be out of options. The only thing we could do at that point is look to full-time employees and to make adjustments, which would include furloughs."

Barbara Hoberock (405) 528-2465

href="mailto:barbara.hoberock@tulsaworld.com">barbara.hoberock@tulsaworld.com By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau

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	Report Comment Ignatz, A nice place where Democrats hold every office in the County. (9/19/2009 2:05:07 PM) This policy endangers the lives of the remaining officers needlessly.
	Report Comment Woofenburger, Hominy (9/19/2009 4:45:54 PM) Tell me about it. I'm one of those who have to show up to prison every day with a fifth of the staff gone.
	Report Comment Darkstar, (9/19/2009 11:44:25 PM) A low budget is uncomfortable. Lukas Haas
	Report Comment dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (9/20/2009 12:26:43 AM) well now this makes about as much sense as Oklahoma Politics usually does. Lower the per diem for private prisons. Private Prisons are already places that breed the most violent criminals in the history of this country because they are brutalized and beaten and starved and so on all in the name of profit. Those prisoners have to learn to be hardcases to survive. Now you're going to squeeze a little more. What's so hard to understand that private prisons are corporations for profit? They're going to make theirs even if they have to virtually turn out Charles Mansons as a result of their incredibly inhumane conditions? Why not let all the non violent, no other crimes, pot smokers out?
	Report Comment Woofenburger, Hominy (9/20/2009 9:35:25 AM) Good idea Dusty. I don't believe that people should be in prison just for using drugs period. Getting rid of those folks would cut the Department of Corrections budget by about a quarter.

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