PRISON COMPETITION DRIVES DOWN COST TO HOUSE

LEXINGTON -- Competition in the private prison industry again helped drive
down the going rate Thursday as the state Corrections Board agreed to lease
300 more beds in Lawton for $39 a day each.

That rate is $1 less than the state is paying to the Wackenhut Corp. for
1,500 other beds at the Lawton Correctional Facility for men.

The new beds will be available July 1.

If the state uses all 1,800 beds at the medium-security prison, the
contract would bes worth $26 million a year.

Wackenhut, based in Florida, started construction on its new unit after
Oklahoma cited continuing problems with Wackenhut's chief rival,
Corrections Corporation of America. That company owns four other prisons in
Oklahoma and charges the state between $41.05 and $43.95 per day for each
inmate.

Most recently, state officials expressed exasperation over terse and
prolonged negotiations for a prison at Sayre owned by Corrections
Corporation of America. After several snags, the corrections board in
September canceled a contract worth $14 million a year for 960 beds at that
prison.

Although the state's inmate population has declined slightly during the
first five months of this fiscal year, the corrections department has
expanded use of private prisons by 449 beds since July.

The state now houses 4,529 inmates, or 22.7 percent of its incarcerated
population, in private prisons.

That number will grow by 100 after the corrections board voted Thursday to
expand its contract with a women's prison at McLoud.

The action will give the Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility 600 state
inmates. Oklahoma is paying $43.95 a day for those beds.

Checked-by: Richard Lake